Conclave
by Robert Harris
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The pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world's most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on Earth.Tags
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The Pope has died suddenly and as Dean of the Vatican it falls upon Cardinal Lomelli to organise the process of appointing his successor. One hundred and seventeen eligible cardinals are summoned to the Vatican to begin the secretive process of the Conclave which will appoint the new pope. Among the assembled cardinals are a number with high ambitions and dark secrets. As the Conclave is locked into the Sistine Chapel Lomelli must guide the process following the centuries old rituals and at the same time grapple with the modern challenges which impact on the process.
I have no idea why this book sunk it's hooks into me so deeply. I am an atheist and no great fan of any organised religion so a tale about Roman Catholic cardinals show more manouevring for position to become the next pope should not have any appeal. I loved Conclave though and raced through it in a matter of hours. Sometimes I find a book which grips me so much that I can't put it down and I find myself
rationing it and trying to make it last longer. This was one of them. The tale is a fairly simple story of power and aspirations to power and is littered with obscure Catholic stuff but the portrayal of the central character and his motivations was excellent. Technically a thriller, I thought I had figured out how things were going to end when I was about half way through but I was wrong. The ending was a delicious surprise that made me laugh out loud. show less
I have no idea why this book sunk it's hooks into me so deeply. I am an atheist and no great fan of any organised religion so a tale about Roman Catholic cardinals show more manouevring for position to become the next pope should not have any appeal. I loved Conclave though and raced through it in a matter of hours. Sometimes I find a book which grips me so much that I can't put it down and I find myself
rationing it and trying to make it last longer. This was one of them. The tale is a fairly simple story of power and aspirations to power and is littered with obscure Catholic stuff but the portrayal of the central character and his motivations was excellent. Technically a thriller, I thought I had figured out how things were going to end when I was about half way through but I was wrong. The ending was a delicious surprise that made me laugh out loud. show less
I think "Conclave" is the best Robert Harris book so far. He's produced an empathic immersion into the closed world of the College of Cardinals, that manages to be compassionate, truthful and have just enough tension in it to keep you turning the pages while still having the people, rather than the plot, at the heart of the novel.
Set in the weeks after the unexpected death of what appears to be Pope Francis, the current Pope, "Conclave" tells the story of the election of next Pope by the 118 Cardinal Electors, sequestered in the Sistine Chapel until the Holy Spirit moves at least two thirds of to select one of their number to be Pope.
The story is told through the eyes of Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals and therefore show more responsible for managing the Conclave as well as voting in it.
Lomeli is a wonderful creation: a man who has served the Church mainly in ambassadorial roles as a Papal Nuncio and as Secretary of State, he is troubled by doubt and has recently found it difficult to pray. In his seventies, this Prince of the Church, shows remarkable humility. His ambition is simply to run the Concave in as neutral a way as possible so that God can guide him and his brother Cardinals to make the right decision. Neutrality becomes a less and less viable goal as facts about some of the leading candidates emerge and Lomeli finds himself taking decisions about what to do with information that could directly alter who is chosen as Pope. In these circumstances, Lomeli's guide seems always to be to do his duty to God. Of course, he would be greatly helped in this if God could be a little more directive about what his will is.
Lomeli kept a story human that could otherwise have been drowned in the procedural details of the conclave or overshadowed by an exploration of the divisions in the Church about women, homosexuality, Liberation Theology, the return of the Latin Mass, political and financial corruption, the continuing dominance of Italy in a world where most Catholics live outside of Europe.
I was a Catholic by birth and education, before taking a leap of faith and becoming an atheist, so I was intrigued to see how Robert Harris would treat the Church. I was pleased that he avoided both whitewash and demonisation. Instead, he presents men of many different backgrounds, personalities and beliefs, who are passionately trying to serve, even if some of them conflate service and ambition. What I found most affecting and most realistic, was the extent to which these men, especially the much troubled Lomeli, found their way through the moral and political maze through prayer. I never mastered prayer but I've known people for whom it is a daily necessity on a par with food and water. I'd like to believe that many of those leading the Church feel the same need.
The audiobook version is narrated with great skill by Roy McMillan. Click on the Soundcloud link below for a sample.
https://soundcloud.com/penguin-books/conclave-by-robert-harris-audiobook-extract... show less
Set in the weeks after the unexpected death of what appears to be Pope Francis, the current Pope, "Conclave" tells the story of the election of next Pope by the 118 Cardinal Electors, sequestered in the Sistine Chapel until the Holy Spirit moves at least two thirds of to select one of their number to be Pope.
The story is told through the eyes of Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals and therefore show more responsible for managing the Conclave as well as voting in it.
Lomeli is a wonderful creation: a man who has served the Church mainly in ambassadorial roles as a Papal Nuncio and as Secretary of State, he is troubled by doubt and has recently found it difficult to pray. In his seventies, this Prince of the Church, shows remarkable humility. His ambition is simply to run the Concave in as neutral a way as possible so that God can guide him and his brother Cardinals to make the right decision. Neutrality becomes a less and less viable goal as facts about some of the leading candidates emerge and Lomeli finds himself taking decisions about what to do with information that could directly alter who is chosen as Pope. In these circumstances, Lomeli's guide seems always to be to do his duty to God. Of course, he would be greatly helped in this if God could be a little more directive about what his will is.
Lomeli kept a story human that could otherwise have been drowned in the procedural details of the conclave or overshadowed by an exploration of the divisions in the Church about women, homosexuality, Liberation Theology, the return of the Latin Mass, political and financial corruption, the continuing dominance of Italy in a world where most Catholics live outside of Europe.
I was a Catholic by birth and education, before taking a leap of faith and becoming an atheist, so I was intrigued to see how Robert Harris would treat the Church. I was pleased that he avoided both whitewash and demonisation. Instead, he presents men of many different backgrounds, personalities and beliefs, who are passionately trying to serve, even if some of them conflate service and ambition. What I found most affecting and most realistic, was the extent to which these men, especially the much troubled Lomeli, found their way through the moral and political maze through prayer. I never mastered prayer but I've known people for whom it is a daily necessity on a par with food and water. I'd like to believe that many of those leading the Church feel the same need.
The audiobook version is narrated with great skill by Roy McMillan. Click on the Soundcloud link below for a sample.
https://soundcloud.com/penguin-books/conclave-by-robert-harris-audiobook-extract... show less
This book was a huge surprise to me. I read it because it was recommended to me by a friend. It didn’t appear, at first, that it would be of interest to me, but I soon became engrossed with the characters-all 118 of them, and all Cardinals from all over the world who have come to Rome to elect a new Pope. I learned so much about the rituals behind the appointment of a new Pope, and although I’m not Catholic I found it enthralling and totally captivating. A locked room mystery without an actual death. A piece of political grandstanding. A good man who has to wrestle with his conscience and his duty. This book was unputdownable, and I loved it! The only thing that made me bring the rating down a tick was the ending. I’ve never show more really enjoyed snap, out of left field endings. Even so, I have to admit the ending was perfect for this book, and I have to take my hat off to Mr. Harris for tackling, so superbly, this most secretive of topics. This was my first book by Robert Harris, but it certainly won’t be my last. show less
I really enjoyed the movie - visually gorgeous, terrific cast. Book…not bad. Harris doesn’t want to waste any of his research, so there’s probably too much description of every element of a cardinal’s wardrobe, how the furniture is arranged, and I forgot to keep count of each one of the 118 cardinals he mentions. I love knowing that the three cardinals who oversee the handling of the ballots are known as “scrutineers.” It’s colorful, intriguing (in more than one sense), just fun…and not without some serious attention to matters of faith, religious corporate malfeasance, doubt, anxiety, and ambivalence. A pleasant couple of evenings, but go see Ralph Fiennes anyway.
Robert Harris has made a successful career out if carefully researched historical novels with gripping plots and soundly crafted characters (often based upon real counterparts). He has, for example, reinvented Cicero for a modern audience in his novels ‘Imperium’, ‘Lustrum’ and ‘Dictator’, while his ‘An Officer and a Spy’ explored the Dreyfus Affair, succeeding in highlighting the dreadful exercise of anti-Semitism while simultaneously debasing some of the hagiography that had subsequently attached itself to Dreyfus himself, who, it seems, was not a particularly pleasant person.
With ‘Conclave’ he is back in the present – indeed, slightly in the future as the action takes place in some unspecified but not distant show more year in which one character can refer to recent events that happened back in 2017. Harris’s penchant for exhaustive historical research is not wasted, however. As the title would suggest, the novel is set in the Vatican during the election of a new Pope, and Harris provides a wealth of detail about the procedure undertaken by the Cardinals. The Pope is not just a spiritual leader, heading the Roman Catholic faith in his role as ‘God’s Vicar on Earth’; he is also the head of state of the Vatican State, and responsible for the appointment of the principal officers of state.
The book opens with Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the Vatican State, being summoned to the (never named) Pope’s quarters, where he is informed of the Pontiff’s death. A few other senior Cardinals are already there, and the Pope’s room has been cleared and sealed before Lomeli’s arrival. As Dean of the Vatican, however, Lomeli is responsible for overseeing the Conclave, in which all the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic church gather together, shut away in rooms within the Sistine Chapel, to elect the new Pope from among their own number.
The secrets of the Conclave are even more sacrosanct than those of a jury, and little is known of how they arrive at their decisions. Harris draws upon the prescribed instructions, originating from the thirteenth century though formalised under seal by Pope John Paul II in 1996. He gives us a marvellous depiction of the exercise of ambition. I was reminded of
C P Snow’s excellent novel ‘The Masters’, which describes the election to appoint a new head of a Cambridge College in 1937. As with Snow’s book, ‘Conclave’ follows the machinations of the different factions to promote their preferred candidate. Some of the front runners are more reluctant than others, but eventually they are all caught up in the yearning to be first among equals.
This might make it all sound very dry. Nothing could be further from the case. Harris knows how to unwind a gripping yarn, and he draws the reader in completely, while managing painlessly to impart a considerable amount of theological history along the way. show less
With ‘Conclave’ he is back in the present – indeed, slightly in the future as the action takes place in some unspecified but not distant show more year in which one character can refer to recent events that happened back in 2017. Harris’s penchant for exhaustive historical research is not wasted, however. As the title would suggest, the novel is set in the Vatican during the election of a new Pope, and Harris provides a wealth of detail about the procedure undertaken by the Cardinals. The Pope is not just a spiritual leader, heading the Roman Catholic faith in his role as ‘God’s Vicar on Earth’; he is also the head of state of the Vatican State, and responsible for the appointment of the principal officers of state.
The book opens with Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the Vatican State, being summoned to the (never named) Pope’s quarters, where he is informed of the Pontiff’s death. A few other senior Cardinals are already there, and the Pope’s room has been cleared and sealed before Lomeli’s arrival. As Dean of the Vatican, however, Lomeli is responsible for overseeing the Conclave, in which all the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic church gather together, shut away in rooms within the Sistine Chapel, to elect the new Pope from among their own number.
The secrets of the Conclave are even more sacrosanct than those of a jury, and little is known of how they arrive at their decisions. Harris draws upon the prescribed instructions, originating from the thirteenth century though formalised under seal by Pope John Paul II in 1996. He gives us a marvellous depiction of the exercise of ambition. I was reminded of
C P Snow’s excellent novel ‘The Masters’, which describes the election to appoint a new head of a Cambridge College in 1937. As with Snow’s book, ‘Conclave’ follows the machinations of the different factions to promote their preferred candidate. Some of the front runners are more reluctant than others, but eventually they are all caught up in the yearning to be first among equals.
This might make it all sound very dry. Nothing could be further from the case. Harris knows how to unwind a gripping yarn, and he draws the reader in completely, while managing painlessly to impart a considerable amount of theological history along the way. show less
Set in Vatican City in contemporary times, the Pope has just died, and a new Pope must be elected. One hundred eighteen Cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel to determine the new leader. Protagonist Cardinal Lomeli is the in charge of the Dean of the College of Cardinals. They are sequestered until they reach a decision
I enjoyed this peek inside the inner workings of the church. It is a detailed portrayal of what happens within a conclave. It depicts the schism between traditionalists and modernists. Factions vie for control, albeit in a diplomatic and courteous manner. The focus is on a handful of Cardinals who have a chance at becoming Pope. These characters are well fleshed out, struggling between human aspirations and requirements show more of faith.
There is an element of mystery here, though I would not call it a traditional mystery. Cardinal Lomeli must look into several suspicious occurrences related to the qualifications of the candidates. Do not expect a thriller. There are only a few tense scenes toward the end, and all take place offstage. It is more of a drama and character study of the several main candidates for Pope.
The writing is quite good – not overly flowery but descriptive enough to provide a good sense of the environment. It provides a couple of surprising twists. I have now read four of Harris’ books and find them consistently well-written and entertaining. show less
I enjoyed this peek inside the inner workings of the church. It is a detailed portrayal of what happens within a conclave. It depicts the schism between traditionalists and modernists. Factions vie for control, albeit in a diplomatic and courteous manner. The focus is on a handful of Cardinals who have a chance at becoming Pope. These characters are well fleshed out, struggling between human aspirations and requirements show more of faith.
There is an element of mystery here, though I would not call it a traditional mystery. Cardinal Lomeli must look into several suspicious occurrences related to the qualifications of the candidates. Do not expect a thriller. There are only a few tense scenes toward the end, and all take place offstage. It is more of a drama and character study of the several main candidates for Pope.
The writing is quite good – not overly flowery but descriptive enough to provide a good sense of the environment. It provides a couple of surprising twists. I have now read four of Harris’ books and find them consistently well-written and entertaining. show less
A very credible look at the hidden workings of a modern papal conclave. Unlike so many authors of novels about the Catholic Church (cf. Anthony Burgess' Earthly Powers), Harris eschews cynicism, yet he doesn't fall into the corresponding trap of naïvety. His protagonist, an elderly cardinal with a long career in the Vatican hierarchy, is an honestly devout man dealing with an ongoing spiritual emptiness and an all too vivid awareness of the ways that prelates fall short of their ideals—himself not excepted. As Dean of the College of Cardinals, he is in charge of running the conclave to select a new pope—a task not made easier by what he learns about the cardinal in the room next to his in the sequestered Casa Santa Marta next to St show more Peter's, or by the efforts of a loyal minority to make he himself the new pope, a conclusion he both wishes for and deeply dreads.
Politics in the church, the crisis of gender imbalance, the abuse scandal, corruption in the Vatican Bank, they're all touched on here with the same amount of attention you'd expect the characters to give them. Prominent figures in the real church, past and present, are prominent figures in the book under other names (an introduction claiming that similarities are coincidental should be dismissed with a chuckle). What drives the plot, though, isn't intrigue, although there's plenty of it: it's the question of which of all these fallible candidates should be entrusted with the crushing responsibility of shaping the church for the next generation? If you believe, with so many of our contemporaries, that none of the red-robed men of the Vatican are interested in anything but power, you may not like this book. But if you'd prefer to believe that the celibates at the highest levels of the global church are free of the common human failings of lust and greed, you may not like it either. Most of these cardinals really do want what they think is best for all. But it's continually surprising how well what each of us thinks is best for all fits with what we think is best for us. show less
Politics in the church, the crisis of gender imbalance, the abuse scandal, corruption in the Vatican Bank, they're all touched on here with the same amount of attention you'd expect the characters to give them. Prominent figures in the real church, past and present, are prominent figures in the book under other names (an introduction claiming that similarities are coincidental should be dismissed with a chuckle). What drives the plot, though, isn't intrigue, although there's plenty of it: it's the question of which of all these fallible candidates should be entrusted with the crushing responsibility of shaping the church for the next generation? If you believe, with so many of our contemporaries, that none of the red-robed men of the Vatican are interested in anything but power, you may not like this book. But if you'd prefer to believe that the celibates at the highest levels of the global church are free of the common human failings of lust and greed, you may not like it either. Most of these cardinals really do want what they think is best for all. But it's continually surprising how well what each of us thinks is best for all fits with what we think is best for us. show less
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Author Information
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Author Robert Harris was born in Nottingham, England in 1957. He attended King Edward VII College and Selwyn College. He has worked as a BBC journalist, the Political Editor of the Observer, and a columnist for The Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph. He was named Columnist of the Year by the British Press in 2003. He has written both fiction and show more nonfiction books and currently lives in Berkshire, England. His works of fiction include; An Officer and a Spy, The Fear Index, Pompeii, Enigma, Fatherland, Dictator, and Conclave. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Conclaaf
- Original title
- Conclave
- Original publication date
- 2016-09-22
- People/Characters
- Jacopo Baldassare Lomeli; Joseph Tremblay; Joshua Adeyemi; Aldo Bellini; Janusz Woźniak; Raymond O'Malley (show all 9); Wilhelm Mandorff; Goffredo Tedesco; Vincent Benítez
- Important places
- Vatican City
- Important events
- Papal Election
- Related movies
- Conclave (2024 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- 'I thought it wiser not to eat with the cardinals. I ate in my room. At the eleventh hour I was elected Pope. O Jesus, I too can say what Pius XII said when he was elected: "Have mercy on me, Lord, according to thy great mer... (show all)cy." One would say that it is like a dream and yet, until I die, it is the most solemn reality of all my life. So I'm ready, Lord, "to live and die with you ." About three hundred thousand people applauded me on St Peter's balcony.
The arc-lights prevented me from seeing anything other than a shapeless, heaving mass.'
POPE JOHN XXIII , DIARY ENTRY, 28 OCTOBER 1958
'I was solitary before, but now my solitariness becomes complete and awesome. Hence the dizziness, like vertigo. Like a statue on a plinth—that is how I live now.'
POPE PAUL VI
Non credetti bene di scendere a desinare coi cardinali. Mangiai in camera. All'undicesimo scritinio, ecconmi nominato papa. O Gesù, anch'io dirò con Pio XI quando riuscì elettopapa: "Abbi pietà di me, o Dio, nella tua gra... (show all)nde misericordia". Si direbbe un sogno ed è, prima di morire, la realtà più solenne di tuttta la mia vita. Eccomi pronto, o Signore, "per morire insieme e insieme vivere|. Circa trecentomila persone mi applaudivano. I riflettori mi impedivano di vedere altro che una massa amorfa in agitazione.
PAPA GIOVANNI XXIII, annotazione sull'Agenda quotidiana, 28 ottobre 1958
Già prima ero solitario, ma ora la mia solitudine diventa totale e terribile, dà le vertigini. Come una statua sopra una guglia, ecco come vivo ora.
PAPA PAOLO VI - Dedication
- For Charlie
To Charlie - First words
- Even voor tweeën in de ochtend verliet kardinaal Lomeli zijn appartement in het Paleis van het Heilig Officie en liep haastig door de donkere kloostergangen van het Vaticaan naar het slaapvertrek van de paus.
Il cardinal Lomeli usci dal suo appartamento nel palazzo del Sant'Uffizio poco prima delle due di notte e attraversò in fretta i porticati bui del Vaticano, diretto alle stanze del papa. - Quotations
- Accese l'abat-jour e lesse qualche pagina dalle Meditazioni prima della celebrazione della Santa Messa di Guardini:
Se qualcuno mi chiedesse con cos ha inizio la vita liturgica, risponderei: con l'imparare il ra... (show all)ccoglimento...quel raccoglimento attento in cui può attecchire la parola di Dio. Dev'essere ragiunto prima che inizi la funzione, se possibile con il silenzio mentre si va verso la chiesa, ancor meglio con un breve periodo di meditazione la sera prima.
Ma come si raggiungeva quel raccoglimento? Quella era la domanda a cui Guardini non offriva risposta e, al posto del raccoglimento, man mano che la notte si trascinava lentamente, il rumore nella testa di Lomeli si fece ancora più insistente del solito. "Ha salvato gi altri, non può salvare se stesso". Lo scherno degli scriba e degli anziani ai piedi della croce. Il paradosso al centro del Vangelo. ll prete che celebra la messa ma non riesce a trovare la comunione.
"Io ti chiamo a gran voce, Dio, ma tu non mi rispondi." Nell'ultimo anno una specie di insonnia spirituale si era impadronita di lui, qualcosa di simile a un'interferenza che gli impediva di trovare quella comunione con lo Sp... (show all)irito Santo un tempo così naturale. E, proprio come accade col sonno, più si ambiva a una preghiera piena di significato, più questa diventava inafferrabile. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Hij kon de schoorsteen en de witte rook niet onderscheiden, maar alleen de bleke glans van het zoeklicht op het schemerige plafond, even later gevolgd door het verre gedruis van honderdduizenden stemmen die aanzwollen tot hoopvol gejuich.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Lomeli lasciò vagare lo sguardo lungo la canna fumaria fino al punto in cui questa usciva dalla finestra senza vetri nel cielo buio. Non riuscì a vedere il comignolo né il fumo bianco, solo il riflesso pallido del rifelttore sul soffitto, seguito un attimo dopo dal boato lontano di centinaia di migliaia di voci che vibravano di giubilo e di speranza. - Blurbers*
- Van Nieuwkerk, Matthijs
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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