The Shoes of the Fisherman

The Shoes of the Fisherman is a 1963 novel by Morris West, as well as a 1968 film based on the novel.

Plot

After twenty years in a Siberian labor camp, Kiril Pablovich Lakota, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lvov, is set free. He is sent to Rome, where the ailing Pope makes him a Cardinal.

Related Topics:
Lvov - Rome - Pope - Cardinal

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When the Pontiff dies, Lakota finds himself elected Pope. But as the new Pope, Kiril I, he is plagued by self-doubt, by his years in prison, and by the strange world he knows so little about.

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The world is in a state of crisis - a famine in China is exacerbated by U.S. restrictions on Chinese trade and the ongoing Chinese-Soviet feud. Can he find a solution before it is too late?

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A major secondary plot in the novel and the film is the Pope's

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relationship with a theologian and scientist, Father Telemond

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(Jean Telemond in the book, David Telemond in the film) who

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is clearly based on

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the controversial Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

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The pope becomes a close personal friend of Telemond, but to his deep

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regret in his official capacity must allow the Holy Office to censure

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Telemond for his heterodox views, and the shock combined with his

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chronic medical problems kills Father Telemond to the Pope's deep

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grief.

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