The Shoes of the Fisherman Page #9

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 Kiril

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 Kiril 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 incredible...

- 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...

...for a tinkling cymbal.

Though I have all faith...

...so that I could 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.

All 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.

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