Can you believe it? The odds-makers are out and taking bets on who will be the new Pope. They have their eyes on two potential candidates and one at a longer 7-2 odds.
Which brings me to that marvelous, and timely, film--The Shoes of the Fisherman. Anthony Quinn places the Russian Bishop who is imprisoned in a Russian Gulag. Once he is released, he is named Cardinal--and becomes the longest shot of all as he becomes Pope.
The plot of Russian Pope fending off nuclear war is too global for the film for me. What I was impressed by was the fact that the conclave could not elect a Pope, they were deadlocked, until a few cardinals hear Quinn tell his story of how he fed a prisoner bread to survive. Quinn himself survived in this Gulag because of the life giving ministry he gave the other prisoner--but that's my take. The point is that they are all taken by Quinn's claim--"We need the genuine article, the real thing--we need to export a Christian revolution." Forget staving off nuclear war. That's Hollywood. But not so for today's Church which thirsts for the genuine article--and you don't need to be elected Pope to recognize that or to be it yourself. I'll take that bet!
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