Thoughts on a Vatican Historical Fiction Novel

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Maximilian75

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So, essentially, Benedict XV (1914) never becomes Pope.
Instead, a far more aggressive Cardinal who wants to restore the Papal states and then some comes to power. When WW1 breaks out, he forges an alliance with the Western Powers, who don’t really give him a second thought. He secretly recruits an army from Italians, Irishmen, Poles, and other oppressed Catholic nationalities, and then takes back Italy and breaks the trench deadlock.

Or maybe even have the Papal States survive the Italian unification and then fade into the background until WW1? I dunno.

Absurd? Not realistic? Decent?
I don’t even know if I’ll do anything with this haha
 
Not absurd but unrealistic. Trench warfare was only “broken” thanks to Canadian advances in combined arms which at the beginning of the war was not known. I don’t think the Vatican would have that kind of military technology and I don’t think the Pope could get enough men from expats.

Decent story line besides that though. Just work on how he would break trench warfare because even when Italy joined the war, they were not able to do that.

Does the Pope have a secret weapon?
 
i wouldn’t put my plan on an international forum for someone else to run with. best to keep your ideas close to your vest.
 
Interesting thought, but the idea of secretly training an army might be hard to swallow. WWI armies were massive. In order to actually make a meaningful difference, it would have to be tens of thousands of men. Hard to train and equip all that with no one noticing.

Like I said, cool idea though.
 
If you put some Scottish Jedi’s in there, the Old Colonel would certainly read it. 😎
 
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Entwhistler said:
don’t think the Vatican would have that kind of military technology
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I mean, this is fiction 😃
And, again, if no one is thinking the Vatican will actually do anything, and their membership in the Western powers is just symbolic, then Germany would have no one to defend an attack from the south…
Entwhistler said:
I don’t think the Pope could get enough men from expats.
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I’ve also been thinking keeping the Papal States intact, which would give the Vatican some military force
 
Base it off the “fact” that the Knights of Columbus are actually the Papal Militia 😂
 
Well, the only problem with fiction is some (insert your favorite low intellect person here) will read it and insist it’s actual history. Like they did with The DaVinci Code.
🙂 🙃 ☺️
 
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I think that there is too much fiction about the Holy Father as it is.
 
Historical fiction can be really fun to read, but that is when it follows actual history. My experience is that alternative histories, what you are contemplating, rarely work, if ever. Its just too hard to make an alternative historical narrative work. Its like telling one lie, then telling another lie to cover that lie, then telling a third lie so it all makes sense, and on and on and on. Sooner or later, and typically sooner, the lies just don’t make sense and people don’t believe any of what you are saying.

On top of that, keeping the Papal States in tact, would require that there be no Italian nation, lots of smaller states. That would get complex really fast. As others said, the armies were huge, you want the source of the armies to come from the Papal States, well most Catholic countries were already in the war. The men were already in another army (perhaps Spain would be the exception).

The actual role of the Vatican, in trying to bring peace during WWI was quite interesting, you could develop a historical fiction on that account.
 
tafan2 said:
On top of that, keeping the Papal States in tact, would require that there be no Italian nation, lots of smaller states. That would get complex really fast
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I wouldnt think so… I was thinking that the Vatican would have negociated it retain mist of the Papal States, while allowing Italy a corridor to allow the rest of unified Italy to stay connected to itself.
 
What about connections to EU?
You’re forgetting Juncker! Juncker won’t forget you! 😃
 
I’m not into fiction when it comes to Catholicism or Christianity in general.

I read “Joshua” years back when everyone was raving about it, when it first came out.

What I saw was the author setting up according to his own agenda, who were good guys and who were the evil pharisees. Of course the Magisterium were the Pharisees who persecuted Joshua who was actually Jesus.

The authors of such books define who are the bag guys and who are the good guys. Of course, they’re writing the book so they see themselves as siding with the good guys.

Jim
 
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