# Fictional popes
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 4, 2021, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049 "2021-08-04T21:31:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/1 "2021-08-04T21:31:02Z")
I recently saw again the movie(based on a book) _The Shoes of the Fisherman._ Anthony Quinn plays a Russian priest, Roman rite, who becomes Pope Kiril.
I once read another book titled The Vicar of Christ, in which and American becomes pope as Francis I.
I also saw another film,can’t remember the title, in which the new pope gets accidentally locked out of the Vatican grounds and decides to not return immediately, instead kind of taking a walking tour of Italy. He does come back though.
What other fiction have you seen that has a pope invented for the story? There must have been more than these.
---
### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/2 "2021-08-04T21:33:33Z")
The Road to Gandolfo by Robert Ludlum. I think Godfather III featured the Pope at some point. And of course the HBO series The Young Pope and its sequel The New Pope.
---
### Author:  [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/3 "2021-08-04T21:35:16Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> I think Godfather III featured the Pope at some point.
My memory is that it was someone portraying John Paul I.
---
### Author:  [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/4 "2021-08-04T21:39:25Z")
It’s low-hanging fruit, but the HBO series, The Young Pope/The New Pope. Entirely fictional, but gad, what interesting pope interpretations.
---
### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/5 "2021-08-04T21:43:55Z")
On **The Closer** , J.K. Simmons plays Chief Pope.
(You knew someone was going to say it eventually.)
OK, here’s one for real: **Foul Play** has a fictional pope attending a **Mikado** performance in Frisco where a terrorist group is going to assassinate him.
---
### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/6 "2021-08-04T21:46:40Z")
There is, of course, the Space Pope.
[ ](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dT7tac9h8Gw/hqdefault.jpg)
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/7 "2021-08-04T21:52:06Z")
Robbie Coltrane in “The Pope Must Die”, simply credited as “the pope”.
> **[The Pope Must Diet (1991) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102691/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_57)**
>
> The Pope Must Diet: Directed by Peter Richardson. With Robbie Coltrane, Adrian Edmondson, Paul Bartel, Damir Mejovsek. A less-than-qualified and far-from-perfect priest is mistakenly named the new pope. As the pontiff, he must deal with Vatican...
---
### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/8 "2021-08-04T22:02:24Z")
Jurgen becomes pope (among other things) in James Branch Cabell’s satirical fantasy novel Jurgen, a Comedy of Justice.
---
### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/9 "2021-08-04T22:10:42Z")
If we count folklore, there’s Pope Joan. The legend says a woman hid her sex and rose through the ranks to become pope. She got pregnant, went into labor during a parade, was discovered by the masses and torn to pieces.
Clive Barker’s play Crazyface has the protagonist meeting a pope who is secretly a woman.
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/10 "2021-08-04T22:18:30Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> If we count folklore, there’s Pope Joan. The legend says a woman hid her sex and rose through the ranks to become pope. She got pregnant, went into labor during a parade, was discovered by the masses and torn to pieces.
There’s a movie about Pope Joan (made after a novel):
> **[Pope Joan (2009) ⭐ 6.7 | Drama, History, Romance](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458455/)**
>
> 2h 29m
---
### Author:  [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/11 "2021-08-04T22:20:53Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#):
>
> OK, here’s one for real: **Foul Play** has a fictional pope attending a **Mikado** performance in Frisco where a terrorist group is going to assassinate him.
I had thought he was an unnamed pope, and was supposed to be taken as being the current real-life pope, but IMDb and Wikipedia both list the role as Pope Pius XIII, so apparently he was indeed a fictional pope.
Interestingly, there was a real [Pope Pius XIII](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Pulvermacher), for some values of real. He was an antipope, elected by the schismatic, sedevancantist, conclavist “True Roman Catholic Church” in 1998, serving until his death in 2009.
---
### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/12 "2021-08-04T22:33:40Z")
Ah, Kojak - Bang bang!
---
### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/13 "2021-08-04T22:37:57Z")
My favorite of Anthony Burgess’ novels **Earthly Powers** has an English author based on Somerset Maugham recounting his relationship with a pope based on John XXIII
---
### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/14 "2021-08-04T22:52:13Z")
Dan Simmons’ _Hyperion Cantos_.
---
### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/15 "2021-08-04T22:54:11Z")
I just remembered- we meet a pope in The Quest For Saint Acquin. He’s a pious and good man who hides his fisherman’s ring in a hollow shoe heel because the Technarchy punishes Christianity (and Judaism) with death.
---
### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/16 "2021-08-04T23:00:55Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Dan Simmons’ _Hyperion Cantos_ .
I’ve always liked the idea of a “Pope Teilhard”.
---
### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/17 "2021-08-04T23:02:06Z")
There’s **Futurama’s** [Space Pope](https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Pope).
Also, there’s the “Joshua” series of books that could best be described as “Catholic religion porn” about a layman that is elected Pope, and it becomes clear that he’s the Second Coming.
---
### Author:  [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/18 "2021-08-04T23:09:56Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> There’s a movie about Pope Joan
There is also a musical produced by Michael Butler (who produced the original Hair)
The original production was done in Chicago in 1995 and started a young Cecily Strong (of SNL fame) as the young Joan.
> **[Pope Joan](https://variety.com/1996/legit/reviews/pope-joan-2-1200445483/)**
>
> Musical numbers: "Pope Joan Overture," "Holy Ghost One," "This Church Will Stand," "My Priest," "Holy Ghost Two," "A Sad and Tragic History," "The Englishman's Daughter," "Stand With Me," "Alone Together," "The Forum in Rome, " "The Healing," "Only...
---
### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/19 "2021-08-04T23:27:48Z")
Does the one in [Greenwich Village](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pope_of_Greenwich_Village) count?
---
### Author:  [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2021, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049/20 "2021-08-04T23:31:54Z")
> [@Baker](#):
>
> I also saw another film,can’t remember the title, in which the new pope gets accidentally locked out of the Vatican grounds and decides to not return immediately, instead kind of taking a walking tour of Italy. He does come back though.
I think you’re thinking of _Saving Grace_
> **[Saving Grace (1986 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Grace_(1986_film))**
>
> Saving Grace is a 1986 comedy-drama film directed by Robert M. Young, produced by Herbert F. Solow, and starring Tom Conti, Giancarlo Giannini and Edward James Olmos. It is based on a novel by Celia Gittelson with screenplay by Richard Kramer and David S. Ward under a different name.
> It was the last film to be distributed by Embassy Pictures.
> A year after his election, a youthful pope (Conti) longs to be involved in ordinary people's lives again, as he was when he was a priest.
> During an audie...
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-popes/948049.md?page=2)