Why, on the day he died, had the pope dismissed Tremblay for gross misconduct? Was the late pontiff’s appointment of Benítez part of a secret plot? And why had a nun who had been working in Nigeria with women who have HIV/AIDS been brought to work at the Vatican? When they’re not casting ballots, the cardinals make threats, cut deals and whisper dark rumors. You are a manager.”Ī survivor of prostate cancer, the impotent Lomeli, who is 75, sleeps at night “like an effigy on a tomb,” nagged by regrets and suffering “a spiritual insomnia.” In the ensuing election, will he herd or lead? The answer begins to emerge as Lomeli launches into his opening address to the College of Cardinals, one of “Conclave’s” genuinely inspiring moments.
Just before the pope died, he summed up Lomeli’s role with a dispiriting observation: “Some are chosen to be shepherds, and others are needed to manage the farm. “The higher he climbed,” Harris writes, “the further he had receded.” Lomeli brings to his position of dean of the College of Cardinals a lifetime of experience, but not eminence.
Harris’ wise choice to tell his story from Lomeli’s point of view adds suspense and warmth to the proceedings. And at the Vatican, Jacopo Lomeli is a fallback candidate when the cardinals deadlock. without revealing his name and without announcing the appointment. From Baghdad comes Vincent Benítez, a Filipino, who claims the late pontiff appointed him “in pectore,” i.e. From Venice comes Goffredo Tedesco, a reactionary conservative.
Tightening the emerging tension lines, three other candidates later come into play.
Aldo Bellini, formerly Archbishop of Milan, is “the great intellectual hope of the liberals.” Canadian Joseph Tremblay has “the advantage of seeming to be an American without the disadvantage of actually being one.” And Joshua Adeyemi, a Nigerian who reeks of cologne, could become the first black pope. In a scene that follows the death of the Holy Father, Harris hands the reader a preliminary scorecard listing possible successors, as three of them, senior cardinals, gather in a sitting room. The suspense inherent in finding out who will become pope is a surefire way to keep the reader turning pages, the author’s strong writing freshens the familiar with color, and his keen sense of character humanizes the baroque proceedings. This is not to say that reading “Conclave” evokes a been-there-done-that ennui.
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