“Conclave” the film gives a gripping, if fictional, behind-the-scenes look inside the secretive election of a brand new pope. But final 12 months’s real-life conclave was simply as dramatic, with lots of plot twists, political battles amongst cardinals and a shock final result.
A brand new guide lifts a lid on how, in May 2025, Pope Leo XIV was elected as the primary US-born pope within the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year historical past. Its authors inform in beforehand unheard element how Cardinal Robert Prevost, a low-key Augustinian friar from Chicago, had quietly garnered assist from fellow cardinals because the conclave bought underway however remained below the radar of wider consideration as a severe candidate.
Gerard O’Connell, the Vatican correspondent for “America,” a Catholic journal based mostly in New York, and Elisabetta Piqué, a correspondent for Argentina’s “La Nacion” newspaper and a NCS contributor on the 2025 conclave, describe how an Italian frontrunner light from competition whereas offering a breakdown of the voting contained in the Sistine Chapel. They additionally report how the election of Prevost caught many abruptly, together with senior figures within the Vatican. For years, the prospect of an American pope had appeared not possible as a result of of the “military, economic and cultural power” of the US, one cardinal advised them.
O’Connell and Piqué, a husband-and-wife reporting workforce, have been longtime pals of Pope Francis, who had baptized their two kids in Argentina whereas nonetheless a cardinal there and later additionally married the couple.
The guide, “The Election of Pope Leo XIV: The Last Surprise of Pope Francis,” attracts on interviews with quite a few cardinals.
Using these sources, the authors describe how within the tense days main as much as the conclave, a battle took place contained in the College of Cardinals: Should they vote for a pope to proceed the legacy and reforms of Francis, or make a course correction? As O’Connell and Piqué set out, with every contributing their very own diary-style entries to the guide, efforts to elect a pope who would go in a special course to Francis have been thwarted. Leo, whereas distinct in type from his predecessor and nonetheless considerably inscrutable, may broadly be described as Francis’ alternative.
Here are some of the takeaways from the brand new guide.
The first poll, O’Connell studies, noticed Cardinal Péter Erdö, a Hungarian, acquire the best quantity of votes. Erdö is a distinguished church lawyer and was the conservatives’ alternative. While assist for him was well-organized, it wasn’t essentially widespread, O’Connell says. In that opening spherical, “more than 30 candidates got votes but only three received between 20 and 30,” he writes, with the opposite two contenders being Cardinals Robert Prevost and Pietro Parolin, the Holy See Secretary of State and main Italian candidate. The subsequent two ballots, nonetheless, noticed assist transfer swiftly to Prevost whereas Erdö’s dropped away. The first American pope was elected on the fourth poll with 108 votes, with Parolin as runner-up, O’Connell says. The guide additionally reveals the fourth poll needed to be repeated as one cardinal by accident caught two poll papers collectively. (The similar factor occurred within the 2013 conclave).
The conclave is a severe, religious course of wherein the cardinals are reduce off from the world – surrendering all digital units – earlier than they solid their vote in entrance of the superior fresco of Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment.” But the guide suggests not the whole lot all the time went to plan. Voting on the primary day was delayed when safety officers picked up a cellphone sign contained in the Sistine Chapel, O’Connell writes. One of the “older cardinals” realized he had a cellphone in his pocket which he then handed over, a reported scene O’Connell describes as “unimaginable, even for a film.” Then one other drawback emerged, the guide says. With no telephones to make use of as alarms, some cardinals nearly overslept of their rooms within the Casa Santa Marta, the guesthouse the place they keep for the length of conclave. The Vatican handed complimentary alarm clocks to every one to ensure they’d get up and get to the Sistine Chapel on time. Some cardinals additionally complained concerning the lack of toilet within the chapel which meant they needed to be escorted to an exterior restroom by a junior cardinal deacon. “It’s like going back to kindergarten,” one advised the authors.
In the run-up to the conclave, following Francis’ demise, two cardinals have been talked of as frontrunners: Parolin, the Vatican’s chief diplomat, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, chief of the Vatican’s evangelization workplace. Parolin was being pushed as a average, diplomatic determine who would restore “order” after the turbulent years of Francis, Piqué and O’Connell report. But he lacked grassroots expertise in Catholic communities. While Parolin labored intently with Francis, one of his supporters, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, shocked fellow cardinals with a speech at a gathering the place he attacked a significant Francis reform. The authors reported on the speech within the run-up to the conclave and this, they are saying, had a adverse impact on Parolin’s candidacy. This was compounded by a poor efficiency at a Mass with massive numbers of younger individuals, the place Parolin was described as missing “charisma” and as having “no connection” with the youthful congregation. Tagle, whereas charismatic and from the Philippines, with one of the biggest Catholic populations on the planet, was thought-about to not be a robust sufficient administrator, the guide says. He additionally suffered harsh social media assaults which broken his candidacy.
The authors declare that “more than twenty” cardinals had quietly recognized Cardinal Prevost as probably the most certified candidate to be pope. They have been impressed by his humble, low-profile type and felt he can be the one finest positioned to proceed Francis’ legacy, they write. His missionary expertise in Peru, and worldwide expertise extra broadly, was essential.
Previously, as a result of of the US’ world political and financial energy, it was extensively accepted the cardinals wouldn’t select an American pope. But Prevost was seen as “the least American of the Americans” and the cardinals from Latin America, Piqué studies, felt that “although a ‘gringo,’ (he) is one of us.”
Pope Francis ensured Leo was a candidate
Francis quietly promoted the person who would change into his successor and ensured he was a contender. “Clearly Pope Francis had his sights set on him,” Piqué writes. It was the late pope – the primary from Latin America – who laid the bottom for Prevost to change into a candidate by first appointing him a bishop in Chiclayo, Peru, after which bringing him to Rome to run one of crucial Vatican departments, answerable for appointing bishops. In this high-ranking function, Leo labored intently with cardinals from the world over and it was an indication of the belief Francis had positioned in him. The pair had common one-to-one conferences throughout which, Piqué says, “surely the two men discussed Church leadership issues beyond the immediate topic at hand (upcoming bishop appointments),” whereas keen-eyed observers famous that Prevost accompanied Francis on his final two journeys overseas.
Despite being an historic election course of steeped in ritual and custom, and nonetheless speaking its outcomes by smoke alerts, the conclave was in a position decisively and swiftly to provide a consequence. As O’Connell and Piqué present, it additionally retains the power to shock.
“The Election of Pope Leo XIV: The Last Surprise of Pope Francis,” will likely be printed in English by Orbis Books on March 25, 2026.