Series “The Young Pope” 2016: Pope from the USA? In a row with Jude Law

It is the series of the hour, even if it came out almost nine years ago: “The Young Pope”. In the first season of the series of the Oscar winner Paolo Sorentino (“La Grande Bellezza-The Great Beauty”), film star Jude Law is the first Pope from the United States of America the Vatican and the (Catholic) world.

The series can be bought and borrowed from many streaming services; Season 1 is also available in the flat rate at Amazon Prime Video.

How does “The Young Pope” differ from the reality with Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, which is also the American, but also Peruvian citizen and has called Leo XIV?

“Habemus Papam” (we have a Pope): With Lenny Belardo (Law) the youngest pope ever joins and the first American comes to the highest office of the Catholic Church. Influential cardinals believed that they had installed a manipulable puppet with the young Ami. But it turns very differently. The young Pope is eccentric and powerful. In the series, the Pope is a mid -forties, the new Leo XIV is already 69 years old.

To the surprise of the curia, the young Pope does not turn out to be fresh and progressive, but rather reactionary. He wants to give the office back his former mysticism and power.

A speech in which he announces a liberated sexual morality on the balcony of the St. Peter’s Basilica turns out to be the nightmare of the serial figure Belardo in one of the episodes. The new Pope smokes almost everywhere in the Vatican (others are not allowed), he drinks Cherry Coke for breakfast and gets a nun as the closest consultant.

In the series, the American chooses Pius XIII. – This is a provocation for church history knowledge, because Pius XI. (1922-1939) and Pius XII. (1939-1958) were Popes who deal with the fascists – only with Benito Mussolini (recognition as a Duce, in return a sovereign Vatican state), later also with Adolf Hitler. That had something of pact with the devil.

The real new Pope seems to be an anti -fascist, shows more liberal features, and is celebrated as a bridge builder. He opposes the exclusion of poor or autocratic style in democracies as well as anti -migrant politics. Earlier tweets and statements against Donald Trump and his vice JD Vance are also discussed.

The series “The Young Pope” (a co -production by Sky, HBO and Canal+) is wise and offers opulent pictures – it impressively shows power games and conservative revolutionaryism against the establishment.

The authors thought all sorts of ten years ago, but the turns in the real Vatican seem to be very different. So you don’t have the feeling that some feel in the Trump administration when you say that reality is more stark than “House of Cards”.

The second “Pope” relay (2020) entitled “The New Pope” and the excellent John Malkovich illuminates something that has not yet existed: What happens if the Pope falls into a coma and does not wake up for months? Can a new Pope be chosen? The cardinals do it.