Theological Trends Column
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[Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for Conclave.]
Conclave
Directed by Edward Berger
Written by Peter Straughan and Robert Harris
Produced by Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Michael Jackman, Alice Dawson, Robert Harris
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Rossellini, Lucian Msamati, Carlos Diehz, Brian F. O’Byrne
(FilmNation Entertainment House Productions, 2024)
Feature Film (PG)
“One sin I fear above all others,” adjures Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the prelate whose task it is to organize the election of a new pope in the movie Conclave. The audience in the theater didn’t draw a collective breath, except for a subdued snore from the person a row over from me who had fallen asleep as soon as the first scene ended. What is that great sin? “Certainty.” “Faith is living,” he explains, “because it walks hand in hand with doubt.” “Let us pray,” he concludes, “for a pope who doubts.”1
Conclave is an adaptation of Robert Harris’s 2016 novel by the same name.2 The film is well paced and visually rich with intriguing dialogue and stunning cinematography. For a church lover such as myself, the movie delivered on aesthetics at least. The meticulous attention to vestments, the gorgeous replica of the Sistine Chapel, the very beautiful pens used for the ballots, the satisfying clunk of the thick, almost luxurious paper falling into the metal pot while each cardinal intoned an oath, the nuns’ habits billowing as they moved across the square, waiting for news, made the two hours fly by pleasurably. And yet, for a movie about church politics, the glaring omission of the purpose for which the church exists doomed the project to failure.
Politics All the Way Down. The film opens with Cardinal Lawrence rushing to the bedside of the dying pope. He, Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), and the villainous Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow) kneel in prayer, the shadows of death flickering over their faces. The pope breathes his last, and the ring is rather brutally removed from his finger and the seal and ring destroyed. None of the men in the room appear to trust each other. Lawrence is bowed down with the burden of arranging the conclave,3 a task made more onerous and painful as he gradually discovers that Tremblay is not being open and honest about the substance of his last audience with the Holy Father. Was it a friendly meeting? What was said and by whom?
The pageantry of cardinals arriving from all over the world, their elegant robes and little red skull caps seem to press on Lawrence’s very brow. He is measured and patient, and yet occasionally lashes out when the pressure becomes too much. We discover that he has been, for some time, losing his faith and had already attempted to resign as dean, but the pope had denied his request, having doubts of his own.
Everything is further complicated when social justice warrior Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz) arrives late from the dangerous region of Kabul bearing documentation that he had been elevated to the rank of cardinal just before the pope’s death, and that his appointment had deliberately been kept secret. Lawrence determines the paperwork to be legitimate and admits him to the conclave.
Meanwhile, the votes begin to be cast. Ballot after ballot is taken without any minds being changed. In between votes the cardinals politic and negotiate with each other. Gradually Bellini loses support, and the African cardinal, Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), begins to gain a majority. That is until a nun serving dinner one evening recognizes him. Lawrence is thus able to uncover Cardinal Tremblay’s plot to expose Adeyemi for his sexual licentiousness. Lawrence breaks the seal of the pope’s chamber and digs out some papers secreted in the bed frame. He suffers no consequences for this breach and is able to get Tremblay out of the running.
Just when Lawrence is about to cast a vote for himself, having believed Benitez that doubt is a proper foundation for the church to endure into the uncertain and precarious future, a suicide bomber detonates himself so near the Chapel that some of the windows are blown through. All the cardinals are covered in fine dust and decamp to the safety of the Vatican movie theater. There, in the gloom, a showdown between the horrifying traditionalist Tedesco and the peace-loving Benitez finally shifts the consensus, and Benitez wins the final vote.
Lawrence goes to Benitez privately to discover why he was sent away for medical leave at the pope’s personal expense and learns that Benitez is intersex, having both male and female organs. He had been going to have a laparoscopic hysterectomy to remove the female parts but changed his mind because, in the immortal words of the zeitgeist, “I am as God made me.” Lawrence, of course, keeps this precious piece of information to himself, and the movie ends as Benitez chooses for himself the name Pope Innocent XIV.
Let Us Pray. As the story spun on, it began to dawn on me that something essential was missing. All the politics, vestments, and intrigue were there, but where was the part for which the church exists? The part where individuals come together as one body to worship Christ? You know, the bit where all the cardinals go to “church” and listen to the readings and hear the sermon and partake of the Eucharistic feast? Cardinal Lawrence on his knees alone by his bed trying to figure out how to pray is not really how this would go if it were to be believable. The only churchy bit in the whole two hours is when Lawrence stands up to deliver his sermon wherein he explains that the greatest sin is certainty. His certainty on this point is ironic and also manifestly a lie, since he is completely sure that it is okay for the entire papacy to rest not only on his doubts about the existence of God and the Church, but also on a secret that, known or unknown, would render the validity of the sacraments null and void.
To get a true sense of what it would be like to be a Catholic cardinal in a conclave — as one who is frequently on the margins of long, fraught ecclesiastical gatherings — long cinematic shots of prayer in the context of liturgical worship would be essential. But if they had done that, they would have had to cope with the fact that people go to church to commune with a Being beyond themselves, one who has His own thoughts, who has the capacity and right to make laws that govern not only the choice of the next pope but the whole world.
Just considering the realm of current political machinations, there are actual reasons beyond mere bigotry that women aren’t admitted to the Roman Catholic priesthood. That is that Roman dogma teaches that the person celebrating the mass is standing in the place of Christ to offer the bread and wine as the sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Biological realities, for the Roman Catholic Church at least, really do matter.
The omission of worship — something Roman Catholics are particularly good at — breaks the narrative framework that makes the story believable. It is also a way of telegraphing that those making the film really don’t know what they’re talking about. They ultimately dissipate valuable intrigue and tension by taking the easy way out — everyone should just be more authentic about who they feel themselves to be.
The Power of the Holy Spirit. Anyone can abuse power to gain status and position. The trouble with cardinals doing it is that it becomes hypocrisy. The kind of God they serve is one who left all that, stepping off His heavenly throne, leaving aside His glory and power, and coming down into the ruin of our estate to rescue and redeem us. When the church abuses power, it isn’t just evil, it tells a deep lie about the nature of God — that He is a liar, that He is faithless, that He doesn’t care what you do in the bedroom.
Of course, we know, with certainty, that popes and cardinals lie, everyone does. But we also know that God, however long it takes, corrects and purifies the church, drawing it back to Himself over and over, out of error and division and into truth and concord. Christians through time have understood that when the church gathers in synod to make decisions, though each member is a sinner and bound to err, the Holy Spirit leads and guides. Councils and synods and, yes, even monthly vestry meetings and bi-annual Provincial Assemblies down the ages have protected the church from heresy — Christological heresies, Trinitarian ones, and, more recently, anthropological ones. Divisions over Scripture and the purposes of the church have rent apart Christians who feel in their bones that they ought to be worshiping the Lord Christ together. On this side of the grave, we endure those divisions often out of faithfulness, all the while longing for a time when they will be no more.
In Conclave, however, the whole point of cardinals gathering appeared to me to be utterly lacking. Of course, we know that the Roman Catholic Church, like all churches, is rife with politicking and error, and yet we know that God is sovereign and powerful, able to pour out the hearts of His servants in whatever direction He will. Leaving God out of it makes the whole exercise boring and predictable. —Anne Kennedy
Anne Kennedy, MDiv, is the author of Nailed It: 365 Readings for Angry or Worn-Out People, rev. ed. (Square Halo Books, 2020). She blogs about current events and theological trends on her Substack, Demotivations with Anne.
NOTES
- Conclave, directed by Edward Berger, written by Peter Straughan and Robert Harris (New York: FilmNation Entertainment, 2024).
- Robert Harris, Conclave (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016).
- A conclave is “the gathering of the world’s Catholic cardinals, after the death of a pope, to elect a new pope.” “Conclave,” Glossary of Catholic Terms, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2024, https://www.usccb.org/offices/public-affairs/catholic-terms.
