30 solid followers

 

"Pope Michael" is a somewhat peculiar documentary released in 2011. It´s quite boring and dragging, and deals with a small New Religious Movement in Kansas which also turns out to be quite boring. Surprisingly so, since the NRM in question claims that their leader is the true pope! Yes, really. Pope Michael I, to be exact, named after the avenging archangel. Michael is now deceased, but he was very much alive when the docu was made. 

Pope Michael was elected at a "conclave" of only six people, two of which were apparently his biological parents. In the documentary, he still lives with his old mother. They eat dinner together and watch Jeopardy on TV. Sometimes, a follower of Michael joins them at the dinner table. The pope cracks a joke about potatoes...

The Kansan pope admits that he only has about 30 solid followers. In the docu, we only meet two of them: the mother and the other guy at dinner, who has been ordained a priest by Michael.  We also learn that an academic who studies new religions was almost turned down by Michael´s father when he showed up unannounced at the family home. Why, you need an appointment to see the pope!

At one point, Michael´s little group organize a meeting in a small Kansan town to promote their message. The meeting is relatively well attended, but most of the speakers turn out to be critical, either of Michael´s papal claims or of Christianity in general. A Catholic priest angrily declares that the real Pope is in Rome and is elected by cardinals. He also questions Michael´s right to ordain priests. 

The whole thing feels so bewilderingly normal and Middle American that it´s almost impossible to take seriously. As in: are they hiding something? I don´t know, gold bars, cash, Satanic bibles?! After the documentary was made, Pope Michael I must have expanded his flock somewhat, since a new conclave was held after his death...in Vienna (yes, Wien in Austria) where a group of dissident Filipino Catholics elected a successor, also a Filipino, who took the name Michael II. Are you even following? Not sure how many solid supporters the new anti-pope has, but perhaps a bit over 30. 

The world, and perhaps Kansas, is a strange and wonderful place.