Speculation surrounding Conclave for the selection of a new pope is a traditional tradition. But for the imminent candidate after Pope Francis’ death, the Vatican armchair expert class is bulging thanks to Hollywood.
“Conclave” is a moody 2024 political thriller, the film “This Film” has a silver screen twist full of palace plots and surprises, but its horrifying rules and epic ceremony introduced many amateurs to the ancient process of choice.
Although there are critics, the film deals with the gravity of the Pope election – now in the spotlight after Francis’ Saturday funeral in Rome – honors and accurately portrays the many rituals and modern issues facing today’s Catholic Church. However, Vatican experts warn that the film doesn’t get everything right.
Let’s see that “conclave” is right and wrong about order.
Scenery and aesthetics
The film excels at recreating the look and feel of Conclave.
“The film tried to accurately recreate the Vatican’s Meisen scene,” said William Cavanault, a professor of Catholic studies at DePaul University in Chicago, in an email. “They show that a lot of drama is around pre-conversation between the Cardinals.”
According to Pastor Thomas Rees, a senior analyst at Religious News Services and Vatican expert, it is not a complete re-creation.
He called the film’s production value “great,” but there was a slight contradiction in the cardinal dress.
“The red on the cardinal clothing was deep red, but the reality was even more orange. Frankly, I like the Hollywood version.
Pope Protocol
The film coincides with real-life expectations for a rapid conclave, according to Massimo Faguioli, a professor of historical theology at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
“The long conclave divides the church’s message, perhaps on the crisis of division. The steady history of the last century is a truly short story of conclusions,” he said in an email.
Reese pointed out other contradictions. The voting process was accurately drawn, but he said that the votes were usually two votes after each session, not after each vote.
Hole of the Holy Plot
There are some particularly terrible errors that lead to very different movies if fixed.
A key character in the film, Afghanistan Archbishop of Kabul arrives just before Conclave with documents declaring that the late Pope had made him a cardinal “at Pechtor” – “secret” – he allows him to vote for the next Pope.
“The biggest mistake in the film was that Pechtor’s Cardinal would enter the Conclave,” Reese said. “If a name not published by the Pope in front of Cardinal of University, he has no right to attend Conclave.”
Kavanaugh agreed, saying that the film’s twist on Archbishop of Kabul is exaggerated but pointed to a specific truth about the conclusion.
“The Cardinals don’t always know who gets when they elect the Pope,” he said. “If the Cardinals had known how (Jorge Mario) Bergolio would be similar to Pope Francis, many of them would not have voted for him. Pius I was elected as a liberal and became a grand documentary conservative.
Another film’s dimier storyline is when the dean of Cardinals University breaks the seal of confession and reveals what he confessed to him to another cardinal, Reese said.
“He would commit a fatal crime and be automatically excommunicated. Such actions would be grossly wrong,” Reese said.
Plus, as shown in the film, Cardinal payments for votes are unprecedented in modern times, Kavanaugh said, and politics is exaggerated.
And so is politics.
Kurt Martens, a Canon Law professor at the Catholic University of Washington, said the film was incorrect in making the Cardinals a liberal or conservative champion.
“These labels don’t help us,” he said. Because the Cardinals are extremely cautious about expressing their views, “even those who we think liberal cardinals are pretty conservative by secular standards.”
He added that even in an unusually large conclave like this year, the rule that calls for the next Pope is to win at least two-thirds of the vote.
Associated Press authors Giovanna Dell’orto and Nicole Winfield contributed to this report.
