"May God, who has enlightened every heart, help you to know your sins and trust His mercy." "Your sins, Voiello?" "Tommasino, don't waste my time." "My sins have to do with high finance and diplomacy." "Even if I were to confess them, you wouldn't understand a thing." "So confess those I can understand." "I've had impure thoughts." "About who?" " About the Venus of Willendorf." " Who's she?" "The Paleolithic statue the Pope keeps in his library." "It's 25,000 years-old." "Impure and gerontophilic thoughts about a statue..." "What sort of penance can I assign for that?" "You're making things difficult for me, Voiello!" "You think about it and let me know." "I'm in a hurry." "Behold the Naples trinity, Federico." "Your Eminence." "Do you know how many books have been written about me?" " Seventeen." " Eighteen." "The last one's going to press next week, and it's got the best title of all." " Which is?" " The Man Behind the Scenes." " Beautiful." " Of course." "I suggested it myself." " Who wrote it?" " Manna, that leftist reporter." "That means it'going to be critical of you, Your Eminence." "Of course, those are the best." "They turn you into a legend." "Don't overdo it now, or people will know you're faking it." "Forgive me, Eminence, but that was a good one." "You should laugh, but in proportion." "Valente, His Holiness?" "He's at the Heliport." "He just got here, and he already wants to leave?" "Now you could have laughed a little more." "He sent me to tell you he'll be late for your meeting, Eminence." "Okay, but if you see him, tell him not to be too late, because I, unlike him, have a lot to do." "I've got to steet this boat, which that indecisive fisherman Peter left me." "Valente, what do you make of him?" "He's a man of little appetite." "Actually... very little." "This is not a good sign." "Not a good sign." "Federico, do you know why all the good souls of this world rage against power?" "Why, Your Eminence?" "Because they simply don't know what it is." "What is it?" "Power is knowledge." "What is it you want to know, Eminence?" "Who is Pius XIII?" "Or rather, who was Lenny Belardo?" "You need to carry out a small investigation, discreet but thorough." "His week spots, his trials and tribulations, his sins." "Especially his sins." "Because the sins we commit in the past are the same ones we'll commit in the future." "Because man is like God." "He never changes." "I'll start right in." "But is the situation of this papacy already that serious?" "No, not yet." "But if it were to become so, we'll be ready." "Because the powerful may have knowledge, but they don't realize what it takes to be more powerful than anyone else." "And what does it take?" "It takes getting knowledge before anyone else does."