Episode 54: Conclave (2024) (Guest: Monsignor Raymond Kupke)

Episode 54: Conclave (2024) (Guest: Monsignor Raymond Kupke)

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In Conclave (2024), Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) organizes a conclave to elect a new pope. Key candidates and factions vie with one another as the process plays out until finally a new pope is elected. The film was directed by Edward Berger from a script by Peter Straughan (based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris), and features an all-star cast including Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini. The film provides a window into the process for electing a new pope, along with the legal, historical, and political forces that have shaped it.

Guest: Monsignor Raymond Kupke

Rev. Msgr. Raymond Kupke was ordained a Catholic priest for the Paterson Diocese in 1973, and was named a Prelate of Honor (Monsignor) by Pope John Paul II in 1998. Msgr Kupke earned his Ph.D from The Catholic University of America; his doctoral dissertation, James J. Norris. An American Catholic Life, focused on the only layman to participate in the debates at the Second Vatican Council. Msgr Kupke is an Adjunct Professor of Church History at the School of Theology at Seton Hall University, where he teaches general courses in Church History, as well as electives in New Jersey Church, the Medieval Church, the Counter-Reformation and Vatican II. I also teach the practicum in Homiletics. He is the author, among other publications, of Living Stones. A History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Paterson, and articles in The New Catholic Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of American Catholic History.

Timestamps:

0.00    Introduction

2:32     The origins of the conclave

5:29    Electing a new pope

8:03    The College of Cardinals

10:23   The Apostolic Constitutions

14:46   The contentious conclave in the film

21:05   Naming a new cardinal in pectore

24:51    Leo XIV, the new pope

26:58   The Roman Curia

26:38   The nuns in the film

30:05  Symbol and ritual: the smoke from the chimney

32:17    The custom of a new pope choosing a name

36:55   Struggles over different visions of the church

40:58   How accurate was the film in capturing a conclave?

42:39   How the conclave has changed

45:04   Possible future changes to the papal selection process

Further Reading:

Allen, John L. Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election (2002)

Baumgartner, Frederic J., Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections (2003)

Harris, Robert, Conclave (2016)

Povoledo, Elisabetta, “A Papal Primer That’s Fiction, but Also Rings True,” N.Y. Times (Mar. 2, 2025)

West, Morris, L., The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963)

Publication Date

2-10-2026

Disciplines

Law

Episode 54: Conclave (2024) (Guest: Monsignor Raymond Kupke)

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