Posted on 04/27/2011 8:10:30 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
(RNS) In its new Sunday night series, The Borgias, Showtime has found the magic combination for ultimate crowd appeal in a scintillating soap opera about a bad-boy pope.
The Borgias follows the quasi-historic story of the Spanish noble family who, with the ascent of Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI in 1492, brought a nighttime-television-style era of debauchery to the papacy.
The Borgias were infamous for simony — buying and selling church offices and sacraments. In their case, they bought the papacy through bribery and coercion.
But don’t forget the sexual promiscuity, bribery, double-crossing, incest, blackmail, murder, poisoning and all manner of unabashedly sinful behavior.
The debut episodes of The Borgias on Sunday (April 3) opened with scenes of intrigue and titillation. Called to the death bed of Pope Innocent VII, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons) plots to become the next pope by any means necessary.
Meanwhile, his eldest son Cesare (Francois Arnaud) — an 18-year-old bishop of the church — and his fetching paramour engage in an athletic sexual encounter while his adolescent sister Lucretia (Holliday Grainger) watches through an open window.
Some viewers likely went scrambling to Wikipedia to look up the Borgias during those opening scenes, curious about these cardinals (and popes) who had lovers and children. According to the series, Borgia had numerous children by several mistresses; Pope Innocent VIII fathered a dozen offspring as well. In the 15th century, at least according to The Borgias, it was commonplace for Catholic clerics to have mistresses and large families despite their vows of celibacy.
At a time when stories of clergy sex abuse still regularly make international news, naughty popes and Catholic leaders behaving badly might strike a certain resonance with viewers, if fueled by nothing more than a sense of schadenfreude.
As the debut episodes unfold, Rodrigo buys his way to the throne of St. Peter; a cardinal is poisoned at a lavish dinner with other princes of the church; another cardinal is framed for murdering a chambermaid in his bed; and a traitorous assassin is paid to do the Borgia family’s dirty work.
But wait, there’s more: the new pope uses a tunnel from the Vatican to the villa of the murdered cardinal for regular rolls in the hay with his new mistress; his old mistress, meanwhile, promises to remain chaste now that the father of her children occupies the papal throne.
In short, the papacy has rarely looked worse than it does in The Borgias. And maybe that’s part of its appeal.
Not surprisingly, the arrival of the tawdry papal soap opera in the middle of Lent did not go unnoticed by the New York-based Catholic League, the perennial defenders of any and all perceived pop culture assaults directed at the Catholic Church.
In recent statements, Catholic League president Bill Donohue questioned why Vatican officials hadn’t formally protested The Borgias.
“For one thing, Catholics are used to being slammed by Hollywood, so The Borgias hardly shakes them,” Donohue said. “Catholics don’t expect perfection from (their) clergy. This, however, is beside the point. The most immediate issue is why Showtime decided to gift Catholics with this series during the Lenten season.”
An obvious answer is that this is the high season for all things spiritual. During Lent — with its fasting, abstaining, ashes, rituals and holy days — religion is a hot topic.
The Catholic Church is an evergreen for pop culture clashes. There’s something about Catholicism that seems to lend itself so well to film and television and capture the popular imagination with a kind of passion that, say, Presbyterianism or Lutheranism don’t.
“Well, for one thing it’s colorful — literally. All those cassocks and albs and miters and vestments makes for visually arresting television,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Catholic priest and prolific author of titles such as A Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.
“It’s the combination of power, money, religion, sex and sin. That’s almost unbeatable television, even if it’s not altogether historically accurate.”
Catholicism has that certain something that makes it well suited to vivid (and sometimes controversial) media depictions, said Tom Beaudoin, associate professor of theology at Fordham University.
“Catholicism offers an unusually compelling mix of qualities that is well-suited for media culture: its taste for the ritually spectacular, its evident culture of secrecy, its elicitation and denial of erotic and homoerotic experience, its historic enmeshment with secular power,” Beaudoin said.
“As everyone now knows, this is a tradition both beautiful and dangerous and that makes for compelling media today.”
Beyond all the high church hedonism, there seems to be something else that keeps viewers tuning in to a can’t-look-away car crash like The Borgias. Maybe it’s really all about us, and not them.
“There’s a fascination with the sins of the powerful, whether it’s Henry VIII or the Borgias,” Martin said. “It may make viewers feel that our sins aren’t so bad: we sin from time to time, but at least we’re not poisoning our relatives.”
While the Showtime production may be interesting I usually don’t watch the historical novel type of story. Just a personal preference.
I’ve read more than a bit about the time and find all the excusing and apologies as fascinating as the story its self.
Thanks for the link!
Give me your hand and I’ll take you through it s l o w l y and c a r e f u l l y.
??? "non-issue" ???
Really?
Every Catholic church historian I know of thinks that Alexander VI was a scumbag, and that his scandalous & reprehensible behavior was one of the waystations on the path to the reformation.
That's not a "non-issue," sorry, and you lose credibility by saying stuff like that.
This is an excerpt from the account of the death of Pope Alexander VI.
“On Friday, the 18th, between nine and ten o’clock he confessed to the Bishop Gamboa of Carignola, who then read mass to him. After his communion he gave the Eucharist to the Pope who was sitting in bed. Then he ended the mass at which were present five cardinals, Serra, Juan and Francesco Borgia, Casanova and Loris. The Pope told them that he felt very bad. At the hour of vespers after Gamboa had given him extreme unction, he died.”
Christian teaching is clear when a man repents and confesses his sins those sins are lifted from him and forgiven. Whether it is at the last minute or whether it is a daily the result is the same. Jesus forgives those sins. Yes according to Catholic teaching the soul will spend time in purgatory before entering heaven. Yet even in Protestant teaching there is no suggestion that sincere repentence and confession does not lift the burden of sin from the soul. That Jesus forgiveness of sin is ever incomplete and the person still hazards hell (I mean confession of the dying where there is no chance to commit more sins).
So chew on this. According to historical fact Pope Alexander confessed his sins. I accept that he was sincere and that he received forgiveness. That means this base, corrupt, sinful, scandalous man is now with Christ in Glory. (I’ll assume his time in Purgatory is finished.) He shares in the unending hymn of praise and on the last day will share in the ressurection of the dead.
Christ loves this sinner and forgave him out of that love. Did Alexander deserve forgiveness? When measured against the price Christ paid for those sins we must answer no. But when measured against the love Christ has for us we realize deserve does not enter into this equation.
I am a sinner. Just because by the rules of men my sins are less scandalous does not mean I can forget the price paid for them. Our default judgment without the merits of Christ is hell.
Christ is risen and He trampled death. Only by this are we given hope of heaven. His mercy and His love and His grace are not mine to boast of but to be humbly grateful for.
So wax all superior that Catholics have this great sinner in their closet (more like a greenhouse). Me I’ll just be humbled that grace is not held back from even the most base sinner should he approach God with a contrite heart.
VERY WELL PUT.
EXCELLENT POINTS.
THX.
Given that the tolerance and protection of the abusive priests was nation wide and typical of the majority of the bishops one can only suppose the bishops acted upon established and understandably unwritten Church policy.
In contrast to Papist Bigots?
I am on the ping list an I read nearly every one. I rarely comment because I don't see lies about the Church go unchallenged.
It is interesting to note who self identifies as an anti-Catholic.
Well and Biblically put, I think.
Agreed.
Not all Lutherans.
The LCMS and others don’t follow the slide the ELCA has.
Post #30, AM: I don't find you having posted even a single thread on the subject of abortion in your entire history on FR. For the record, here's a sampling of mine.
Post #37, NL: ....I don't need to when my work and that of the Church is boldly, and too often completely alone in defense of Life. You posted some threads on abortion. BFD (Big Fat Deal)
I'm so sorry I've disappointed you yet again. Am I going to have to stand before you at the Last Judgment, like count-your-change has to?
You fell away from the True Church and we pray for your swift reconciliation and return to the flock of the Faithful.
More importantly, we know that the True Church has a place in your heart and your soul.
We welcome your inevitable return to the Holy Church.
When did my "falling away" happen? What parish(es) did I attend beforehand? And if I "come back", will I be required to resign my commission in the God Squad?
I don't think you can lose something that has already been lost.
I think you overestimate yourself.
I myself, and I'd bet that a few others here feel this way, just think of the usual suspects the same way I think of DU posters. In other words, just sad strange people to be pitied.
For a certainty when called to judgment I won't pull out a list of all the “good” things I've done, marching in demonstrations, signing petitions and claiming I fought “the good fight” all alone.
Nor will I have to explain why I called the perverted “Brother” and “Father” as though part of them.
You: I think you overestimate yourself.
I stand corrected. While I still live inside of their heads, some have made attempts at extorting rent.
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