Editor’s Note: This article includes spoilers about the ending of Conclave. Read at your discretion.
(LifeSiteNews) — Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly joined the chorus of voices criticizing the movie Conclave for its blasphemous portrayal of the Catholic faith.
In an X post published just past midnight on Sunday, January 5, Kelly issued a stinging rebuke of the film, which won Best Screenplay at the Golden Globe Awards yesterday.
“Just made the huge mistake of watching the much-celebrated ‘Conclave’ & it is the most disgusting anti-Catholic film I have seen in a long time,” she said.
Just made the huge mistake of watching the much-celebrated “Conclave” & it is the most disgusting anti-Catholic film I have seen in a long time. Shame on Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci & John Lithgow for starring in it & shame on director Edward Berger (among others). “Spoiler:”…
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) January 5, 2025
Conclave is based on a 2016 novel written by British journalist Robert Harris. It follows the events leading up to a “conclave” or gathering of Catholic cardinals at the Vatican after the death of the previous pope.
The movie stars well-known Hollywood actors Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow, among others.
Fiennes plays the main character, Cardinal Lawrence, who serves as the Dean of the College of Cardinals. Lawrence’s objective, which is frustrated at times due to scheming clergy, is to ensure a fair and transparent process so the competing “liberal” and “conservative” members of the Church’s hierarchy are able to make an informed decision as to who will be the next pope. He does all this while undergoing a crisis of faith as well.
While the movie’s cinematography is to be praised, the wooden acting and superficial storyline that cartoonishly depicts the various factions in the church not only makes it rather predictable but reveals its director has a grade-school level understanding of the faith.
“There are almost no redeeming characters in the movie — every cardinal is morally bankrupt/repulsive,” Kelly rightly noted in her X post.
Aside from one or two interesting story developments (part of the Sistine Chapel’s is blown off by a terror attack during voting), the big “surprise” that makes the film truly offensive comes at the end when the real identity of the “middle of the road” candidate that emerges as the next pope is finally revealed.
“I am what God made me,” the newly elected Pope Innocent XIV tells Fiennes’ character.
Just moments before, Fiennes had been given a report after Innocent’s election that indicates he has both male and female reproductive organs.
Innocent assures him that the previous pope knew about his condition and that he was okay with promoting him.
This is apparently all that was needed to put Fiennes’ character at peace with Innocent’s election despite the fact that Innocent would be invalid due to him not being the proper matter to be a pope (only a man can be elected).
Kelly rightfully shamed the director for making the film.
“What a thing to release … just in time for Christmas. They would never do this to Muslims, but Christians/Catholics are always fair game to mock/belittle/smear,” she said on X.
“I wish I had known (that they make the pope intersex) so I wouldn’t have watched it,” she also remarked.
As if the movie itself wasn’t enough mocking of the Church, Golden Globes host Nikki Glaser performed a cringeworthy song about Catholics and being “pope-u-lar” while wearing a knockoff bishop’s mitre and holding a fake crozier.
Do we need any more proof that the world and its servants hate the Church and that it’s long past time that those who are in charge of the Vatican need to take a stand and condemn the blasphemy being committed daily against the Bride of Christ?