Real conclave was nothing like the film, says cardinal

The conclave to elect Pope Leo XIV was “fraternal” in atmosphere without the high drama of the award-winning film of the same name, a cardinal on the inside has said.

Conclave, released late last year just months before the real-life secret meeting of cardinals in Rome this week, imagined the tension, bureaucracy, twists and turns behind the secret meeting to elect a new leader of the Catholic Church.

But Cardinal Vincent Nichols, leader of Catholics in England and Wales who was taking part in his first conclave, insisted reality could not have been further from the silver screen drama.

He told reporters in Rome on Friday, a day after the election of the new Pope, the experience had been “refreshing” and he found it difficult to leave.

He said: “I found it very refreshing and I found it more like going on a spiritual retreat than anything else.

“There was this sense of here was something of a sacred space and within that space it was possible to, at a very profound level, just be myself.

“So actually by the time we were coming to lunch today there was quite a bit of me didn’t want to leave because there was something to be deeply treasured in the fraternity and in the prayerfulness of it.”

The film, based on the novel by Robert Harris, focuses on British actor Ralph Fiennes as the Dean of the College of Cardinals who must contend with scheming clerics and threats from outside as he tries to find the best person to take over the papacy.

Also starring Hollywood actors Isabella Rossellini, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, the film picked up four Baftas for outstanding British film, best film, editing and an adapted screenplay prize for British writer Peter Straughan – who also received an Oscar for his work.

But while there were scenes of cardinals gathering in groups as they pitched for one candidate over another, Cardinal Nichols, from Liverpool, indicated this had not been the case this week.

While the 133 cardinals cast their votes behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, they were sequestered a short distance away in the nearby Santa Marta guesthouse.

Cardinal Nichols said there was no sense of pressure among them during that time.

He said: “I went into each meal and just sat down where there was a chair, next to whoever it was. I didn’t get a sense of people trying to gather in clusters or in pressure groups or any of that.

“And at no point did I feel there was the slightest bit of rancour or somebody trying to promote themselves or even block somebody else, unlike the film.

“I think this was a very, very lovely and congenial and fraternal time together. And I think every cardinal would attest to that, even those who didn’t disagree particularly with the drift of things.”