CONCLAVE (2024) - 10/31/2024

What would you do if you were the pope?

Conclave is an awesome thriller with great acting and a fun plot so I’ll leave it at that. You should go see it in a theater. But one idea kept coming up throughout the film which is Ralph Fiennes saying, “I don’t want to be the pope.” And he sincerely does not. But one thing I kept thinking to myself throughout was, “What would I do if I became pope?”

Now, I legitimately never could for a plethora of reasons - one of the main ones being that I am not Catholic - but I did get to thinking. And it’s probably the same thing I would do if I became king - which is dissolve the papacy.

I don’t think I could ever actually do that, but the amount of wealth the Catholic church amassed over a millenia is of note. They stole and pillaged and plundered for centuries which is how they accumulated so much status. They are also the largest real estate owners on the entire planet. When you watch this film, none of that is lost on you, from the glorious vaulted frescos in the cathedral to the amount of rings and traditional jewelry these supposed modest men adorn. So, I would probably donate a lot of the treasures taken from foreign lands back to their respective governments and museums as well as release much of the Vatican library that is withheld from the general public for starters. That will send the whole system into a tizzy, but hey, reparations is a good start.