Cardinal Lawrence asks Cardinal Tremblay "would you libel the Holy Father in his own home?" Actually, libel refers to defamation in written form; the spoken counterpart is known as slander.
It is confirmed that 108 cardinals are taking part in the conclave; however, the third ballot registers a total of 110 votes, and by the fifth ballot 113 votes are tallied.
In one sequence, Cardinal Bellini asserts that he is the second most senior cardinal. Yet his seating position undermines that claim: he is depicted sitting well apart from Cardinal Lawrence, who is presented as the most senior. In reality, cardinals in a conclave are arranged by seniority, so this constitutes an inconsistency in the film.
It was claimed that an application for a Swiss visa had been submitted for the Mexican cardinal to travel to the hospital. However, Mexican nationals do not require a visa to enter Switzerland.
In the film, the seating at the Conclave is portrayed inaccurately. By convention the Dean of the College of Cardinals, as the most senior Cardinal, sits at the head of the first table on the left (i.e. at that table's right-hand side), whereas in the film he is shown sitting at the far end of the table (its left-hand side), which is contrary to established protocol.
In the film, Cardinal Lawrence is portrayed addressing the College of Cardinals in a chamber prior to the Conclave. In fact, that sermon is customarily delivered by the Dean during the Missa Pro Eligendo Pontifice (Mass for the Election of the Pope), which takes place in St Peter's Basilica.
The name Tremblay is persistently and incorrectly pronounced throughout the film. No Canadian would say Tremblay like that, and no Canadian Tremblay would allow everyone to mispronounce their name. It's pronounced Trom-blay, even if the spelling makes it look like it should be Trem-blay. Oof.
The scene in which the recently deceased Pope's flat is sealed concludes with two Swiss Guards posted either side of the door. They appear in a mirror-image formation: the guard on the left of the shot holds his halberd in his right hand, while the guard on the right holds his in his left. Although this creates a visually balanced image, protocol dictates that both should be holding their halberds in their right hands.
It has been suggested that Adeyemi would be the first African pope. The Roman Catholic Church, however, already had three African pontiffs — Victor I, Miltiades and Gelasius I — all of whom served prior to AD 500. More likely the claim intends to mean the first Black African or sub‑Saharan pope, since those three, although born in Roman Africa, were of North African and/or Roman or Greek descent.
Cardinal Benitez gives his climactic address in Spanish. All of the Cardinals are fluent in Latin, and many hold conversations in Italian. Both Spanish and Italian evolved from Latin, so the Cardinals might possess a rudimentary grasp of Spanish.
An audible 'thud' is heard when the ambulance crew places the pope's body onto the trolley. One would expect the team to treat the remains of a pope with greater care and reverence, but the noise may be deliberate — a metaphor that everyone, pope or pauper, enters and departs this world in the same way.
An archbishop who claims to have been made a cardinal "in pectore", though his name was never disclosed, is admitted to the conclave. Papal law, however, provides that all "in pectore" appointments made by a pope lapse upon that pope's death if the appointment was never published. This rule is intended to guard against false assertions of "in pectore" elevation — as Cardinal Lawrence initially suspected — but he was convinced by a document the archbishop produced bearing the pope's seal. There have, however, been numerous real‑life instances of forged papal seals, which is why documents concerning an "in pectore" appointment are considered invalid after a pope's death unless the pope himself publicly announced and published them. Lawrence nevertheless makes a brief reference implying that this rule was very recently changed in the laws of the Holy See within the film's fictional universe.
When the deceased Pope is placed on the stretcher, the restraint's buckle reads "press" in English rather than Italian. That said, many modern pieces of equipment come with English-only labelling and rely on users recognising a few basic English words to keep production costs down.
At about the 17-minute mark, while Lawrence is speaking to Wozniak, you can see Wozniak mouthing the words that Lawrence is saying.
