Act I, Scene 1
1966. The curtain is up. The play begins with a short series of quick-flashing rear-projection slides of scenes and personalities: FDR, Hitler, Stalin, scenes of World War II, the Holocaust, the Vatican. Music accompanies the slides – perhaps an excerpt from one of the great masses set to music. Slides and music end abruptly. Light up on set. Corso is leaning against the table, smoking a cigarette. His papers are scattered over one end of the table. Enter Orsini from door, stage right. He is carrying a briefcase and balancing a small tray with a pot of coffee and some Italian-style coffee cups.
ORSINI
Good morning, Joseph.
CORSO
(nods) Morning.
(Orsini sets the tray and his large briefcase on the table. He opens His briefcase and sets out carefully organised manuscripts, documents and notes in neat order on the table, at the other end from Corso’s papers. Making a face at the clouds of cigarette smoke in the room and waving it away with his hand.)
ORSINI
You really should give up the habit.
CORSO
(with a laugh in his voice) One of many, Silvano, one of many.
ORSINI
I mean for your health, my friend.
CORSO
(sourly) Yeah. You know, there’s a movement back in the States to ban smoking in public places.
ORSINI
Is that so? Will it succeed, do you think?
CORSO
Nah, not a chance.
ORSINI
Why do you say that?
CORSO
We went through Prohibition, back in the 1920s. Americans got a bellyful of all that save-you-from-yourself crap.
ORSINI
(smiles, but his word is serious) Pity. (Pause.) Have some coffee. I’ve brought lots of sugar. Most Americans like it sweet.
CORSO
(helping himself to a cup) Thanks. Not me, Silvano. My father loves his coffee bitter, like in the old country. (He takes a sip.) Just like this. I acquired the taste from him.
ORSINI
And how are your parents? Have you talked to them recently?
CORSO
Yeah, I called them two days ago.
ORSINI
You should get back to the States to visit. As they say, “time flies.”
CORSO
I’d like to meet your dad sometime. How long was he a lawyer here in the Vatican?
ORSINI
Forty years. Why?
CORSO
That’s quite a career!
ORSINI
And his father served here as an attorney, and my great-grandfather also.
CORSO
Quite a tradition! My compliments!
ORSINI
Thank you.
CORSO
But you became a priest.
ORSINI
Yes, I had the calling. (Finishing his cup.) Shall we begin?
CORSO
Sure. Why are we starting with his housekeeper?
ORSINI
(shrugs) We have to begin with someone, and Sister Birgidt was more than his housekeeper. Much as we tried, we have no order in the witnesses. We have to rely on their good will to come here to Rome. It is strictly voluntary on their part, of course. All the Church can do is pay for their trips.
CORSO
Yeah, okay.
(Orsini exits door, stage right, and returns a few seconds later with Birgidt.)
ORSINI
Sister Birgidt, this is Father Joseph Corso. (Sister Birgidt extends her hand to Corso, who shakes it.)
BIRGIDT
How do you do.
CORSO
A pleasure, Sister.
ORSINI
Please, Sister Birgidt, be seated. (All sit at the table.)
ORSINI
(to Birgidt) Some caffè, Sister? Or a glass of acqua minerale?
BIRGIDT
Water, please.
(Orsini pours her a glass of water.)
ORSINI
Do you mind if we record our interview?
BIRGIDT
No.
(Orsini turns on the tape recorder.)
ORSINI
Sister, this is an informal interview. There are those who have put forth the name of our late pope, Pius the Twelfth, as someone who might be beatified, and, subsequent to that, if it were to happen, perhaps canonized by the Church as a saint.
BIRGIDT
(looking pleased) I understand.
ORSINI
Father Corso and I are investigators – of a kind. We have been instructed to investigate whether there is reason for Pius the Twelfth to be beatified.
BIRGIDT
(looking dubiously, almost disdainfully, at the two priests) You two are to be the judges of this?
ORSINI
We are to make recommendations only, not definitive judgements, of course.
BIRGIDT
(cautious) I see.
ORSINI
We play different roles in the inquiry. As Postulator, my mission is to determine whether there is evidence that Pope Pius exhibited Christian theological or moral virtues to any heroic degree, or any extraordinary degree. These are requisites for beatification. And Father Corso has the role that has been traditionally called “Devil’s Advocate.” That means he is to develop a case, if he can, as to why Pius the Twelfth is not deserving of beatification.
BIRGIDT
(shooting Corso a dirty look. In return, he smiles mischievously at her) I see.
ORSINI
Good. Then tell us, Sister, what was your relationship to Pope Pius the Twelfth?
BIRGIDT
I managed his household. From 1917 to 1958. He was a bishop when I began. He was part of the Vatican Secretariat, a diplomat. He needed someone who could organize his affairs, someone who spoke languages.
ORSINI
How many languages do you speak, Sister?
BIRGIDT
In addition to English? German, naturally, I am German. Italian, French, Latin.
CORSO
My compliments, Sister Birgidt, that’s very impressive.
BIRGIDT
Thank you.
ORSINI
(to Birgidt) You managed everything in the Holy Father’s personal household? All the staff, the servants, his personal calendar?
BIRGIDT
Yes, everything. There was much to do. You see, His Holiness was devoted to his work – strictly devoted. And he read a great number of books – I could hardly keep him supplied! History, international law, canonical law, politics, natural sciences. He worked day and night, you see, even in his apartments. Seventeen hours a day!
CORSO
You must have gotten to know him real well, then? All those years ...
BIRGIDT
Yes, I was blessed to know His Holiness well.
CORSO
When you say you kept his calendar, did this also include protecting his time, and his privacy?
BIRGIDT
Naturally. People were always after him for some thing or other. He himself asked me to ... to see them first ... to ...
CORSO
... To screen them?
BIRGIDT
Yes. But the Holy Father loved people! All these stories that call him “aloof,” “cold,” “austere” – perfect nonsense! If I had left him to his to instincts, he would have been exhausted by people.
ORSINI
How did the Holy Father show that love?
BIRGIDT
He would listen to people. I mean truly listen! He told me once, “If someone is telling you something, it is important to him. We must learn to understand why it is important.”
ORSINI
A great skill he developed as a diplomat?
BIRGIDT
Yes, but more. His Holiness listened with his heart! Always with his heart. (She gets up and holds out her hands to Orsini, who, ready to oblige her, gets up and reaches out his own hands.) Often, he would take people’s hands and hold them in his own, like this, to encourage them. (She demonstrates, holding both of Orsini’s hands between her own for a moment. Then she lets go, and she and Orsini sit down.)
BIRGIDT
Sometimes, really quite often, he would weep at what people told him! And he smiled too, when they were happy. He had a gracious smile, and such beautiful eyes! The photographs never captured his eyes – because of the thick eyeglasses he wore. His eyes were so kind! Angelic! But his eyesight was poor – so he needed glasses. There is a proverb in German, Muss is ein harde nuss. Meaning necessity is difficult to avoid.
CORSO
Like you, Pope Pius was a linguist, wasn’t he?
BIRGIDT
Much better. He spoke several languages – expertly!
CORSO
And of the many languages he had mastered, which language did he choose as the language of his household?
BIRGIDT
(with some pride showing through) German.
CORSO
Why was it that this linguist, this Italian man, preferred German?
BIRGIDT
He spent thirteen years in Germany, as Papal Nuncio.
CORSO
But afterward, after leaving Germany, and during his pontificate, was German still his language of choice?
BIRGIDT
Yes.
CORSO
Why?
BIRGIDT
He admired the language. And he admired German culture and the German people.
CORSO
What did he admire in them?
BIRGIDT
He admired the precision of the German language. As to the German people and culture, he loved German music, and the industriousness of the German Volk, and their orderliness and efficiency. And also their many accomplishments.
CORSO
He admired these things generally, didn’t he? I mean industriousness, efficiency, order, accomplishments. And he embodied all these qualities in himself?
BIRGIDT
Yes, he succeeded in this.
CORSO
Great qualities, great qualities. Sister, something just gelled in my mind. During this past year I’ve spent studying his life, I’ve looked at hundreds of pictures of him.
BIRGIDT
(cautiously) Yes?
CORSO
I’m struck by his gestures. I mean there’s hardly a photograph in which he’s not ram-rod straight ... standing or sitting ... or praying ... or holding out his arms ... or raising his right hand in the “teaching” gesture. Or raising his eyes to Heaven. His gestures were, well, precise.
BIRGIDT
So then? The Holy Father was a devout and dignified man, truly so – the most dignified man I’ve ever known!
CORSO
He wasn’t posing then?
BIRGIDT
(offended) No!
CORSO
We have an expression in America, about someone “bucking for a job.”
BIRGIDT
Job? What job?
CORSO
I don’t know – Saint, maybe?
ORSINI
(admonishing) Joseph ... Joseph ...
BIRGIDT
(angry) That is rude and unfair!
CORSO
(conceding) Maybe you’re right, Sister, maybe it is.
BIRGIDT
(righteously insistent) There is something you should know about the Holy Father! All his life, his health was delicate. Since childhood. But he overcame this – through great will, through discipline! He was without peer in these qualities. So he learned to discipline his body. (Looking at Corso’s belly.) And not only how he ate. (Corso pulls in his gut.) He trained his body to become stronger through his posture – perfect posture. And in the manner of his speech too. What his detractors call his “cold” manner. As a child he stammered – what’s the word ... ?
CORSO
... “Stuttered?”
BIRGIDT
Yes, “stuttered.” This too he conquered through discipline. He learned to speak very deliberately. That is the reason for his manner of speaking, which his enemies call “cold” and “arrogant,” and other ugly names. They turn great virtues into flaws.
CORSO
Hmm, that’s very interesting. Sister Birgidt, I can’t help but wonder, how do you know all this? Did the Holy Father tell you himself?
BIRGIDT
No, no, I was told long ago, just after I first began in his service, by a relation of his, an older man on his father’s side, who has long since died.
CORSO
I see. Muss is ein harde nuss – I get it now. Very admirable! I mean that sincerely. Thank you for sharing that with us. It helps me greatly in trying to understand the man. (He bows his head to Birgidt, Birgidt bows her head slightly, in return.)
CORSO
You’ve helped me to see he was a man of great inner resources – will, determination, discipline. Remarkable. Dignity. Compassion – in the literal sense, the ability to feel others’ emotions.
BIRGIDT
All that is so.
CORSO
May I ask you a question about something else? Something that may cause you pain in recalling?
BIRGIDT
About His Holiness? Yes, that is why I am here.
CORSO
Thank you, Sister. Could you describe to us how Pope Pius died?
BIRGIDT
He died as he lived – devoutly and courageously! I will gladly tell you of it. His fragile health was weakened by his constant work. I became alarmed early on. I prayed to the Holy Virgin for his health. And I was inspired by his example. He prayed on his knees for hours, by himself, a true mystic.
CORSO
You say “mystic?”
BIRGIDT
Yes.
CORSO
I’ve read that he liked to go down into the crypt below the Vatican where popes of the past are buried, and that’s where he liked to pray.
BIRGIDT
That’s true, yes. He sought inspiration from his predecessors. He was very aware of the long magisterial tradition of Mother Church.
CORSO
I see, his was an exalted piety, then?
BIRGIDT
(stiffly) I don’t know what you mean..
CORSO
Never mind then. But let’s go back to his death. Of what did he die?
BIRGIDT
I told you, he had worn out his delicate health.
CORSO
Yes, but what, specifically, was the medical cause of his death?
BIRGIDT
I am not a doctor. You have access to his medical records, I presume.
CORSO
Yes. They describe a rather unusual series of events. It seems it began with a dental problem His Holiness had. He ...
BIRGIDT
(interrupting Corso) ... A periodontal condition. It was a periodontal condition.
CORSO
Thank you, yes it had do with his gums. They were softening? (Pause. Corso looks to Birgidt, but she does not respond. He then continues.) Well, it seems His Holiness underwent a rather unusual treatment. In fact, one that was rather bizarre. (He looks at Birgidt, who remains silent.) It seems a doctor gave him injections in the gums and the pallet of his mouth. Rather unusual injections, made up of tissue from fresh-killed lambs. And this turned the poor man’s gums and mouth as hard as shoe leather. It caused him uncontrollable hiccups, making it impossible to eat, and very hard to breathe, until he finally died from this suffering. Is that correct? (Birgidt nods.) Very sad. And unusual. I’m no medical man, so I called a dozen specialists, in Europe and America. They were unanimous in their opinion. The treatment was pure quackery, crude and stupid quackery.
BIRGIDT
Surely you don’t blame His Holiness for the incompetence of his physician?
CORSO
Well, Sister, I’ll tell you how I see it. I think Eugenio Pacelli was a life-long hypochondriac. Understandable, I guess – many of his ailments seem to have been real. But I think he became obsessed by them. He was a big reader, as you said, at least in certain areas, including medicine. Overcome with his anxiety, he read of the quack treatment and asked for it.
BIRGIDT
And if that was true, so ... ?
ORSINI
Sister has a point.
CORSO
In itself, maybe nothing. But I see a pattern. A self-absorbed man. Alone, despite his great prominence. Self-isolated. His judgement clouded by his life-long isolation, which he adopted to protect himself against a dangerous world ...
BIRGIDT
... That is preposterous! You twist everything!
ORSINI
Forgive me, but I think Sister Birgidt is right!
CORSO
Is she? I remember that in his last years he began making speeches. Based on his reading, he made speeches in which he presumed to be an expert on many topics. And because he was pope, many people took him seriously – “If the Pope says it, there must be something to it!” He set himself up as an expert in astronomy, and lectured on sun-spots. As a obstetrician, and lectured on techniques in that field. I’ve sent copies of His Holiness’ speeches to experts around the world. They advise me that although he was in some respects knowledgeable, he was far from an expert in these fields, and in some cases really was mistaken, even foolish. Sounds to me like a man whose judgement was greatly impaired by his anxieties and self-isolation. Doesn’t it?
ORSINI
(to Corso) But all this was in his last years, as you say. His deteriorating health may have taken its toll. But the views before then were sound. All of his major positions and actions were taken long before then. His intellect at those times was brilliant – even his strongest critics concede that.
CORSO
He was brilliant, there’s no doubt about that. But I’m talking about judgement. That flows from personality, and that’s much larger than intellect. His life-long habits resulted in his behavior during the time he was pope.
ORSINI
(laughs) Joseph, you are indulging in the wellknown American weakness for psychoanalysis. Pius was not your patient, even if you were a psychiatrist. You will have to do better than that. As Devil’s Advocate, you’ll have to show Pius’ judgements were wrong on theological, or moral, grounds.
CORSO
(to Orsini) Just trying to understand the man. (To Birgidt) Tell me, Sister – my German is not what it should be – isn’t there a word in the language that covers feeling about emotion, instead of actually feeling the emotion?
BIRGIDT
What? You are talking nonsense!
CORSO
You know what I mean. Pandering to sentimentality. But developed into an art form – sometimes taking in the artist as well as the beholder?
BIRGIDT
Nonsense!
CORSO
Oh, it just came to me. The German word – Kitsch! Yes, that’s it. Isn’t that it, Sister?
ORSINI
(to Corso) You cannot know Pacelli’s heart! How can you know his was not true compassion with others’ feelings?
CORSO
The only way we can know anyone’s feelings. From what he’s done over a long time, and what he didn’t do. That’s all I’m opening up.
ORSINI
Then let us reserve judgement until we’ve considered his whole life.
CORSO
(to Birgidt) Sister, let’s go back to the time shortly after you went into Eugenio Pacelli’s service, back to 1919. He and you were in Germany then, right?
BIRGIDT
Yes, Archbishop Pacelli was the Papal Nuncio there. He was there by assignment to negotiate a concordat with the State of Bavaria, which he did, and brilliantly so! And then he went to Berlin, to negotiate a concordat with Germany. Again he succeeded brilliantly! In fact, Kaiser Wilhelm II said Archbishop Pacelli was the “perfect model” of an envoy of the Pope. Those were his very words.
CORSO
Is that right? Well, Sister, do you recall – I’m sure you do – a threat made in Munich at gunpoint?
BIRGIDT
Yes!
CORSO
Can you tell us about it?
BIRGIDT
There was a group of Bolshevik revolutionaries there – very violent! One day, there was fighting in the streets. Some of them came to our building to confiscate our car. When Archbishop Pacelli protested, one pressed the muzzle of a rifle right up against his chest and threatened to shoot him.
CORSO
Were you frightened, Sister?
BIRGIDT
Yes, this was a very violent group!
CORSO
Was Archbishop Pacelli frightened?
BIRGIDT
He was ... upset.
CORSO
Upset? A communist revolutionary came close to killing him, and he was just “upset?” (Pause. Birgidt doesn’t answer Corso.) Didn’t Eugenio Pacelli have recurring dreams about this incident for the rest of his life?
BIRGIDT
I don’t know anything about that.
CORSO
Do you remember the name of the leader of the terrorist group?
BIRGIDT
It was Max Lieven.
CORSO
Did Archbishop Pacelli say anything about this Max Lieven? About him personally?
BIRGIDT
He said he was a most revolting young man.
CORSO
And the others in the group?
BIRGIDT
Also the same.
CORSO
Sister, are you aware of the report Archbishop Pacelli sent to Rome about the incident?
BIRGIDT
(caught off guard) No.
CORSO
Oh. Let me read parts of it to you. (He goes to his mess of papers and without searching lifts one from the pack. Birgidt shoots Orsini a look of surprise that Corso is more organized and more in control of things than she had assumed. Orsini is not surprised.) Archbishop Pacelli describes several of the group as “Russians.”
BIRGIDT
(nodding) That is true, they were mostly Russians.
CORSO
Yes? Okay, then. Archbishop Pacelli then goes on to describe Max Lieven as, and I quote, “a young man, of about thirty or thirty-five, also Russian and a Jew. Pale, dirty, with drugged eyes, hoarse voice, repulsive, with a face that is both intelligent and sly.” End quote. Tell me, Sister, did Archbishop Pacelli use such language to you about Max Lieven’s Jewishness?
BIRGIDT
No!
CORSO
Did he ever use such language – any language of disparagement about Jews – at any time when you knew him?
BIRGIDT
No, never! He was speaking of one man in that report. He was describing one man only!
CORSO
Well, Sister Birgidt, that’s not quite so, You see, he goes on to describe others in Max Lieven’s group as, and again I quote, (He reads from the letter.) “a gang of young women, of dubious appearance, Jews like the rest of them ... with lecherous demeanor and suggestive smiles.”
ORSINI
(to Corso) You’re reading too much into that! That was just common language of the time in Europe – and from what I’ve read, in America too. Newspapers, everyone, carelessly used such language. It meant nothing beyond the thoughtlessness of the time. Nothing!
CORSO
But Archbishop Pacelli was not just “everyone.” He was absolutely fastidious with his words. He went to great efforts to get the nuances of every word just right, especially in writing. He was famous for it!
BIRGIDT
(agitated) Let me tell you once and for all! Pope Pius was not an anti-Semite! It is as Father Orsini says – that language was just the convention of the time. Everyone used it. It proves nothing – it means nothing!
CORSO
Well, tell me, Sister, did you use such language back then? (Birgidt doesn’t answer.) Did you mean anything by it, Sister?
ORSINI
Now you’re oppressing this poor woman! Our inquiry is about Pope Pius, not about her. You are not the prosecutor in some American court.
CORSO
(mocking Orsini’s earlier use of the word) No, I’m not. Pity.
BIRGIDT
I tell you, again! Eugenio Pacelli was not antiSemitic. If you don’t believe me, you may ask the man who was his closest advisor and confidant during his pontificate ...
CORSO
... Cardinal Giovanni Montini?
BIRGIDT
...Yes.
CORSO
Good suggestion, Sister. He’s a man of legendary integrity. But not a very practical idea, is it, seeing that Montini’s now Paul the Sixth, our present pope.
BIRGIDT
Fortunately for you! You would not dare suggest such slanders if the Holy Father were here! (Corso looks at Orsini, but Orsini does not return the look. Orsini stares straight ahead at a wall. Light fades to black.)