Based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris, the new film Conclave is about the traditional gathering of cardinals (red hats, not redbirds) to pick a new pope. It has garnered an aggregate score of 92% from critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website (and an 85% audience rating, which goes by the new moniker “popcornmeter”). Here is the critics’ consensus, distilled to one sentence: “Carrying off papal pulp with immaculate execution and career-highlight work from Ralph Fiennes, Conclave is a godsend for audiences who crave intelligent entertainment.”
Craving intelligent entertainment probably applies to most of us, but especially those of us with some connection to Catholicism. Which is a lot of people. The Roman Catholic Church, just one of numerous institutions that identify as “Catholic,” estimates its membership at 1.3 billion, making it one of the world’s most influential religious organizations. It is a very big tent, though not known as “inclusive” by any stretch. More of a restricted club. Nonetheless it encompasses, officially and unofficially, myriad varieties of “Catholics,” who co-exist — well, uneasily. Here’s a sample:
- Practicing Catholics (who regularly attend Mass and receive the sacraments)
- Cradle Catholics (as in cradle-to-grave, birth to death … and beyond! as Buzz Lightyear might say)
- Hatch, Match, and Dispatch Catholics (only darkening the church doors for Baptism, Matrimony and Last Rites)
- Cafeteria Catholics (grazing, somewhat selectively, at the grand buffet of theological doctrine, dogma and ritual)
- Cultural Catholics (mostly secular, aka “Catholics in Name Only”)
- Traditionalist Catholics (who much prefer the First Vatican Council over the Second)
- Silence-Gives-Consent Catholics (who seldom object or criticize, finding a way to make peace with it all, also known as Obedient Catholics, highly prized by the higher-ups
- Ultra-orthodox Catholics (like the guy in suit and tie who, after a few drops of consecrated wine spilled from the chalice during communion one Sunday a few years back at Ascension Church, got down on his hands and knees and, swear to God, licked the floor. Now that’s a serious Catholic!)
- Social Justice Catholics (focusing more on the Church’s charitable works with the poor and marginalized)
- Single-issue Catholics (who vote for Donald Trump, overlooking all the evil he does, as long as he helps them kill off abortion — better known as “Make a Deal With the Devil” Catholics)
- Recovering Catholics (following a guilt-ridden childhood growing up in a judgmental Church)
- And last, but not least (in fact, increasing all the time): Ex-Catholics, aka “Fallen Away” or “Lapsed” Catholics, alienated by the institution’s treatment of children, divorced Catholics, women, and LGBTQ Catholics, plus other issues related to the rest of this list.
So what kind of Catholic am I?
- A Free-Range Catholic (free-ranging, free-thinking, fluid, comfortable inside but more comfortable outside the flock). But as Walt Whitman (not Catholic) said, “I am large, I contain multitudes” (of other kinds of Catholics). I am also:
- a John XXIII Catholic, not a John Paul II Catholic
- a Francis Catholic, not a Benedict Catholic
- a Vatican II Catholic (revived when I wrote the book Unfinished Pentecost – Vatican II and the Altered Lives of Those Who Witnessed It in 2013, just as Francis entered his papacy)
- a Holy Spirit Catholic (comes closest to my concept of the divine)
- a Teilhard de Chardin Catholic (Jesuit archaeologist who developed the concept of spiritual evolution)
- an Open Window Catholic (John XXIII’s figurative cure for a closed, stale institution)
- a Democratized Catholic (more egalitarian than hierarchical)
- an Ecumenical Catholic (religious cross-fertilization, learning from, and dialoguing with, other religious traditions)
- Catholic Plus (i.e., not just Catholic)
- a Myth and Metaphor Catholic (beyond literalism, the only way the faith stays alive, according to myth-celebrator Joseph Campbell)
- a Resurrection Catholic more than a Crucifixion Catholic (it’s a matter of emphasis, but Crucifixion Catholics seem to outnumber us)
- a Fresh-Air Catholic (not a Museum Catholic, Tabernacle Catholic or Cathedral Catholic — see Free-Range Catholic above)
- And last but the opposite of least: a Love First and Foremost Catholic, not a Love as an Afterthought Catholic (I can’t be the only one who has noticed the glaring absence of the word “love” from either version of our creed)
My involvement in the institution has been dormant for many years. However, most of the aforementioned Catholics remain alive within me, eagerly awaiting the Church’s resurrection.
I recommend seeing Conclave, by the way, no matter what kind of Catholic (or non-Catholic) you are.
The ending is a humdinger.