The film Conclaves, between fiction and reality: what history says

In this feature film by Edward Berger, is the Pope’s election protocol faithfully represented on the screen?

I was extremely surprised because yes, most of the scenes show the reality of gestures and rites accomplished during a conclave which is above all a liturgical act. For example, the opening mass staged in the thriller corresponds to the mass of the Holy Spirit said just before the conclave. During this religious ceremony, the Holy Spirit is invoked so that by its virtues, it comes to light the cardinals in their choice to come. Contrary to what we sometimes hear here or there, it is not the Holy Spirit who chooses the Pope! But many men free from their choices inspired by the Holy Spirit. As for the Catholic faithful, they are called, during this period, to pray for the cardinals.

In the film, from the death of the Pope, certain gestures are accomplished in a very ritualized way. Do they correspond to what is done in reality?

These acts take place as we can see in the film. A doctor comes to see the death of the Holy Father and a report is then carried out. In the film sequence taking place in the pope’s room, the writers have however accelerated the temporality of an action a little: this moment when the Pope seal symbolically breaks (so that no false document can be produced during the period of “vacant”). The seal break is indeed accomplished at another moment, more precisely during the first particular congregation organized by Camerlingue with three other cardinals whose mission is to manage the current affairs of the church.

The general congregations began in Rome from April 22, 2025. This great assembly which allows to think about the future of the Catholic Church is however not staged in the film…

Indeed, and this is one of the two reproaches that I would make at this fiction. No doubt for scriptwriting reasons, the authors have hardly gave way to general congregations which nevertheless carry out very important preparatory work. Just before the conclave opening, they give off the main trends on the profile of the Pope to come

Can we bring the work closer to these congregations to a kind of electoral campaign?

Absolutely not. It is impossible to calculate the practices of the political world on those of the conclave. The term campaign is too profane, too offbeat in relation to what is lived in this universe imbued with spirituality. The goal of congregations is simple: they must list the great needs of the Church, and the world, in the present moment and for the decade to come. Depending on these needs, everyone tries to find the candidate most capable of responding to these challenges.

However, in the film, the spectator has the impression that an informal campaign is played out during the conclave. Conciliabules and private conversations around possible strategies and plots go well in the scenario …

Nothing prevents, before the conclave, that reflection groups meet during meals or in colleges to discuss. But during the conclave, there is no conciliabule. Everyone must speak out loud and, of course, do not plot. Going from one room to another to hold private conversations as we see in the film, it is not what is done. It is a cinematographic vision, very fictional. Intrigant and fantasized in many works, the conclave is, in reality, a very codified and ritualized moment. If the votes take place in the greatest secrecy, it is above all to ensure the independence of the cardinals. And if they are locked up, it is to accelerate their decision -making and the election does not drag in length.

The film features a religious world animated by various currents and influence games …

The different currents exist and there are of course Pope makers. Camps are created and opinions sometimes diverge. But the conclave is not a place of conflict. This is the second reproach that I would make in the film: it accentuates the opposition between progressives and conservatives far too much in the Cardinaux College. It is an overly simplifying vision. The current situation is not as caricatured as that. Many other subjects will determine the choice of cardinals voters: relations with the Chinese Church, synodality, international geopolitics, ecology … Cardinals voters are above all men of God who think according to their field experiences and theological approaches.

In the film, the election of the sovereign pontiff is then made according to precise and immutable rules …

Yes, everything corresponds perfectly to the rite of the election. In a sort of chiaroscuro, the filmmaker also films very well this moment when each vote is placed in the paten which makes him slip into the ballot box. Each stripped bulletin is then successively read by two people and announced by a third. It is then connected to the other ballots on a wire, with a needle. If the election itself is of course essential, the time for acceptance of the elected official is too. If there is no acceptance, there is no election. And this is well shown in the film. The conclave procedure is also detailed in the Constitution of the Vatican (to read here). Everyone can read it! The church is universal and its rites must be understood by all.