The Young Pope

Lenny Belardo, the youngest and first American Pope in the history of the Church, must establish his new papacy and navigate the power struggles of the closed, secretive Vatican. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.

The Cardinal Secretary of State Voiello is worried about certain of the Pope's initiatives which threaten to compromise the Vatican's political relationships and the relationship with the faithful. Pius XIII has decided not to appear in public and not to authorize any form of reproduction of his image. This decision is rendered explicit in Lenny's first meeting with the director of marketing for the Vatican, Sofia Dubois. Lenny's stance of refusal drives the Cardinal Secretary of State to delve into his past. The new pontiff wants his old mentor, Cardinal Spencer, the man everyone thought would become Pope, to work beside him in the management of power, but Spencer refuses, feeling that he's been betrayed by his own pupil. Sister Mary and Voiello, who are at first at odds, begin to grow closer as it becomes clear to her that the cardinal truly cares about the future of the church. A future that is called into question by the first, perplexing speech by the new pontiff, delivered to the thousands of the faithful who have gathered in St. Peter's Square. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.

Lenny's inaugural speech has made it clear that he is not going to allow himself to be maneuvered by the great powers of the Vatican. That clearly conflicts with the plans of the Cardinal Secretary of State, who had originally seen in that young and apparently easy-to-manipulate American cardinal the very transition figure that the church now so needs. Voiello, with the support of a number of cardinals, begins plotting against Lenny. Pius XIII, however, succeeds in further baffling public opinion with a brief communiqué, read aloud by Sister Mary during a press conference, in which he openly declares his total disinterest toward the faithful. But if the world fails to understand Lenny's vision, it seems that Ester, the wife of a Swiss Guard and a woman with a profound faith, perfectly appreciates the pontiff's vision. Lenny confides to Monsignor Gutierrez that he had a girlfriend before entering the seminary. The confession is furtively eavesdropped upon by Voiello's assistant. The Cardinal Secretary of State then blackmails Gutierrez: unless he reveals the Pope's secrets, Voiello will make the Monsignor's alcoholism public. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.

Voiello decides to discredit the pontiff in order to create a scandal. In order to do so, he blackmails Ester into seducing the Holy Father but the woman-while acting as if she's willing to engage in double-dealing-establishes ties of friendship with the pontiff and confesses her great sorrow to him: she is unable to have children. In the Vatican, meanwhile, word arrives of a shepherd from the provinces outside Rome, a certain Tonino Pettola, who claims to have seen the Madonna and who therefore asks to be officially recognized by the church. While out on a late-night stroll, Lenny sees Ester and her husband making love, and prays to the Virgin Mary to grant their wish and give them a child. In the meantime, the Pope has decided to appoint the fearful Vatican Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations Gutierrez to investigate a child-abuse scandal involving an American high prelate, Cardinal Kurtwell, and announces yet another reactionary measure: he intends to expel all homosexuals from the Vatican. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.

Father Tommaso informs Lenny that his friendship with Ester is the cause of considerable gossip. Lenny becomes closer with Dussolier, with whom he grew up in the orphanage and shared their entire journey of faith when they studied together at the seminary. Together the two of them go out on an adventuresome nighttime escapade in the streets of Rome. And it is during this outing that the Pope asks his childhood friend to become the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. In the meanwhile, this has become a time for Voiello of a profound and tormented rethinking. The Cardinal Secretary of State, in fact, has witnessed a private encounter between Lenny and Ester, and he knows very well that the photographs that were taken could trigger a scandal that might destroy the image of the Pope. But instead he abandons all thought of that course of action, and instead decides to hand over the deceptively taken photographs to Sister Mary. Informed of Voiello's plans, the Pope confronts the Cardinal Secretary of State, who begs his forgiveness and shows repentance. Without warning, Lenny summons the cardinals into his presence, and in the course of a sumptuous audience, he takes a further sharp turn toward increasingly reactionary positions, with an unyielding, harsh speech. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.

Ester gives birth to a boy. There is no doubt that the Pope is going through a period of weakness: but then the entire Vatican is weak, as it's paying the price of the crisis in consensus stirred by Lenny's reactionary policies. In the meantime, Dussolier-who has accepted the position of Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy-has gone back to his diocese in Honduras to bid farewell to his community. But in Honduras Dussolier has also been leading a double life, and he has some very dangerous relationships. Gutierrez, in the meanwhile, is elected cardinal and leaves for the United States, where he is being sent to investigate the Kurtwell case. Nine months into his papacy, Lenny gives an audience to the Italian Prime Minister, who is shocked both by the pontiff's anachronistic demands and by his incredible charisma. Lenny also decides to undertake a crusade against homosexual priests and asks Dussolier to take charge of it. The consequences are immediate and tragic. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.

Amid general embarrassment, the pontiff begins spending more and more time with Ester and her family, a relationship that has perhaps become emblematic of the great void that marked his childhood. In the meantime, Voiello and Cardinal Spencer once again begin to plot against Lenny, with the support of Cardinal Caltanisetta, in an attempt to improve the fortunes of the church. At the same time, Dussolier feels responsible for the tragic death of a young man who is denied the opportunity to become a priest because it is suspected that he is a homosexual, and so he decides to abandon his position and go back to Honduras where a tragic fate awaits him. Lenny himself is not immune to the climate of defeat for which he is ultimately responsible, and he seriously begins to think that his papacy is destined to end soon. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.

The Pope, shocked by the news of Dussolier's death, spends a period of meditation at Castel Gandolfo. Here Lenny is profoundly struck by the story of the case of the Blessed Juana that Michel Marivaux, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, tells him about. Driven by this very conversation, the pontiff takes an unexpected decision: amidst a general wave of disbelief, Pius XIII announces he is making a pastoral visit to Africa, in accordance with the advice of Sofia, Vatican marketing director. Once he arrives there, Lenny meets Sister Antonia, who is a symbol of the missionary world. The religious, however, stirs only mistrust and negative sentiments in the Pope. And while Mary and Voiello, looking out over a magnificent sunset, seem to have found an understanding and, perhaps, even a bit of tenderness, Lenny delivers a memorable speech in absentia. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.

After Lenny's visit to Africa, the support of the faithful seems to grow. But in New York, Gutierrez's mission seems to be on the verge of failure: in fact the cardinal has found no solid proof of the sexual abuse perpetrated by the powerful Cardinal Kurtwell. Crushed by his weaknesses and loneliness, Gutierrez has just one friend: Rose, the obese owner of the hotel where the cardinal lives, who is about to undergo a very risky operation that might allow her to live a normal life. The unexpected meeting with a man who was the victim of Kurtwell's abuse, David Tanistone, seems to suddenly reawaken in Gutierrez the hope that he can successfully conclude his mission. When confronted by the crushing evidence that might lead to his conviction, Kurtwell reveals that he, in turn, possesses compromising evidence concerning Lenny's past. In the meantime, back in the Vatican, after a long sickness, Cardinal Spencer dies. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.

The Pope catches Gutierrez off guard by suggesting he take the post of Private Secretary, replacing Sister Mary who will be going to Africa to take Sister Antonia's place. With Kurtwell's conviction and relegation to a godforsaken diocese in Alaska, all that remains for Lenny to do is to undertake a pastoral journey to Venice, the city where he has always suspected his parents might be. Here he makes his first public appearance, delivering a memorable, loving speech during which he believes he spots two old people in the deeply moved crowd. Could these be his father and mother? We don't know, because unexpectedly the Pope faints before thousands of the faithful. (c) 2016 Wildside/Sky Italia/Haut et Court TV/Home Box Office. Inc./Mediapro. All rights reserved.