The Young Pope

Lenny Belardo is the youngest Pope in history but also the first American pontiff. His radical ideas could change the Roman Catholic Church, but underlying many of his choices is an ancient sorrow and a tormented relationship with his faith.

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. Fears that are confirmed by the new Pontiff’s first, bewildering speech to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square.

Lenny has shown that he is not the docile, easy-to-manipulate figure that the upper reaches of the Vatican hoped he would be during the Conclave. Ester, the wife of a Swiss Guard, is the first person to understand the new pontiff’s message.

Voiello believes that the only way to stop Lenny is to involve the Pope in a scandal. To obtain his objective, he blackmails Ester into seducing the Holy Father. In the meanwhile, Lenny continues to lay out his increasingly reactionary ideas.

Pius XIII indulges in a few hours of freedom outside of the Vatican walls in the company of his childhood friend Dussolier as he prepares to summon the cardinals to give them a message destined to revolutionize their concept of faith.

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.