Michelangelo’s enormous The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is undoubtedly one of the most famous paintings in art history. During the two conclaves I was able to attend (2005 and 2013), I had time to contemplate it. Christ, the judge of the world, is at the center. To his right, the saved ascend to heaven; to his left, the damned are dragged down to hell by devils. Countless visitors to the Vatican Museums stand amazed before this masterpiece every day. Do they believe that it will really be like this one day, heaven and hell? Do I believe – not theoretically but quite soberly – that one day it will be decided for me too: eternal happiness or eternal damnation? Did Michelangelo himself believe what he depicted? Among those damned to hell, he included cardinals of his time. Was this malice on the part of the artist toward the powerful figures of the church?

Fifteen hundred years earlier, someone asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”