The cardinals will first celebrate the "Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff" in St. Peter's Basilica that morning before processing into the Sistine Chapel that evening.
Jansen described the movie as a political thriller disguised as a religious film. One of Jansen’s favorite lines early in the film is from Tucci’s character, who says, “No man in his right mind wants to be pope,” as the movie is about Fiennes’ character trying to discover who has the heart fit to be pope.
Anytime Hollywood touches Catholicism, controversy generally ensues. The new film “Conclave,” which is set amid a fictitious and fraught papal election, is no exception.
A serious, even lugubrious, tone and a top-flight cast add heft to the ecclesiastical melodrama "Conclave" (Focus). Yet the film is fundamentally a power-struggle potboiler kept roiling by attention-grabbing plot developments -- the last and most significant of which Catholic viewers will likely find uncomfortable at best.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a top adviser to Pope Francis on matters involving canon law, denied reports the pope had asked him to draft revisions to the rules governing the preparations for electing a new pope.
Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the former archbishop of Krakow and longtime secretary to St. John Paul II, celebrated his 80th birthday April 27, ending his eligibility to vote in a conclave.
U.S. Cardinal Edwin O'Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, celebrated his 80th birthday April 8, meaning he is no longer eligible to enter a conclave to elect a new pope.
“Praying in Rome: Reflections on the Conclave and Electing Pope Francis,” an e-book written by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, came out July 19.
Viviana Sotro, a native of Argentina who serves at Sagrada Familia Apostolate at St. Stephen parish in Minneapolis, said it was a special day for the people of her birth country.
Hours before the start of the conclave that is choosing the next pope, the dean of the College of Cardinals celebrated the papacy as a source of unity among Catholics and of evangelization and charitable service to the world.
Elevating becoming over being