Life imitating art: Pope ill as ‘Conclave’ hits Oscars
VATICAN CITY—There has long been a Vatican taboo against openly talking about a conclave when a pope is sick: It’s considered gauche to speculate about the election of a new pope while the current one is fighting for his life. And that is certainly true as Pope Francis battles double pneumonia at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
But the surprising success of “Conclave,” amid the gathering momentum of Sunday’s Academy Awards have thrust the arcane rules, glorious ceremony and supreme drama of one of the Catholic Church’s most solemn moments into popular culture.
The film can’t be dismissed as distasteful or blasphemous—since it treats the gravity of a papal election with respect and accurately portrays the ancient rituals and contemporary problems facing today’s Catholic Church.
Rave reviews
Both the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano and the Avvenire daily of the Italian bishops conference gave “Conclave” rave reviews.
Granted, those reviews were published before Francis entered the hospital Feb. 14 with a complex lung infection that has taken him out of commission for the longest time of his 12-year papacy.
It’s unclear if the newspapers would have published them after Francis’ health took such a dire turn. That’s even more the case since it’s clear from the opening scenes in the Vatican’s modern Santa Marta hotel where Francis lives that “Conclave’s” fictional dead pope is modeled after the real-life current one.
Sensitive moment
Director Edward Berger’s adaptation of the Robert Harris novel, starring Ralph Fiennes as the dean of the College of Cardinals, has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Harris is well aware of the sensitivity of the moment. But he is adamant against trying to milk the moment for publicity.
To recap: the film opens with the death of the pope and turns around the political maneuvering and manipulations behind the election of his successor. Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Fiennes) is dean of the College of Cardinals, who must organize the conclave amid his own crisis of faith.
“I’ve been refusing all requests to talk about it and a future conclave because I think that’s in extreme bad taste,” Harris told The Associated Press (AP). “I really hope he’s got some more years yet.”
Pope Francis suffered a setback on Friday, after he inhaled vomit during a coughing fit and required noninvasive mechanical ventilation to breathe. (See related story in World, Page A8)
Creative liberties
All this has made “Conclave” the film a bit too close for comfort in more ways than one for anyone following Francis’ plight and concerned about what it means for the Catholic Church.
Massimo Faggioli, theologian at Villanova University, said the film was “sadly effective” in illustrating the institutional instability that the Catholic Church is going through now, as well as the ease with which a single act or allegation of misconduct can ruin someone.
For sure Berger takes some creative liberties. Cardinal Lawrence, for example, would have been excommunicated two or possibly three times for his efforts to navigate the intrigue, given the ban on communications with the outside world during a conclave and canon laws governing the seal of the confessional and the sealing of the papal apartments after a pope has died.
But this is Hollywood, and His Eminence can be forgiven.
