The secretive process to elect a new Roman Catholic pope begins on May 7, two weeks after Pope Francis’s death at age 88.
Fans of the Oscar-nominated movie, “Conclave”, which is about a papal election, might think they have a head start on what’s to come. But how faithful is the movie to the real thing?
Conclave tells the story of Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, dean of the College of Cardinals, played by actor Ralph Fiennes. Lawrence is tasked with leading a papal election or conclave after the pope dies. As the conclave continues, secrets and scandals emerge involving cardinals in the running to be pope.
PolitiFact’s occasional MovieFact feature reports on the accuracy of nonfiction films, typically comparing their details with historical events. “Conclave” is fictional, but we decided to examine what the movie gets right and wrong about the real process for choosing the next pope.
“Conclave” sticks close to the logistics of a real papal election, but takes more liberties with how its characters participate in one. As dean, Cardinal Lawrence makes decisions that would not be permissible in a real-life conclave.
The movie “does a fair job” of depicting conclave procedures, said B. Kevin Brown, Gonzaga University religious studies lecturer. But Brown had some notes. Referring to the sets and costumes, Brown said some cardinals wore Roman collars that “are not entirely correct”, and the Mass held before the conclave appeared to have no altar, a raised structure used for ceremonies. Some of its storylines have no public precedent in the Catholic Church’s history.
We compared movie scenes with conclaves and cardinals’ real-life controversies.
‘Conclave’ is mostly right on balloting, smoke colours, typical conclave lengths
After a pope dies, the College of Cardinals assumes governance of the Catholic Church. These cardinals, chosen by popes, serve countries around the world. Only cardinals under the age of 80 can be electors.
The conclave that begins on May 7 will have 133 electors from 71 countries. Two more electors are eligible but will not participate for health reasons.
Before the conclave, cardinals gather for meetings called “general congregations” where they discuss the Catholic Church’s priorities. The conclave takes place at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, as the film showed.
The balloting shown in the film is largely accurate, based on the process outlined by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Electors vote by secret ballot, walk up to a chalice – which is a large goblet – say a prayer and drop their ballots in the chalice. They conduct four rounds of balloting per day until a candidate receives a two-thirds majority. Ballots are burned after each round with chemicals that produce coloured smoke to signify whether a pope has been chosen – black smoke means no one has been elected and white smoke means the Church has a new pope.
In the movie, it takes the cardinal electors three days to elect a pope. That’s consistent with recent history; Brown said conclaves in the past 100 years have lasted three to four days. According to a History.com article, “no conclave has lasted longer than a week” since 1831.
In the movie, Cardinal Lawrence routinely violates conclave rules by receiving outside information
The movie shows Cardinal Lawrence communicating with Monsignor Raymond O’Malley (played by Brian F O’Byrne), asking him to check into things such as the pope’s final meeting with Cardinal Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), and medical history of Cardinal Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz). After the cardinals feel tremors in the Sistine Chapel, O’Malley later tells Lawrence there has been an explosion in the Piazza Barberini, a large plaza in Rome.
Brown said receiving information about events happening outside the conclave “would violate the rules of the conclave”.
Cardinal electors are sequestered throughout a conclave, and have no access to phones, television or other ways to be in contact with the public.
A cardinal named ‘in pectore’, or in secret, would not be allowed to join the conclave
In the movie, Benitez, described as the archbishop of Kabul, Afghanistan, makes a surprise entrance. He was selected as a cardinal “in pectore” – or in secret – by the pope who died. Senior cardinals debate whether Benitez should be allowed to join the conclave, and Cardinal Lawrence ultimately decides he is “legally a cardinal” and “has a right to take part in the election”.
In a real conclave, it would be impossible for a cardinal whose identity was not revealed before the death of the pope who appointed him to join the conclave.
Canon law, the Catholic Church’s system of laws and regulations, says a pope can select a person to be a cardinal and keep that person’s identity secret. As long as the cardinal’s identity is not revealed, the cardinal in pectore is not bound to carry out cardinal duties but also does not possess cardinal rights, such as participating in a conclave.
“This may be done, as the movie suggests, for safety reasons in situations where the cardinal’s appointment may put him at risk due to the political situation where he resides,” Brown said.
If a cardinal in pectore did not have his appointment made public before the death of a pope, Brown said, the cardinal’s status would expire and “he is no longer considered a cardinal, even if the name of the cardinal is discovered in the will of the pope or some other writing after his death.”
This happened in real life: Pope John Paul II selected four cardinals in pectore, revealing only three, from China, Ukraine and Latvia, before he died. The other cardinal’s appointment expired when John Paul II died in 2005.
Cardinals would try to learn about scandals before the conclave, but rumours happen.
In the movie, Cardinal Joshua Adeyemi (played by Lucian Msamati) and Tremblay emerge as frontrunners to become pope during the balloting, but their ambitions are quashed as Lawrence brings findings about their past to light. Adeyemi had a secret relationship and possibly fathered a child, and Tremblay was accused of simony, or what Brown said involves the “sale of an office”.
In practice, cardinals try to snuff out controversies and scandals before the election.
“There is certainly politicking that takes place and the cardinals will do their best to be sure that no cardinal associated with scandal is elected,” Brown said. “However, it is likely that the cardinals would do their best to identify any scent of scandal before the conclave begins.”
For example, in real life, Cardinal Angelo Becciu resigned his cardinal rights and privileges in 2020 and was convicted of financial crimes in 2023; he claimed he could still vote in the 2025 conclave because Francis did not bar him from participating. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Roman Curia’s secretary of state, revealed two letters from Francis saying that Cardinal Becciu could not take part in the conclave, according to reports in Italian media.
This happened during general congregation, Brown said, when cardinals are not sequestered.
It is “not unheard of for cardinals to try to raise doubts about a candidate who they oppose”, he said.
It happened to Francis – then known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
As Francis gained momentum during the 2013 conclave, “rumours began to circulate that he had only one lung,” Brown said. Francis recounted the episode in an interview for a book published in 2024. When a cardinal asked Francis if the rumour was true, he said he had part of his lung removed after a respiratory infection more than 50 years before.
