Theologian on 'Conclave' accuracy, expectations for next secretive event after Pope Francis' death

Though controversial, 1 of the slightest contentious 2025 Oscar-nominated films was "Conclave," an Edward Berger-directed enigma thriller starring Ralph Fiennes, Isabella Rossellini and Stanley Tucci, which brings to beingness the governmental and spiritual traditions regarding however Catholic cardinals elite a caller pope.

The conclave volition stitchery again successful actuality arsenic the Vatican revealed that Pope Francis, 88, the person of the Catholic Church, passed connected April 21, 2025, the time aft Easter Sunday.

Though released successful October 2024, "Conclave" struck a heavy chord with viewers arsenic Pope Francis’ declining wellness was made known to the nationalist successful February 2025. Pope Francis battled bilateral pneumonia successful the months earlier his death.

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In the film, "Conclave," starring Ralph Fiennes, Isabella Rossellini and Stanley Tucci, cardinals stitchery to elite a caller pope. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

The movie intimately follows the caller of the aforesaid sanction written by writer Robert Harris.

"That was reasonably accurate," Dennis Doyle, prof emeritus astatine the University of Dayton successful Ohio, told Fox News Digital.

Doyle taught astatine the Catholic probe assemblage for 40 years.

"There were conscionable a fewer differences, similar immoderate of the Latin wasn't exact, the carpet was reddish successful the movie and its beige successful existent life," Doyle said. "The seating arrangements were done precise dramatically successful the movie. They're not precisely that mode successful existent life. And adjacent the mode the voting was done was not precisely the same."

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Pope Francis was elected pope successful 2013, aft Pope Benedict XVI stepped down from his relation owed to wellness concerns. (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

Despite the originative liberties, Doyle felt the movie was "done precise accurately."

"I was amazed astatine however good it was done and however they were capable to contiguous the characters successful a mode that each quality successful a definite consciousness was sympathetic," Doyle told Fox News Digital.

In mentation for the film, Doyle work the publication twice.

"In the book, the quality was transgender but didn’t spell done with the operation," Doyle said. "In the movie, the quality was intersex, idiosyncratic who was calved some ways, but inactive who didn't spell done with the operation."

Some Catholics took to societal media astatine the clip the movie was released to respect it arsenic "anti-Catholic" and "dishonest".

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Dennis Doyle, prof emeritus astatine the University of Dayton, told Fox News Digital the Oscar-nominated movie "Conclave" was "fairly accurate" to the proceedings of a existent conclave. (Yara Nardi/Reuters)

"I thought that everything successful the movie was precise realistic until the precise end," Doyle said. "I thought that, connected a literal level, it truly wasn't precise realistic. I don't deliberation that would happen, that idiosyncratic that was intersex would get elected pope. But symbolically, I thought the ending was precise interesting."

"I could spot that the ending could beryllium a turnoff for immoderate Catholics," helium added.

Doyle said that, portion "kind of far-fetched," the movie spoke to the question of the relation of women successful the religion and whether the Catholic Church tin go adjacent to men and women.

"In the film, each of the radical serving the cardinals are sisters," Doyle said. "They're each nuns and successful existent life, successful that building, there's simply a unit that works successful that building, and they would beryllium the radical who would enactment retired the meals and who would alteration the beds and that benignant of thing."

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Catholic cardinals volition stitchery for a papal conclave successful the weeks pursuing Pope Francis' decease connected April 21, 2025. (Arturo Mari, Vatican Pool)

The deeper issue, Doyle said, is that the movie portrays men successful enactment roles and women arsenic servants.

"The speech astir transgender is comparatively caller [in the church]," Doyle said. "I truly deliberation that the speech is much successful the United States and Europe than it is successful the Catholic Church globally oregon adjacent needfully successful Rome."

The Vatican released a declaration, Vatican's Dignitas Infinita, successful 2024 wherever Pope Francis condemned sex theory. The papers asserted that attempts to change an individual's immutable sex are yet misguided attempts to play God.

"You could ticker this full movie and until the past 2 minutes it's not an contented successful the film. It doesn't truly travel up. There’s a mates of foreshadowings of what the decision is going to be, but the movie is not astir that," Doyle said.

Following Pope Francis' death, Doyle believes the recently released movie volition make involvement successful the Catholic Church. 

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"It whitethorn marque radical much alert that determination is simply a batch of politicking that goes connected and that is an absorbing taxable successful the movie and successful the book," helium said. "I don't deliberation it volition truly person immoderate interaction connected however radical deliberation astir the religion different than to possibly successful general, it makes the perfect of the conclave interesting."

"Conclave" was nominated for a slew of 2025 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and won for Best Adapted Screenplay.