“Let’s face it: ‘Conclave,’ which takes us to the heart of one of the world’s most mysterious and secret events, is a highly entertaining film, especially for an American audience that isn’t terribly picky,” Avvenire said on Dec. 20, when the film opened in Italian theaters and well before Francis got sick.
But the surprising success of “Conclave” the film and momentum going into 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, and put the Catholic hierarchy in something of a bind as it simultaneously prays for Francis.
But at the very least, the life-imitating-art coincidence of “Conclave” the movie finding mass popular appeal at a time when the world's media has descended on Rome to monitor Francis' health has certainly piqued interest in what might happen in a real-life conclave.
All of which 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.
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.
