gallery
The Holy See's coat of arms during sede vacante.
conclavery
This is a page for anybody else so abnormal about the 2018 book and 2024 film Conclave, which is like if 12 Angry Men were set in the Vatican and queerer, that they simply must establish and keep track of a sprawling, inter alia:
(Baffled bystanders may read this, too, but, really, why would you? Reasons of insatiable curiosity, perhaps - in this case, I applaud.)
1. a few Latin translations
2. book and movie differences
3. external resources on the micronation with the most Popes per square kilometer & the religion that goes with it
4. external resources on other relevant things
5. minor characters - Cardinals
6. minor characters - non-Cardinals
7. Vincent Benítez timeline - book+movie merged
8. gallery
... & more forthcoming!
in pectore: in the heart. A perfectly legitimate procedure.
sede vacante: with the chair vacant. The period of time a diocese or archdiocese doesn't have a prelate; in our context, specifically the period between Popes.
servus fidelus: faithful servant. The motto of Jacopo Cardinal Lomeli.
Book: the POV character's name is Dean Jacopo Lomeli, and he is Italian. He is clearly depressed, and exhibits disordered eating and self-harming behaviours. He frequently has unkind thoughts about other characters, which he works hard not to act upon. He is possibly bisexual, and finds the smell of Adéyẹmí's cologne overwhelming.
Film: the POV character's name is Dean Thomas Lawrence, and he is English. He is clearly depressed. We don't really know what his thoughts about other characters are, or who if anyone he is attracted to (other than whatever he has going on onscreen).
Personally, I am a proponent of Italian rather than British Lawmeli, because because his dynamic with Tedesco makes far more sense when the Dean is also Italian.
Book: Aldo is a nerd who just wants to protect the legacy of his friend, the Late Pope, and who doesn't have any major arguments with his best friend, Lomeli. He is Italian, and greatly enjoys spending time with other liberal[a] theologians.
Film: Aldo is a gay man in a glass closet who has a major, though short-lived, fight with his best friend, Lawrence, over mutual (but mostly Aldo's) ambition. He is Italian-American.
Personally, I like to take the comparatively unambitious nerd from the book and make him as gay as Stanley Tucci played him.
Book: Vincent is Filipino.
Film: Vincent is Mexican.
Personally, I suggest that Vincent is biracial. ¿Porque no los dos?
Book: Vincent's intersex condition is [??????]. He finds out when being treated from injuries sustained from a car bomb in Baghdad.
Film: Vincent's intersex condition is SRY-negative De la Chapelle syndrome. He finds out after an appendectomy in his 30s.
As an intersex person myself, I am obligated to exhort and beseech you to at least go with the film's theoretical medical procedure in Geneva: so-called 'normalisation' to a 'man' rather than to a 'woman'. The book's author did not consult GLAAD, or any other queer or intersex advocacy group, and the film's story team did... and it shows. With that said, I personally prefer Vincent finding out after injuries sustained in his later ministry, rather than after an operation in his 30s, because otherwise his 'very dark time' would have lasted for years on end and I'm simply not willing to do that to him.
Italics indicates quotes from the book.
Calogero Cardinal Scozzazi: Archbishop Emeritus of Palermo (Italy); investigated three times for money-laundering but never prosecuted.
Cardinal Atalas: Indonesian. One of the Cardinals who accepted money from Tremblay in return for his vote.
Cardinal Baptiste: From St Lucia in the Carribbean. One of the Cardinals who accepted money from Tremblay in return for his vote. They were so poor, those missions. His voice was thick, as if he had been weeping.
Cardinal Contreras: Chilean. Archbishop Emeritus of Santiago (Chile). Aged 77. [A]rch-conservative, one-time confessor of General Augusto Pinochet.
Gatis Cardinal Brotzkus: Archbishop of Riga (Latvia). Born Jewish, his family converted to Catholicism after World War II; his mother had been murdered by the Nazis.
Cardinal Hierra: Archbishop of Mexico city (Mexico). A small, dignified figure who speaks in a mixture of Spanish and Italian.
Cardinal Löwenstein: German. Aged 77. Archbishop Emeritus of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. In 1997 he was investigated for heresy by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. One of the two great liberal theologians of Western Europe, once outcasts but lately awarded their red hats in a show of defiance by the Holy Father. Walks to the conclave arm-in-arm with Cardinal Vandroogenbroek.
Cardinal Lukša: Archbishop of Vilnius (Lithuania). One of the three scrutineers of the conclave's ballots.
Cardinal Mercurio: Prefect for the Congregation of Clergy. One of the three scrutineers of the conclave's ballots.
Cardinal Mwangale: Kenyan. An elderly grey-headed eminence. Identifies that Shanumi was shouting in Yorùbá at the table.
Cardinal Nakitanda: In the book, Oliver Cardinal Nakitanda; in the film, Irumbus Cardinal Nakitanda [I like to think his name is 'Oliver Irumbus Nakitanda' but that he goes by 'Irumbus']. Archbishop of Kampala (Uganda). Finds Vincent spare cutlery for the first night's dinner. Younger than Cardinals Mwangale and Zucula, and speaks on their behalf to Lomeli. Does not understand Yorùbá.
Cardinal Newby: Archbishop of Westminster (UK). One of the three scrutineers of the conclave's ballots.
Cardinal Sá: Brazilian. Archbishop of São Salvador de Bahia (Brazil). Aged 60. Liberation theologian; a possible Pope, but not this time.
Cardinal Vandroogenbroek: Belgian. Aged 68. Ex-Professor of Theology at Louvain University. 'No-hoper' who adovcates for women to be appointed to the Curia. One of the two great liberal theologians of Western Europe, once outcasts but lately awarded their red hats in a show of defiance by the Holy Father. Walks to the conclave arm-in-arm with Cardinal Löwenstein.
Cardinal Tutino: Disgraced Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. He had always been considered a liberal but who no doubt hoped that a Tedesco pontificate might rescue his career.
Cardinal Zucula: African. Archbishop of Mozambique. An elderly grey-headed eminence. He is seemingly frail, but has a strong grip.
‘We have waited a long time for an African Pope, Jacopo, and if God wills it to be Joshua, I am happy. But he must be pure in heart and conscience – a truly holy man. Anything short of that would be a disaster for all of us.’
Jan Cardinal Jandaček: Archbishop of Prague (Czech Republic). Walks with a limp as a result of his torture at the hands of the Czech secret police when he was working underground as a young priest in the 1960s.
Jean-Baptiste Cardinal Courtemarche: Archbishop of Bordeaux (France). French. Previously excommunicated as a follower of the heretic Marcel-François Lefebvre, and who had been secretly taped claiming that the Holocaust had never occurred.
Mario Cardinal Santos SJ: Archbishop of Galveston-Houston (USA), President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Aged 70. Cautious reformer.
Modesto Cardinal Villanueva: Archbishop of Toledo (Spain); organiser of Catholic Youth Spanish. Aged 54 - in the book, the youngest member of the Conclave. Maintains that the way to God was through the beauty of culture.
Paul Cardinal Krasinski: Chicagoan (USA). Archbishop Emeritus of Chicago (USA), Prefect Emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura. Aged 79, and the oldest of the Conclave. Traditionalist, strong supporter of the Legionaries of Christ. An 'old brute' and outspoken Tedesco voter. Walks with two walking sticks.
Rui Cardinal Brandão D’Cruz: Patriarch of Lisbon (Portugal). Smokes cigars.
Saverio Cardinal Xalxo: Indian. Archbishop of Ranchi (India). Surname pronounced 'Kah-kohl'.
Ugo Cardinal De Luca: Archbishop of Genoa (Italy). Studied with Lomeli at the diocesan seminary, and has been his friend for 50 years.
William Cardinal Fitzgerald: Archbishop of Boston (USA). Aged 68. [P]reoccupied with pastoral duties, still clearing up the mess of the abuse scandal, good with the media.
Archbishop Janusz Woźniak: Prefect of the Papal Household. Has been drinking much more heavily than previously in the period of time before the Conclave.
He was a simple soul, plucked from a small town in Poland to be a chaplain and companion for John Paul II in his declining years.
Chapter 3, Revelations
Archbishop Raymond O'Malley: Secretary of the College of Cardinals. Irish, with ancestry from Kildare.
Archbishop Wilhelm Mandorff: Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations. Nicknamed 'Willi' by Lawmeli. A Rhinelander.
Sister Shanumi: For twenty years before the conclave, works as a nurse in the Iwaro Oko community in Ondo province of Nigeria, helping women with HIV/AIDS. Speaks Yorùbá and English, and 'not a word' of Italian. She never wanted to come to Rome, but came when summoned because she thought it might be Adéyẹmí who sent for her, and wanted him to acknowledge his past and child with her.
This is a personal perspective, do your own things, etc. Feel free to use some or all of this if you want.
Nota bene, there is an implication that Vincent would endanger his life by returning to Kabul, so the film may more realistically have been set in 2021 or more recently than that, when Afghanistan is under Taliban control; however, the movie also doesn't indicate the existence of Covid, so it's wibbly wobbly timey wimey either way as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it's just that it's dangerous to go back to a warzone, and Tedesco trying to stir up a crusade would be the effective death sentence.
The Holy See's coat of arms during sede vacante.
