"Lakota, political prisoner 1 03592R." "Report to commandant's office." "Political prisoner 1 03592R." "Report to commandant's office." "Theodor." "Prisoner 1 03592R." "Report!" "Mr. George Faber, Eminence." "It was good of you to come, Mr. Faber." "A summons from the Vatican is a very important event." "please, sit down." "Thank you." "Mr. Faber, we would Iike to offer you a story." "An exclusive story." "With the usual strings, Eminence?" "And a few more this time." "well, I'd Iike to know what they are first." "The story's political." "Very political." "We need a certain reserve, a certain discretion in its presentation." "We've known each other a Iong while." "I stand on my reputation." "Oh, it's a good reputation, Mr. Faber." "But you have to take the story as I give it to you, or leave it." "If you leave it, I'II hand it to the French." "I'd Iike it to break from an American source preferably on television." "It's an interview, then?" "That's right." "You can't bind me too closely, Eminence." "I can't always control what a person might say." "Yes or no?" "If that's the best you can do, Eminence." "The very best." "KiriI PavIovich." "Piotr IIych Kamenev." "Good evening, premier." "It's a Iong way from the Lubianka prison, isn't it, KiriI?" "Sit down, please." "Thank you." "will you drink with me?" "If you wish." "Why have you brought me here?" "I was curious to know how the years had treated you." "Is that all?" "No." "You have haunted me, KiriI, for 20 years." "Think back to the Lubianka." "It was a kind of mutual hell, wasn't it?" "I, the tormentor." "You, the tormented." "The man in the mirror the man who looked into the mirror." "At the end, neither of us knew which was which, correct?" "Correct." "I took you to pieces like a watch and put you together again." "It was a very intimate experience." "I have never been able to forget it." "May I ask you a question?" "You never hesitated before." "That's true." "This is you." "political prisoner 1 03592R, KiriI PavIovich Lakota." "AII of you is here, from the day you were born until now." "Except the answer to one question." "What you have learned in 20 years of confinement." "That is a big question, Piotr IIych." "The answer is important to me, you now." "What I have learned?" "I have learned that without some kind of loving a man withers like a grape on a dying vine." "Is that all?" "I'm trying to Iearn more." "Have you learned enough to face freedom?" "I have been free for a Iong time." "Not entirely, perhaps." "But you still haven't answered my question." "Why have you brought me here?" "I want to show you a world gone mad." "Come." "Chinese mobilization is now 80 percent complete." "The map indicates three new divisions moving to the border of the Soviet Union." "lncreased crop failures in large areas of China now make famine an absolute certainty." "As a result, reports show that the Chinese are preparing for thrusts into the rice bowl areas of Burma, Thailand, North Vietnam and a simultaneous takeover of Hong Kong." "The United States 7th Fleet is deployed in battle position in the China Sea." "And four missile-carrying submarines of advanced design have been added to the fleet." "Every day we ask ourselves what we can do about it before the nightmare turns itself into a mushroom cloud blotting out the sun." "You see this fellow here." "He may not look like much, but do not be deceived." "He's the leader of the Chinese people." "And sure though he undoubtedly is in three months' time, he may not be able to feed them." "It's a mad world in which we starve a great country into an atomic war." "I'm sending you back into this world, KiriI PavIovich." "What do you mean?" "We're going to release you." "release me?" "I don't under" "We've made a deal for your freedom." "deal?" "I am party to no deal." "You are, you know." "You're a man under authority." "You have always been." "The authority makes the deal." "You will accept it, see?" "Why have you brought me here to tell me this?" "Because you are a simple man who has haunted" "No, that is not enough!" "Because wherever you are I will know there is one man who knows me as well as I know him and who can tell the truth about Piotr IIych Kamenev and his Russia." "You must not hope to use me." "I don't." "Tovarich premier this is Father TeIemond of the Vatican Secretariat of State." "Your excellency." "Here is your man." "KiriI PavIovich Lakota, former archbishop of Lvov." "My lord, archbishop." "Oh, please." "Your passport, my lord." "As from this moment it is understood that His Lordship is a citizen of the Vatican City State." "And enjoys diplomatic immunity until his exit from the Soviet Union." "First, KiriI PavIovich is to be informed of the other conditions of his release." "Which are?" "That the Vatican will publish only the simple fact of Archbishop Lakota's release." "That Archbishop Lakota will make no public statement regarding conditions or persons in the Soviet Union." "I cannot accept these conditions." "But they have been accepted for you." "To your liberty, Your excellency." "To my exile." "How soon do we get to Rome, Father?" "About an hour and a half." "And then?" "You'II be lodged at a Ukrainian college." "You're supposed to be received immediately by the holy Father." "You are feeling unwell, Father?" "No, I've an enemy in my blood." "One day it will kill me, so they say." "I'm sorry to hear that." "would you care for a drink?" "One has to Iearn to get used to the idea." "You are" " You are writing a book?" "Oh, I wish I were." "No, no." "My works are under examination by a special pontificaI commission." "Why?" "For years, I've been forbidden to teach or to publish anything." "I was suspected of holding opinions dangerous to the faith." "How did you get this job?" "I was kicked into a sacred congregation to keep me out of mischief." "No, in fact, I'm an anthropologist." "I spent a Iong time in Asia." "I saw the world there exploding into millions of hungry mouths." "I had to ask myself what kind of wisdom the Church had to cope with this explosion." "So I start writing, and I became a philosopher." "And you" "You have written many books?" "Ten." "Oh, 1 0?" "How many published?" "None." "Scandinavian Airlines announced the arrival of their flight SK68 1 from Moscow and Copenhagen." "Passengers will be arriving at gate 1 0." "Hi." "The power of the human eye." "What are you doing here?" "I've never watched you work." "I'd Iike to" "I told you this was serious." "No one should know." "Can't I just watch?" "No, honey." "half the Vatican's up there waiting for me." "Oh, and am I not presentable?" "George... ." "Yeah." "Wait at the coffee bar for me." "I won't wait." "We'II have dinner tonight." "I don't know, George." "Now, I have to go." "I... ." "Look, I'II call you." "Eminence." "How do you do?" "Now, just-- Just a few questions, excellency." "When were your first informed of your release?" "Last night, in Moscow." "Were you surprised?" "well, I was shocked." "Were you iII-treated during your confinement?" "Not for a Iong time now." "More recently, I've been working in heavy industry." "To that extent, then, you did submit yourself to the system?" "Insofar, Mr. Faber, as any system provides bread, work and dignity, I am prepared to cooperate with it." "These things are good in themselves, whether they exist in Rome or in Siberia." "And bread, work and dignity do exist in Siberia." "Were you permitted to practice your ministry as a priest?" "No, I" " I practiced it without permission, among my fellow prisoners." "Do you see any hope for the day when Christian faith specifically, the Roman catholic faith may be practiced in Marxist countries?" "I have no inside information as to how the kingdom of God is going to be established." "well, that's enough." "Thank you very much." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Thank you." "I think, Eminence, you may have caught yourself a Tartar." "I think we may have caught a Christian." "Oh, thank you." "The most Reverend KiriI Lakota, metropolitan Archbishop of Lvov." "Our brother KiriI." "Twenty years, and God has given him back to us." "Sit down, sit down." "Thank you, holiness." "You are well, strong?" "I am very well, holiness." "You had a good journey?" "Very good." "You were properly received here?" "Your rooms are comfortable?" "Oh, I'm treated like a prince." "As, indeed, you are." "Now we announce it." "Our brother KiriI is created cardinal priest in the title of St. Athanasius." "Your holiness I beg you to dispense me from this honor." "You do not know me." "You cannot know what the years have done to me." "But why?" "It is the highest honor we can bestow." "You have served the faith." "Defended it." "I do not wish to dispute authority." "But I can be of no use to you here." "That is for us to decide." "In any future dealings with the kremlin, you may be invaluable." "We have arranged for you to work here in our Secretariat of State." "ExceIIency, you must take your place with us now." "I beg Your holiness to give me a simple mission where I can be with simple men." "I think we need to be private a while with Brother KiriI." "There is a legend about you that once you were asked to deny the faith." "And they tied up seven priests and shot them." "Shot them before your eyes." "And still you would not deny the faith." "Is that story true?" "I try not to look back on that or other days, holiness." "God is with you, my brother." "I believe that God has sent you." "Trust us to make the best use of you." "But first, you must still be honored." "kneel." "You are created cardinal priest in the title of St. Athanasius." "Lydia." "Lydia." "Excuse me, madame." "Oh, there you are." "Marchesa." "hello, Mr. Faber." "Do you have a cigarette?" "I was telling this young woman she should settle down and get married." "Don't you agree, Mr. Faber?" "I don't presume to give advice to young women." "They very seldom take it, anyway." "You are very discreet." "A necessary virtue." "Rome's a very small town." "And it's full of gossip." "Lydia worries about me, George." "You're very lucky to have such a solicitous friend." "I am an oId-fashioned woman, Mr. Faber." "I believe in life, love and the pursuit of happiness." "But you have to know the rules of the game." "You mustn't underrate my husband, Marchesa." "He knows all the rules." "Dr. Faber." "Mario, get some drinks or something." "I'm sorry to be late, but half Rome seems to have scarlet fever." "Oh, don't worry." "I'm weII-washed and disinfected." "How are you?" "Oh, I'm fine." "I came with Mario." "Yes, I saw." "He's very handsome." "Don't you think so, George?" "Yes, he's very handsome." "How old is he?" "well, I think you ought to ask him yourself, Ruth." "I'm sure that Marchesa would be glad to give you an introduction." "Oh, no." "Whatever else I may be, I'm a realist about my age." "Excuse me, Marchesa." "George." "Marchesa." "Chiara." "You see, she's really awfully mean to him." "You're very witty tonight." "Thank you." "I didn't mean it as a compliment." "You mean, you don't approve of me?" "I don't, Ruth, when you're unreasonably jealous." "I'm unreasonably jealous because jealousy makes me unreasonable." "Your Eminence." "May I come in?" "please do." "Am I interrupting something?" "Not at all." "My congratulations." "Thank you." "May I have your coat?" "please." "What a surprise." "This calls for a celebration." "May I offer you a drink?" "Oh, that would be nice." "Frascati." "What--?" "What is that?" "I found it in the Vatican Museum." "This is a vegetable." "only a thousand years young." "Oh, really?" "But this is lovely here, this fish." "More than 200 million years old." "No?" "Father, are you sure you are getting the best medical care?" "The doctors, they don't know anything." "They're like auto mechanics." "Why don't you sit down." "Oh, no, don't be silly." "Sorry for the mess." "Thank you." "So your hearing is set for tomorrow, huh?" "Ten-thirty." "Did you have a chance to read my book?" "Yes, I did." "well, I'm not going to die from the truth." "I found very little of the Christian faith, as I know it, in your book." "For 20 years, that faith alone kept me alive." "Go on." "I found it speculative, dangerous and full of... ." "Heresy." "It" "It challenges the faith." "For instance, Jesus Christ speaks of the redemption of the soul." "I find not one mention of the word "soul" in your writings." "But it's there, only under another name!" "Why change a name if you're not afraid of it?" "To express in modern terms reality and truth more clearly." "well, Father, if you truly believe that why did you remain a priest?" "Are you accusing me of dishonesty?" "I'm not accusing you of anything." "That is for you to answer." "But are you sure you are honest with yourself?" "I'm under a death sentence." "I cannot afford to be otherwise." "May I offer you another drink?" "No." "No, thank you." "You know, David, for many men, belief is a place to crawl for safety." "Of course, they will fear and accuse you." "Your writings are a danger to their safety." "I'm not afraid of being accused." "I'm only afraid of being silenced." "You know, even God has not spoken his last word about his own creation." "would you Iike to hear some Shostakovich?" "That would be fine." "Eminence, you are destroying me before the commission does." "Oh, David, that was not my intention." "No, as a matter of fact, after I read your book last night I couldn't sleep." "I saw a brilliant mind reaching out to the Iast frontiers of thought." "A place where I wouldn't venture." "I came to wish you well tomorrow." "I will say my mass for you." "Thank you." "This is Father TeIemond." "So this is a commission, and not a tribunal." "Its object is to examine the content of your works to see if they conform to fundamental Christian doctrine." "You, yourself, are not on trial." "And I beg you to believe your presence here is no reflection on your reputation." "I'm glad to hear it, Eminence." "Here's the first problem, Father." "It runs right through all your work." "What are you?" "philosopher?" "theologian, poet, scientist?" "How are we to judge you?" "Judge me as one man, trying to answer the questions of every man." "Which are?" "Who am I?" "Why am I here?" "Where am I going?" "Is there any sense in beauty?" "In ugliness?" "In terror?" "In suffering?" "In the daily deaths which make up the pattern of existence." "There speaks the poet." "Why only the poet?" "Why not the theologian and the scientist?" "They breathe too." "They die too." "Then you start us, Father." "I've dug down through the crust of God's earth." "There's a Iong record of Iife written there." "A record full of wonders." "Dinosaur or flying reptiles, giant moles." "AII gone." "But the line is clear traced by the creative finger of God." "And it always points in the same direction, to us:" "The knowing man, the thinking man." "And it points beyond us." "To what?" "Either this world is a tragic trap in which man lives without hope and dies without dignity or it is like TeiIhard de Chardin wrote many years ago a great becoming in which mankind is thrust towards a glorious completion in Christ." "I believe in the plan of completion." "I believe in the future union of the world with the Cosmic Christ." "Let me walk in your country for a while, Father." "The dinosaur disappeared from history." "Why?" "We are not sure." "The evidence points to the fact that he was a creature adapted to a special environment." "When the environment changed, he died out." "How?" "Sometimes by disease." "Sometimes by violence." "When creatures stronger than himself devoured him." "So the finger of God writes violence and destruction too?" "Yes." "They are part of the pattern of growth." "Of evolution." "The deer is a very prolific creature." "It would eat the lands bare." "The lion tears the deer down." "So the balance of nature is preserved." "Right." "Now we come to this." "talking about man you called him a very special animal." "The animal who knows, and knows that he knows." "exactly." "Now, down in our museum is the skull of a prehistoric man." "His skull is broken by a stone ax." "He was obviously killed by one of his fellows." "Yes, I've seen it." "An act of violence, yes?" "Yes." "An act of destruction, yes?" "Committed by a thinking and knowing creature?" "Yes." "Is it the same act as the shooting of a man in a back alley in Paris?" "essentially, yes." "And that act, too, is a part of the design of God?" "The design includes it." "You did not answer "yes" to that question." "Why?" "Because I see where you are leading me." "exactly." "We are leading you to the problem of good or evil." "Right or wrong in the Christian sense." "The killing of that Stone Age man by another man:" "Was it right or wrong?" "I don't know." "I beg your pardon, Father." "You don't know?" "No, I don't." "It might have been an act imposed upon him by the necessities of a time and place of which we know very little." "Imposed by the evolutionary plan?" "Yes." "In other words, by God's plan?" "Yes." "So God is the author of sin and evil." "That's heresy, Father." "No, it is not heresy." "The reality is this:" "For certain primitive tribes murder was a religious act." "For us, it is a crime." "The growth from one attitude to another is evidence of a divine plan." "Even today, too many Christians justify mass murder under the name of war." "Tomorrow, please God, they will outlaw war too, as a crime." "What is it?" "Forgive me, Eminence." "His holiness, the pope, has collapsed." "paulo, you and Lou get the van and go to St. Peter's." "In the square!" "Get there, would you?" "Did George leave a number?" "No." "shall I ring his home?" "No." "No." "would you ring the Press club?" "And if you faiI there, just try this other number, will you?" "I may be late again tonight, Ruth." "will you see her for supper or at her apartment?" "We should at Ieast share the chores." "I mean, you could dump every second dirty shirt on her." "AII right, Ruth." "Stop it." "Stop what?" "Stop being vulgar." "I guess that's what I mean." "Pardon me." "When you go to her, does she let you in or do you use your key?" "Wanna count my keys, Ruth?" "Here's the key to the filling cabinet, to the front door" "Stop seeing her." "Just don't see her anymore." "Sign the check" "I don't have to sign anything." "Don't tell me if she's a paid little tart or an unpaid little tart." "Just fix it." "Now." "You pick a hell of a time to go into things." "I'm on the air in 47 minutes." "Brian, this is George." "About the" "George, you are the Iast journalist in Europe to know that the pope is dying." "Why didn't you call me?" "Where are you, George?" "We tried the other number." "I'II be right over." "Brian, I" "Just give us a level, would you, George?" "One, two, three, four, five." "AII right." "Ten seconds, Mr. Faber." "Three, two, one." "You're on, George." "This is George Faber, overlooking St. Peter's Square in Rome." "The holy Father has collapsed." "Dr. carlo AntoneIIi, one of the top heart specialists in Rome arrived at the Vatican this afternoon." "And there has been a report that an oxygen cylinder has been called for." "An inexhaustible, anxious worker possibly one of the most seIf-criticaI pontiffs of this century." "The bell tolls." "The pope is dead." "Listen to the bell." "This is the death knell that rings from the Arco delle Campane only for the pontiff." "Listen." "There is a second bell." "Soon these bells will be joined by bells over the city." "AII over every city." "AII over the world." "The pope is dead." "The CarmerIengo will announce it." "The master of ceremonies, the notaries, the doctors will consign him under signature into eternity." "His ring will be defaced." "The seals will be broken." "The papal apartments will be locked and sealed." "while the bells are still ringing the pontifical body will be handed over to the embalmers so that it may be a seemly object for the veneration of the faithful." "They will place his body between white candles in the Sistine chapel while the noble guard maintains the death watch under MicheIangeIo's frescoes of the Iast judgment." "On the third day they will bury him, clothed in full pontificals with a miter on his head a purple veil covering his face." "And a red ermine blanket to warm him in the crypt." "They will seal him in three coffins." "One of cypress one of lead, to keep him from the damp and to carry his certificate of death." "The last one, of elm so that he may seem at Ieast like other men who go to the grave in a wooden box." "The pope is dead." "They will mourn him with nine days of masses and give him nine absolutions of which, having been greater than other men in his life he may have greater need after his death." "It is strange." "When a president dies, he's replaced within an hour." "When a king dies, long live the king." "When a pope dies, everything stops." "David, the reason I called you is I'm told I will need a secretary for the conclave." "I... ." "I wondered if you would accept the position." "It's a great honor, Eminence." "But I'm afraid I'm the wrong man." "Why?" "I'm under suspicion." "well, there's been no verdict, no judgment." "The commission is suspended till the new pope is elected." "And who will that be?" "Whoever stands on that balcony, I hope he will publish my books." "would RinaIdi make a good pope?" "He's a lovely man." "But I think we need a man of our time." "Then cardinal Leone." "I'm afraid I'm the wrong one to ask about cardinal Leone." "Let us go to lunch." "Who, then?" "In any case, it has to be an italian." "Yes, I suppose so." "I'm an old man, VaIerio." "I have buried three popes." "We are all too old." "There are not more than half a dozen of us who can give the Church what it needs at this moment." "Forgive me, Father." "I mean, Eminence." "Forgive me." "Do you think you are one of them?" "One what?" "One of the half dozen." "I know I'm not." "Do you think I have a chance of election?" "I hope not." "Don't worry." "I know I haven't." "hold the lamp." "You know, VaIerio, I should have been a country priest with just enough theology to hear confession and just enough Latin to get through Mass." "I would sit in front of my church on summer evenings and talk about the crops." "Hey, give me the lamp." "Franko." "Eminence." "Thank you, Eminence." "Franko!" "Franko!" "And what am I now?" "A walking encyclopedia of dogma." "A theological dictionary on two legs." "Each of us has his own cross." "That looks very comfortable." "Do you know what mine is?" "My cross, I mean." "To be rich and content and fulfilled and to know that I have deserved none of it." "And that when I'm called to judgment I must depend utterly on the mercy of God." "We are what we are." "And God must take up the responsibility, even for theologians." "Now, tell me where do we go for our pope?" "The cardinals of the Sacred college have assumed trusteeship over the Church until a new pope is elected." "From all over the world cardinals will come  weighed down with years and authority  to put on the scarlet of princes and sit in the conclave for the election of the successor of St. Peter." "As soon as he's elected  the new pope will choose the date for his coronation a spectacle that will bring people from every corner of the earth." "Outside this small enclave of the Vatican  the world is in a climate of crisis and we may soon be involved in an atomic war." "But for the men in the Vatican there is only one question:" "Who will stand in the shoes of the fisherman?" "Who will preserve and proclaim the message of Christ  to the men who live in this troubled and dubious 20th century?" "Behind the locked doors of the Vatican there will be two ballots daily." "One in the morning and one in the afternoon." "If the vote is unsuccessful then the papers are burned with wet straw and the smoke from the chapel will be black." "If the vote is successful, the ballots are burned dry and white smoke will rise." "And the vice regent of the almighty will be acclaimed by the people." "This is George Faber in Rome." "Good night." "We've got some footage on the cardinals." "You can see that in B." "Not much on the favorites, I'm afraid." "Leone and the Romans." "You know, you did cut it a bit fine tonight, George." "So you mean your life would be a Iot easier if I couId be found at one number, namely my home number." "Yes, it wouId." "A Iot easier." "So would yours." "You're the protocol expert." "How did the British do in the old heydays when they wanted to break off relations?" "Don't they teach you things like that at Cambridge?" "Not at Cambridge." "We learned it later in the club." "It's advisable, old lad, to choose neutral ground." "neutral ground?" "What about a cathedral?" "Oh, boy." "Maybe a zoo?" "For His Eminence, cardinal Leone, 29." "For His Eminence, cardinal CoIumbi, 1 5." "For His Eminence, cardinal Fracci, 1 2." "Insufficient for election." "For His Eminence, cardinal Leone, 23." "For His Eminence, cardinal Peumens, 1 9." "For His Eminence, cardinal RinaIdi, 1 4." "Insufficient for election." "Insufficient for election." "After the sixth ballot, still only black smoke from the window of the Sistine chapel." "All we know for certain is that none of the favorites is likely to be elected." "Now it could be any one of the Cardinals." "And now it could take an indefinite time to elect him." "Meanwhile, the delay begins to cause waves of crisis around the world as the concern deepens." "Who will be the next pope?" "That's a question for us too, tovarich." "Important question." "There are bigger ones." "Much more immediate too." "What difference does it make who rules one square mile in the center of Rome?" "Whoever he may be, speaks with the voice of God for a quarter of the world." "will that change stones into bread for millions of Chinese?" "unless they're fed, we go to war." "That is my point, tovarich." "If we get a violent enemy in Rome, he can do us more harm than you can realize." "If we get a man who is reasonable, he can be of enormous advantage." "especially in the mess we face now." "So you turn to magic." "Roman magic like that." "What's happened to you, Piotr IIych?" "I will tell you." "I suppose it happens to every man who sits in the center chair." "I've come to the end of the book of rules." "There will be universal massacre in a matter of months." "And I have run out of mathematics." "revolution is in the air and we are not prepared for it." "Our young priests are prepared." "They're finding ways to live with change and make changes." "Yes." "Sometimes they frighten me." "But, why?" "They see injustice and want to correct it." "And they may make more, through ignorance and inexperience." "Our friend Lakota, here, should be an expert on revolution." "Oh, no." "I am no expert." "But you have lived under a revolutionary regime." "well, that is not quite right." "Marxism in Russia is very conservative." "Their revolution is for export now." "Our problem is to match them with our own product." "Which is?" "Oh, no, please." "please, I would rather listen." "No, we would Iike to hear you." "Yes." "Yes, indeed." "We should manufacture the authentic Christian revolution." "Work for all, bread for all, dignity for all men." "But without violence." "well excuse me, but violence is a reaction against the situation that has become intoIerabIe." "Isn't it?" "well in the camps in Siberia, we were starved and brutalized." "I stole." "I stole some bread." "I fed it, crumb by crumb, to a man whose jaw had been broken by a guard." "I" "I fought the guard to save my friend." "I couId have killed him." "That was a terrifying experience." "I, a bishop could have killed a man." "So as a bishop, you would give your approval to social disorder?" "I might be forced to accept it as a price for social change." "Yes." "You are walking a moral tightrope." "We all have to walk it." "That is what we pay for being men." "But what if you had killed the guard?" "I don't know." "I" " I don't know, Eminence." "I do know we are in action in a brutal world." "The children of God are ours to protect and if we have to fight we fight." "I" "I think I've talked too much." "Good night, Eminence." "Good night, Your Eminence." "Rest well." "KiriI." "KiriI." "My brothers." "My brothers." "We have already failed seven times to reach an election." "I stand now to claim a right under Canon Law." "In all humility I proclaim to you my belief that there is among us a man already marked by God to sit in the chair of St. Peter." "Like the first of the apostles this man has suffered prison and stripes for the faith." "The hand of God has led him out of bondage to join us in this conclave." "I announce him as my candidate and dedicate to him my vote and my obedience." "KiriI, cardinal Lakota." "Thank you, Eminence, but I" "I cannot consent to it." "I, too, proclaim him." "I also proclaim him." "No, please." "please, please wait." "I also proclaim him." "I proclaim him." "please, time has passed me by." "I, too, proclaim him." "And I proclaim him." "I, too, proclaim him." "I beg you!" "And I proclaim him." "I, too, proclaim him." "For the love of God!" "I, too, proclaim him." "I proclaim him." "please, reconsider what you are doing." "Do you accept election?" "You must answer now." "Do you accept election?" "I" "I accept." "And may God have mercy on me." "How do you chose to be called?" "We chose to be called by our name." "KiriI." "It was the name of the saint who first carried the gospel into our country." "Your holiness." "How do you do?" "What are we--?" "congratulations, Your holiness." "What...?" "Undress, please, holiness." "The cross." "Thank you." "Excuse me." "What is your name?" "GeIasio, holiness." "I'm KiriI Lakota." "please pray for me." "Thank you." "Eminence, I hope you realize what you have done." "Gaudium magnum." "And joyous tidings." "We have a pope." "It's the Russian." "KiriI Lakota." "They've elected a Russian pope." "The college of cardinals have elected the first non-ItaIian pope since Adrian VI 400 years ago." "With the world in a state of crisis, it is impossible at this time to assess what the ramifications might be." "holiness?" "Oh, Eminence." "Today's appointments." "Oh, yes." "Excuse me, my glasses." "Everybody wants to see the pope." "Bishops, businessmen." "Cinema actors?" "I suggest you take it up with the maestro di camera, holiness." "Oh, I will, I will." "Today." "No, we have to make some changes, Leone." "Otherwise I" " I will never get any work done." "I'm glad it's your holiness and not myself." "But I need time to think." "And to pray." "I hate the sensation of being managed." "The management of princes." "It used to be a very special game." "Yes." "You elected a man to absolute power and then you had to limit his use of it." "Sometimes it's not a bad idea." "On the matter of Father TeIemond he has a brilliant mind and deep spirituality." "I would Iike to keep him close to me as a personal adviser." "With respect, holiness, I should counsel against it." "Why?" "His opinions are suspect." "They have been under examination." "His opinions may be suspect but the person, we believe, is a godly man." "If Your holiness chooses Father TeIemond you will be lending patronage and authority to an unsuitable person." "Has there been any imputation against his character or his life as a priest?" "It is opinions which are suspect, not the man." "That makes the situation very dangerous." "We recognize the risk, but we are disposed to take it." "You will convey to the commissioners our desire for a quick verdict on the works of Father TeIemond." "I will do that, holiness." "But once again, I must emphasize the very real danger" "As Your holiness decides." "Thank you." "Starvation has again increased in China." "And military action appears imminent." "There is a postscript I want you all to hear." "A personal letter from Chairman Peng." ""I'm prepared to go to extraordinary lengths with the Soviet Union and the U.S.A. to avert a horrible disaster." "But I have to warn you that if the terms are too strenuous or if they do violence to the dignity of the Chinese people the situation will pass out of my control into the control of the army." "I urge you to convince the Western world of the magnitude of our need and of the risk of war, which confronts us all. "" "We are at a minute to midnight, tovarich." "If the ants march out of the ant heap there will be ruin and misery too horrible to contemplate." "Next picture, please." "Why do you laugh?" "They laugh because this man was a political prisoner for 20 years." "So today he has been elected head of the Vatican City State." "He is spiritual leader of 800 million people." "He can talk with every leader in the West with the strongest voice of all." "The Catholic vote at the ballot box." "You must think of that, you know, tovarich." "Think what it might mean if he spoke the right word at the right time." "His holiness is ready." "Your holiness?" "Yes?" "Mr." "Igor Bounin." "Send him in." "Mr. Bounin?" "I send you a gift." "Earth from the Ukraine." "sunflower seeds." "Piotr IIych Kamenev." "There is no other message?" ""My respects and my compliments upon your election." "The earth is sacred because it is all we have to stand on." "The seeds are sacred because there is life locked inside them." "I hope that they may come to flower in your garden. "" "I have heard your voice before." "We have met." "We have, sir, yes." "You had another name." "I have many names." "Of course." "You sat at some of the interrogations with Kamenev." "Yes, sir, that is correct." "Go on with your message." ""We shall be at war within two months." "There is no way in which China can--"" "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, will you please repeat that?" ""We shall be at war within two months." "There is no way in which China can come to terms with the capitalist powers. "" "Go on." ""would you commit to a double risk?" "To speak to the Western world on behalf of the Chinese and the Chinese on behalf of the West?" "This would entail a face-to-face meeting with Chairman Peng." "He has agreed to come if you will come. "" "Is that all?" "There is a little more." "Yes?" ""You believe you stand in God's shoes." "I must wear my own." "Greetings, Piotr IIych Kamenev. "" "Mr. Bounin how do you interpret the--?" "The letter?" "I have no interpretation, sir." "Not even on such important matters?" "No, sir." "It is a matter between KiriI Lakota and Piotr IIych Kamenev." "And you are to carry back my answer?" "If there is one, yes." "Here." "No, sir, I will remember." "Yes, of course." "I am touched by your gift." "How soon will you be back in Moscow?" "Tonight." "The meeting you suggest is perilous and leaves us all vulnerable." "But why the zoo?" "Why ever would you want to meet me here, of all places?" "well, there's" " It's fun!" "There's kids and animals." "I absolutely hate the zoo." "Hate it?" "They used to bring me here for long, awful, boring walks when I was a kid and besides, the animals depress me." "Let's go somewhere and have a drink." "You're very strange today." "Are you gonna run off in a half an hour?" "No, I'm in no hurry." "Good." "Then I'II have a margarita cocktail." "Why a margarita?" "I've never had one before." "It sounds marvelous." "darling." "Hi, GeIasio." "No, no, no." "please." "Leave them." "Thank you." "GeIasio!" "GeIasio." "would Your holiness like something before he retires?" "Coffee, tea, warm milk?" "No, thank you." "GeIasio we are going to be together for a Iong time." "We... ." "well we should get to know each other." "I suppose so, holiness." "Won't you sit down?" "No, I" "Oh, no, no." "please." "well, tell me about yourself." "How old are you?" "nearly 60, holiness." "Sixty?" "No." "Are you married?" "A widower." "Do you have any children?" "There's a boy and a girl." "They're both grown now and married." "Where were you born?" "Here, in Rome." "Trastevere." "In Rome?" "tell me about Rome." "What do I say, holiness?" "Rome is... ." "Rome is... ." "Rome is Rome, holiness." "For you, yes." "For me, GeIasio, it's an unknown country." "Yet, I am bishop of this city." "tell me what will people think of a foreign pope?" "They will make jokes about it." "But in time, they will accept it." "We Romans have seen everything." "Yes, you have." "tell me, how does one get in and out of this place?" "Vatican City?" "Yes." "There are gates." "We all have a pass." "And the pope too?" "Oh, no." "He's the head of Vatican City." "He can get out where he pleases and when he pleases." "Can he indeed?" "GeIasio, can you find me a cassock?" "In Your holiness' wardrobe." "No." "A black one, Iike a priest might wear." "And a black hat." "I" "I don't know." "I couId try." "Are you all right?" "I'm sorry." "I was in a hurry." "I've got an urgent case upstairs." "You almost had another patient." "I'm afraid I'm going to lose this one." "I'm sorry." "Is there anything I can do?" "Yes." "Yes, there is." "It's down on the Ieft." "There's an aII-night pharmacy." "Take this and get it for me." "And bring it up to the second floor." "Number 1 3." "Number 1 3." "It's urgent." "Excuse me." "Excuse me, the doctor said this is urgent." "Just a moment." "That will be 3500 lire." "I'm" " I'm sorry." "I forgot about the money." "I can send it to you tomorrow morning." "I couId leave you a note." "A note is a piece of paper, Padre." "well, I'II go and see the doctor." "But I trust you." "Thank you." "I" " I won't forget." "Where is 1 3, boys?" "Doctor." "My Lord Jesus I am your child." "For whatever wrong I've done" "He doesn't understand, Father." "He is not a Christian." "We are mostly Jews here." "He's comfortable now." "Is there anything I can do?" "No." "The dying is easy." "It is the living that defeats us." "We should go now." "Yes." "Where did you learn Hebrew?" "Oh, I was a biblical scholar when I was young." "That doesn't explain it, does it?" "No, it doesn't." "No, I worked with a rabbi in a camp in Siberia." "I've seen you before, haven't I?" "Yes, I suppose you have." "Just think of me as a priest you sent to the pharmacist." "What are you doing here like this?" "Oh, I had to get out." "I just had to get out." "angelo!" "I wanted to hear all these noises and watch people living." "Just simply living." "angelo!" "I was hungry for it." "Can you understand that?" "I wish I felt life was as appetizing as that." "That man upstairs, was he long a patient of yours?" "My mind wasn't on him." "shall we go?" "Yes." "Can I carry your bag?" "You know, I had 1 1 brothers and sisters." "eleven of us in two rooms." "I'm sorry, I... ." "I don't know your name." "Ruth Faber." "I wonder where AngeIo is." "Do you suppose he's the youngest?" "You know, the one in the middle always has it the most difficult." "Dr." "Faber, is--?" "Why is my marriage like this?" "Is it wrong for a woman to have a job?" "Is it because we haven't got children?" "Is it because we both live away from our own countries?" "Is it because Rome is full of temptation and the young girls are beautiful?" "Oh, so beautiful." "And the answer to why is my marriage like this is just my marriage is like this." "You know, sometimes I'd give anything to be that woman." "Shouting for angelo, taking care of him." "Making the pasta, hanging out washing on those lines." "But we seem to be given our roles." "I'm this sort of wife." "They cast me." "That's his wife." "And what does the man in the Iong robes say to all that?" "The man in the Iong robes would have to put it to a pontifical council and study the ramifications." "But the man inside the robes would have noticed that in all you've said you never mentioned the word "Iove. "" "Do you mean I don't love him?" "Or I do?" "Oh, I cannot say that." "Nobody can." "There is only one area to search." "And if love is mislaid where did you see it last?" "And if you can't remember maybe there was no love in the first place." "Oh, there was." "Then it is mislaid." "And you must find it." "Do you smell that cooking?" "Are you hungry?" "When you're one of 1 1 children, you're always hungry." "Do you know a place where you could take an escaped prisoner to eat?" "Yes." "I know just the place." "Good." "Thank you." "Your holiness, the car is here." "Thank you." "well... ." "You have to go, don't you?" "Yes, I suppose I do." "We're all in prison one way or another." "Yes, and those who understand it suffer most of all." "Good night." "I... ." "I've socks for him and shirts for him and sweaters for him." "I have papers for him, pencils for him." "And for some unaccountable reason an amber cigarette holder for him." "You're going home to Mother?" "No, I thought that's where you'd gone." "And life does have its jolly compensations, doesn't it?" "Just when a man is about to say goodbye to his tiny folly." "What does he look up and see, but his wife's green and penetrating orbs?" "And just as he's figured out a way to handle that unfortunate situation by buying buckets of champagne, some flowers a few crown jewels and some  "let's get together" cards my telephone rings and I'm called to Paris." "By another tiny folly?" "No, by something that makes our marriage problem seem very small indeed." "I'd agree with that." "Then you've heard the news?" "No." "We've all been called to Paris." "Every correspondent in the network." "The red light is flashing alert." "We're supposed to take it lightheartedly." "darling, I" "I would at Ieast have tried to persuade you that I was definitely calling it off with Chiara." "It'II be all right." "I mean, not just about us." "I know it will." "I'II give your regards to Paris." "With this message Kamenev sent me this." "It is full of Russian earth and sunflower seeds." "But it has a meaning." "If we cannot find a way to make peace among the peoples then the earth will be blackened." "And there will be no flowers anymore, for any of us." "How would you answer Kamenev, if you stood in the shoes of the fisherman?" "I would wait, holiness." "We've had no time to study the consequences of such a meeting." "We have had no time." "Because there is no time." "Very well, my friends." "You tell me what to do." "delay, holiness." "delay only long enough to consider what you gamble." "And turn my back and wash my hands, Iike Pontius PiIate?" "I cannot wash my hands of the world, and neither can you." "My brothers, if this is the Iast sound made by the Iast living man it must be shouted loud and clear." "Life is a gift of God." "Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God?" "Oh, yes." "That he died and rose from the dead?" "Yes." "To what end?" "For what purpose?" "In the old days we used to say, "He came to redeem and save us. "" "Or, as the good nuns put it, "to buy us back from the devil and get us into heaven. "" "But you don't put it that way." "I'm afraid I don't believe it that way." "How do you believe it, Father?" "I believe that man is born in bondage." "To what, Father?" "To his own history." "And Christ, the Savior?" "How does he buy man out of this bondage?" "The death of Christ was the act by which man was redeemed." "I'm concerned now how does the act of redemption continue through us in this very troubled century?" "How do you see that, Father?" "This is crucial." "I know." "Let me try to explain carefully." "I have no son." "But if I had, what could I offer him?" "only tomorrow." "I will die soon, perhaps." "What is offered to me?" "unless I know the answer to that question I'm left without hope." "Christ died, he rose from the dead he went into heaven, out of this world." "But if he's not still here with us in this world we are truly lost." "So now we come to the classic question." "What think you of Christ?" "Excuse me, Eminence, could you ask the question again?" "What think you of Christ, Father?" "Who is he?" "He is the point to which all of evolution is tending." "He is the point at which the whole universe must arrive as the spokes of a wheel arrive at the center." "He is the universe, summed up." "He is the Cosmic Christ." "Father TeIemond it is written in the scripture:" ""Jesus Christ." "Yesterday, today and the same forever. "" "Are you not creating another Christ of your own?" "I am not creating him." "I'm revealing a face of him we have not yet seen." "Do you have a private revelation, Father?" "Perhaps I have, Eminence." "If I have, it is no merit of mine." "Indeed, it is a torment for me." "I cannot renounce this Christ whom I see any more than I can renounce him who hangs on the cross." "You put us in great trouble." "Much that you have said and written is of extraordinary depth and beauty." "Much of it is still unclear." "And, as you have seen, puzzling to us." "It would help if you gave us one clear statement of what you believe." "I believe in a personal God." "I believe in Christ." "I believe in the Spirit." "But if by some perilous, internal revolution I lost my faith in God in Christ and in the Spirit I think I still would believe in the world." "Yes, I do believe in the world." "In the goodness of the world, in the values of the world." "That, in the final analysis, is the first and the Iast thing in which I believe." "This faith I Iive by." "And it is to this faith that at the moment of death mastering all doubts I shall surrender myself." "It is the opinion of the commissioners, therefore  that the works of Father Telemond present ambiguities and even grave errors in philosophical and theological matters which offend catholic doctrine." "They recommend that Reverend Father TeIemond should be prohibited from teaching or publishing the dubious opinions above mentioned until a full and formal examination has been made." "Didn't the Second Vatican council affirm in the clearest terms the liberty of man's conscience and the right of free research?" "well, yes, holiness." "But with great respect I submit that what a philosopher may publish without harm bears a different color when it is written by a papal adviser." "Eminence you have our thanks." "How is this news to be conveyed to Father TeIemond?" "We shall tell him ourselves." "You have our leave to go." "This is a grief for Your holiness." "I know it." "I wish I couId share" "Our grief is private to ourselves." "Now, we would Iike to be alone." "David." "It's worse than I thought." "David, perhaps in time" "There's no time, holiness." "At night, I hear the knocking on the gate." "AII of a sudden the work is undone." "This is the moment you've always been afraid of." "But I am with you." "I am your friend." "I am your brother" "But I'm condemned to absolute silence, holiness!" "This was delivered in your name." "please tell me what I must do." "I will give you an order." "You will rest." "You will submit to medical care and you will be silent." "David it is the terror of Iife." "No one can carry another man's burden." "It is the terror of the Church too." "I hate her!" "And still I can't leave her." "I Iove her." "And still I can't live in her in peace." "By your leave, holiness." "My friends." "Thank you for coming, Eminence." "Your Eminence." "How are you?" "I don't have much time." "But please council me and question me without fear or reserve." "May I ask the reason for Your HoIiness' somewhat unusual dress?" "It's easier to feel alike if we look alike." "will holiness make a statement at or after the meeting?" "I will make no statement other than courtesies until I have returned to Rome and have consulted with you all." "Has the president of the United States been informed of your visit?" "Yes." "So have all the European and Asian heads of state." "Not all approve, but all, I believe, wish us well." "What, in fact, does Your holiness hope to gain from a private meeting with two Marxist leaders?" "The understanding of things which are driving them and the world into war." "Their confidence in me as an honest spokesman in this time of crisis." "Any more questions?" "Thank you." "GeIasio?" "You will be the guardians of the Church while I am gone." "I'm suddenly very alone." "We are with you, holiness." "Thank you." "We do not all agree, but we are all with Peter." "And we offer you our prayer for your journey." "Our Father who art in heaven haIIowed be thy name." "Thy kingdom come." "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." "Piotr IIych." "For a while, I did not think you would come." "Why not?" "I've no rights over you and you have no reason to trust me." "I'm not sure I can help." "I'm willing to try." "You are changed." "I do not feel changed." "There was a pride in you once." "More, an arrogance as if you carried truth in a private purse and no one could dispute it with you." "When I hated you, and I did, it was because of that." "I have learned what I am." "A low man who sits too high for his gifts." "Let me warn you:" "With Peng, we cannot be too low." "If we are, he will despise us." "If we are too high, he will reject us out of hand." "He lives by face." "He dare not lose it, then." "Does Peng understand that we are as much at risk as he is?" "And I don't think we are." "We are the affluent ones." "He has 800 million people." "There is famine over three provinces and it will soon spread over the whole land." "God help us in what we do now." "If he's where he can hear us, I hope he will." "Chairman Peng of the people's republic of China." "welcome, comrade." "Chairman, His holiness, Pope KiriI I." "Mr. Chairman." "shall we be comfortable?" "would you care--?" "No, thank you." "I have agreed to meet him." "I am not convinced that he can do anything for us." "I have only a voice, but it reaches many people." "I am prepared to raise it." "To what ends?" "To feed the Chinese people." "First, to prevent a war." "And the price?" "On my part, none." "But the capitalists will exact a price." "Comrade Kamenev, who is already half a capitalist, has a price too." "I cannot say what they will exact." "I can only say what you should not be asked to pay." "I will tell you what we will not pay." "We will not destroy what the revolution has accomplished." "We will not submit to military threats or colonial exploitation." "But you should withdraw your own military threats to the nations of Southeast Asia." "Let Americans give us a chance to trade with the rice bowl countries as we've done for centuries." "Let Russia remove the threat of these missiles aimed at our production centers." "Troops and tanks along a thousand miles of border." "Let the Americans pull out of the military colonies in thailand and Vietnam." "No one can do all these things at once." "In stages, it's possible." "Important thing is that we make a start together." "Russia is prepared to match every move you make to reduce military tension and give you what credits she can to buy in other markets." "The markets we need are closed to us." "I am prepared to plead and negotiate for them to be opened." "Words are cheap." "Mr. Chairman, what is your revolution built on?" "What is Russia's revolution built on?" "One man, who spent most of his life in the British Museum who was buried in a tiny cemetery in england." "karl Marx never carried a gun, he never fought on the barricades." "AII he had was words." "Words and an idea, which in 60 years has changed the face of the earth." "And you think you can do it again?" "I want to try." "But I have no chance to succeed if you throw my words back in my teeth the moment they are spoken." "I need your cooperation in what I do." "So I give it." "You'II fall." "What then?" "We are back in the jungle!" "I didn't mean that." "I mean this:" "His holiness, KiriI I, goes back to Rome." "He makes a great speech." "Writes letters, sends out messages." "They are ignored." "Very politely, of course." "Now, what has he lost?" "Nothing." "What has he gained?" "Much." "He is a noble man." "A peacemaker who unhappily failed to make peace." "Mr. Chairman, you came because you thought I might be able to do something." "Now, what is it?" "Pay some of the price that we have to pay." "What do you expect him to pay?" "How?" "When I came here today, I put my head on the executioner's block." "When I go back across that border, it might well be chopped off." "That's my risk." "What is yours?" "Thank you for coming so late at night." "What can I do for you, holiness?" "I need your help." "I will do anything I can to be helpful." "Thank you." "Won't you sit down." "I... ." "I just want to think out loud." "I mean, first of all, I want to say how... ." "How sorry I am about what I had to do." "holiness, I accepted the verdict of the commission as an act of obedience." "Of course, I cannot abandon my personal search for the truth, for you or for anyone." "I would be untrue to myself." "I understand." "But please know now I accept your decision without reserve." "Without any resentment, with a clear conscience and with a humble heart." "Your holiness should not feel any burden from me." "I'm truly grateful." "That is a magnificent gift." "David I'm feeling lost." "I'm troubled by the whole idea of my coronation." "Why?" "I am not prepared to be crowned with the pomp of a prince while hungry men live in the shadow of death." "Because in the emotion of the moment I may have done wrong to accept the election." "You are Peter." "There is one consolation." "As pope, I cannot preach error no matter what folly I may commit." "The Church will survive." "David... ." "Forgive me." "David, what is it?" "Forgive me." "GeIasio!" "GeIasio." "GeIasio!" "GeIasio!" "Eminence." "We had asked to be left alone." "I came to offer my sympathy to Your holiness on the death of Father TeIemond." "I feel guilty." "You have no cause to feel that." "I cannot dismiss it, holiness." "I have a confession to make." "Then I suggest you make it to your confessor." "I am so in distress, holiness." "You are a priest." "You are right." "I was jealous of David TeIemond." "I did what was right but my intention was not right when I did it." "Why were you jealous of him?" "Because of you, holiness." "Because I needed, but could not have, what you gave him." "Intimacy." "Trust." "Affection." "And because I am an old man that has served the Church a Iong time and thought I deserved better." "I was wrong." "None of us deserves anything but the promised wage for the worker in the vineyard." "Eminence I, too, have sinned." "I kept you at a distance because I couId not tolerate your opposition." "And I was at fault with Father TeIemond." "I... ." "I clung to him because... ." "I am glad you came." "Leone how does a man ever know if his actions are for himself or for God?" "You don't know." "You have a duty to act." "But you have no right to expect approval or even a successful outcome." "So in the end, my friend we are alone?" "Yes." "I have seen three men sit in this room." "You are the Iast I shall see." "Each of them, in his turn came to where you stand now." "The moment of solitude." "I have to tell you there is no remedy for it." "You are here until the day you die." "And the longer you live the lonelier you will become." "You will use this man and that for the work of the Church." "But when the work is done or the man has proved unequal to it, you will let him go and find another." "You want love." "You need it, as I do." "Even though I am old." "You may have it for a little while but you will lose it again." "Like it or not, you are condemned to a solitary pilgrimage from the day of your election until the day of your death." "This is a calvary, holiness." "And you have just begun to climb." ""Accept this triple tiara for you are the Vicar of our Savior, Jesus Christ. "" "These are the words with which KiriI I will be crowned pope today." "I'm alone here now." "But by midday, the piazza and all the approaches to it will be jammed with nearly 500,000 people." "For many, the elaborate ceremony, the biggest on earth will seem antique and obsolete." "For others, it will be a symbol of continuity." "Two thousand years of the Christian message." "From Peter the fisherman to KiriI I." "You gave me absolute power." "You must submit to my use of it." "You are bound to prudence, holiness." "We are bound to charity first." "Your holiness is proposing the incredibIe" "The impossible." "The church has to function as a society in the 20th century." "That's true." "For that, it needs financial resources." "Christ never said that." "holiness, you took an oath not to renounce any power or possession necessary to the survival of the Church." "The only thing necessary to the Church is the spirit of God." "What you propose is an affront to all your predecessors." "They used the light they had, I used that which has been given to me." "Are you sure it is a light, holiness, and not an illusion?" "I believe it is a light." "I am obliged in conscience to say it, holiness." "You're doing a reckless and a dangerous thing." "If the rest of you agree with His Eminence I am prepared to abdicate now." "well?" "No." "This is Peter." "And I stand with him." "closest to the ceremony will be the senior churchmen from the Vatican itself." "Next, the archbishops, the bishops, the monsignore and nuns from every part of the globe representing their order or their country." "To be invited inside if you're not a churchman you would probably have to be a papal prince a monarch from another land a member of the italian government, a general or a senior diplomat." "unless, of course, you do it the old Roman way which is to know somebody who knows somebody who has an in." "Our Lord Jesus Christ whose Vicar I am was crowned with thorns." "I stand before you bareheaded because I am your servant." "please." "Though I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels and have not charity I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." "Though I have all faith so that I couId remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing." "We are in a time of crisis." "I cannot change the world I cannot change what history has already written." "I can only change myself." "And begin with unsure hands to write a new chapter." "I am the custodian of the wealth of the Church." "I pledge it now." "AII our money all our holdings in land buildings and great works of art for the relief of our hungry brothers." "And if to honor this pledge the Church must strip itself down to poverty so be it." "I will not alter this pledge." "I will not reduce it." "And now I beg the great of the world and the small of the world to share out of their abundance with those who have nothing." "subtitles by SDI Media Group" "(ENGLISH)"