2016 · Based on 1 season, 10 episodes through November 18, 2016 · · Italian
Lenny Belardo becomes Pope Pius XIII after older cardinals choose him as a compromise. He is a young American leader who hides his face, demands strict control, and shocks the Vatican with harsh rules. His power struggle with Cardinal Voiello and his former mentor, Cardinal Spencer, grows beside his search for the parents who abandoned him. The story moves through the Vatican, New York, Honduras, Africa, and Venice, and its tone mixes dark humor, sex, mystery, and serious questions about God.
The season's clearest identity content begins with a dream in which Pius praises abortion, contraception, gay marriage, married priests, and women saying Mass. The dream ends, and Pius later fights those changes, blocks gay men from entering the priesthood, and treats abortion as a crime. Gay Cardinal Gutierrez challenges that rule and becomes Pius's trusted secretary after Pius starts to soften. The season also attacks Church abuse and secret power, while its ending treats prayer, miracles, forgiveness, and faith as serious forces.
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Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Young Pope.
Woke representation / casting
Not present. The main cast is mostly Italian, European, and American, which fits the Vatican setting and the invented story. Women hold visible roles as a nun, a marketing director, and a married laywoman, but the show does not frame those choices as a diversity message.
0%
Woke political dialogue
Pius's opening dream praises abortion, contraception, gay marriage, married priests, and women saying Mass. The story immediately reveals that this speech is only a dream, and Pius later argues for the opposite rules. The Italian prime minister briefly supports civil unions and research, but most later debate attacks modern liberal changes.
16%
Identity-driven story themes
The season repeatedly ties Church power to sex, marriage, abortion, and homosexuality. Pius blocks gay men from entering the priesthood, while Cardinal Gutierrez and Cardinal Dussolier show how the rule affects people close to him. Gutierrez says homosexuality must not be compared with child abuse, and Pius later admits his views are changing by making Gutierrez his secretary. The show also includes a protest over Pius's abortion rule, but it does not make modern identity activism the whole story.
43%
Western institutional / cultural critique
The Vatican is shown as a closed power machine where cardinals trade favors, use blackmail, and protect their jobs. The season treats the Church's handling of child abuse as a serious moral failure through the Kurtwell case. Pius's harsh rules also hurt people, including a young man denied entry to the seminary. The story still treats prayer, miracles, and faith as real possibilities, so its criticism is strong but mixed.
41%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The show uses an invented Pope and an original Vatican story. It does not change a known character, real historical figure, or established source character.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Not present. No sustained anti-woke complaints were found in the X evidence or broader coverage. Right-leaning and Catholic viewers often praised the traditional pope, while other complaints focused on blasphemy, sex, smoking, or strange style.
0%
Creator track record context
Paolo Sorrentino has a mixed record and is better known for stories about faith, power, corruption, and public institutions than for DEI activism. His title interview described loneliness, solitude, and private pain inside a powerful Church, not a diversity campaign. The other credited writers and producers have mixed public records, with some social concerns and some queer-related work. This gives moderate context but not a strong activist signal.
31%
Production
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