VATICANOPOLY
Article from First Things, A Journal of Religion, Culture and Public Life, Icons & Curiosities, 4/23/09
It’s “a hybrid of Monopoly, Risk and Clue—with a bit of theological Chutes-and-Ladders thrown in for good measure,” says one player. According to The Tablet,
During the course of their careers, players “Take a Stand” on weighty theological and moral issues, including contraception, clerical celibacy or the campaign to have the Virgin Mary proclaimed co-redeemer. The race begins as soon as the previous papacy ends, sometimes in bizarre circumstances. “The Pope dies when the popemobile rolls over after hitting a truck carrying bananas. Your earlier warnings that the popemobile was unstable are now seen as evidence of your sound judgement and you gain additional support,” reads one card.
Players must seek to climb the ladder to spiritual perfection while simultaneously avoiding the “Cesspool of Sin,” by not, for example, committing the “Sin of Gluttony: at a papal banquet, you have three helpings of cannelloni.” . . . But when it comes to the conclave itself, other cardinals will be waiting for you to slip up: “Your tendency to fall asleep during meetings becomes a cause for comment”, one card reads, while another simply says: “Your poor command of Latin is noted and commented on by a number of cardinals—minus 10 votes.”
What they’re talking about is Vatican: The Papal Election Board Game, and the weird thing is that it sounds much more historically accurate than the usual run of, say, popular books on the topic. I’m not sure how the game fits in the intercession of the Holy Spirit—dice rolling doesn’t seem quite to capture that—but, sure, I’d give the game a try.
First Things Magazine: A Brief History
First Things is a monthly magazine with a circulation of around 33,000 published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life. Both the institute and its magazine were founded by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009), one of America’s seminal religious commentators. He was a Lutheran minister, but converted to Catholicism in 1990.
First Things can be considered the conservative counterpart to such thoughtful liberal magazines as The Nation. Its distinguished contributors include Antonin Scalia, Michael Novak and George Weigel as well as a number of Catholic bishops and cardinals. Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have written articles for the magazine. Its editorial board includes Mary Ann Glendon, US Ambassador to the Vatican (2007-2009). Although articles are written by Jews and Protestants most authors are Catholic and it can be said that the magazine presents a mainly Catholic point of view firmly aligned with positions taken by the church on issues such as abortion, stem cell research, ordination of women and gay marriage.
There can be little doubt that First Things and its founder Fr. Neuhaus have had an influence in the American public sphere far greater than the magazine’s modest circulation would indicate. The magazine is an important contributor to conservative thought in the US and Fr. Neuhaus himself was an unofficial advisor to President George W. Bush on a whole range of religious and moral issues. In 2005, Time Magazine named Neuhaus one of the “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America”.
The designer and publishers of the VATICAN: The Board Game set out to simulate and represent as faithfully as possible the contemporary Catholic Church and its selection of a Pope and are especially pleased to appear in the online edition of First Things. Like the magazine itself, the Vatican board game is respectful of a range of viewpoints, is careful in its presentation of facts and presents fundamentally Catholic positions on a variety of issues.
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