[cj]

I saw the movie recently as well.

It’s the first time I’ve encountered any information about how a new pope is selected. Period.

As a not-dumb person, I realize it’s just a movie. But the basic premise of being cordoned off from the outside world, voting until someone is chosen, with the voting going on for days and signaled through smoke by burning the ballets - I assume that basic premise is at least mostly accurate?

Edit: Indeed, after some basic googling, the premise of the movie seems to line up with the basic premise of how a pope was selected centuries ago.

[olddustytrail]

I haven't seen the movie, but I have read the book a couple of years ago, published in 2016, and I presume you could get the same information from there.

It's not really a secret how a pope is chosen, it's just not something most people are interested enough to look up (there's a missing "in" in that sentence but I couldn't decide where to put it).

Robert Harris wrote the book and also wrote Fatherland, Enigma and Pompeii. Those are three different books but I'd definitely read a book with that single title.

[coffeeaddict1]

The premise of the movie is obviously real. I don't think anyone would debate that. I was referring to the portrayal of the political and social dynamics of the process and the views of the Catholic Church.

[aprilthird2021]

I was of the impression there are conservative and liberal factions within the Church, and that electing the Pope is a time that that division comes out? No?