Theologian on 'Conclave' accuracy, expectations for next secretive event after Pope Francis' death
Though controversial, one of the least contentious 2025 Oscar-nominated films was "Conclave," an Edward Berger-directed mystery thriller starring Ralph Fiennes, Isabella Rossellini and Stanley Tucci, which brings to life the political and religious traditions regarding how Catholic cardinals elect a new pope.
The conclave will gather again in actuality as the Vatican revealed that Pope Francis, 88, the leader of the Catholic Church, passed on April 21, 2025, the day after Easter Sunday.
Though released in October 2024, "Conclave" struck a deep chord with viewers as Pope Francis’ declining health was made known to the public in February 2025. Pope Francis battled bilateral pneumonia in the months before his death.
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The film closely follows the novel of the same name written by author Robert Harris.
"That was fairly accurate," Dennis Doyle, professor emeritus at the University of Dayton in Ohio, told Fox News Digital.
Doyle taught at the Catholic research university for 40 years.
"There were just a few differences, like some of the Latin wasn't exact, the carpet was red in the movie and its beige in real life," Doyle said. "The seating arrangements were done very dramatically in the movie. They're not exactly that way in real life. And even the way the voting was done was not exactly the same."
Despite the creative liberties, Doyle felt the film was "done very accurately."
"I was surprised at how well it was done and how they were able to present the characters in a way that every character in a certain sense was sympathetic," Doyle told Fox News Digital.
In preparation for the film, Doyle read the book twice.
"In the book, the character was transgender but didn’t go through with the operation," Doyle said. "In the movie, the character was intersex, somebody who was born both ways, but still who didn't go through with the operation."
Some Catholics took to social media at the time the film was released to regard it as "anti-Catholic" and "dishonest".
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"I thought that everything in the movie was very realistic until the very end," Doyle said. "I thought that, on a literal level, it really wasn't very realistic. I don't think that would happen, that somebody that was intersex would get elected pope. But symbolically, I thought the ending was very interesting."
"I could see that the ending could be a turnoff for some Catholics," he added.
Doyle said that, while "kind of far-fetched," the film spoke to the question of the role of women in the church and whether the Catholic Church can become equal to men and women.
"In the film, all of the people serving the cardinals are sisters," Doyle said. "They're all nuns and in real life, in that building, there's simply a staff that works in that building, and they would be the people who would put out the meals and who would change the beds and that kind of thing."
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The deeper issue, Doyle said, is that the film portrays men in leadership roles and women as servants.
"The conversation about transgender is relatively recent [in the church]," Doyle said. "I really think that the conversation is more in the United States and Europe than it is in the Catholic Church globally or even necessarily in Rome."
The Vatican released a declaration, Vatican's Dignitas Infinita, in 2024 where Pope Francis condemned gender theory. The document asserted that attempts to alter an individual's immutable gender are ultimately misguided attempts to play God.
"You could watch this whole movie and until the last two minutes it's not an issue in the film. It doesn't really come up. There’s a couple of foreshadowings of what the conclusion is going to be, but the movie is not about that," Doyle said.
Following Pope Francis' death, Doyle believes the newly released film will generate interest in the Catholic Church.
"It may make people more aware that there is a lot of politicking that goes on and that is an interesting theme in the movie and in the book," he said. "I don't think it will really have any impact on how people think about the church other than to maybe in general, it makes the ideal 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.