So, you’ve just finished watching Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce trade barbs over Fanta and pizza in The Two Popes. It’s a great movie. The chemistry is electric. But now you’re sitting there with your phone out, wondering: is The Two Popes a true story? The short answer is: sort of, but mostly no.
While the film is rooted in a very real, very seismic shift in the Catholic Church, the intimate "buddy comedy" vibe between Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (the future Pope Francis) is largely a work of historical fiction. They didn't hang out at Castel Gandolfo in 2012 debating the future of the church while watching soccer. Honestly, the real story is a bit more complicated—and in some ways, even more interesting than the movie.
The 2012 Meeting: Did It Actually Happen?
In the film, Cardinal Bergoglio travels to Rome in 2012 to hand in his resignation. He’s tired. He wants to retire to a simple parish in Argentina. Instead, he gets summoned to the summer palace at Castel Gandolfo, where he and Benedict engage in a multi-day theological wrestling match.
Here’s the reality: this meeting never happened.
In 2012, Bergoglio did want to retire, as bishops are required to submit their resignation at age 75. But he didn't fly to Italy to argue about it. There is no record of the two men meeting privately during that specific period to discuss the Vatileaks scandal or Benedict’s secret plan to resign.
Screenwriter Anthony McCarten has been pretty open about this. He calls it "well-researched speculation." He took the known public positions of both men—Benedict’s staunch traditionalism and Francis’s "church for the poor" mentality—and put them in a room together to see what would happen. It makes for fantastic cinema, but it’s not a documentary.
What About the Pizza and the World Cup?
The scene where the two popes share a pizza in a room off the Sistine Chapel is one of the most charming moments in the film. It’s also completely made up.
Director Fernando Meirelles admitted that the pizza was "his thing" to humanize the characters. In real life, Benedict XVI is known for being quite formal. The idea of him ordering a "takeout" pizza inside the Vatican is, frankly, hilarious to anyone who knows the actual protocol.
And that ending scene? The one where they’re watching the 2014 World Cup final between Germany and Argentina?
- Fact: Pope Francis is a massive soccer fan (he supports San Lorenzo).
- Fiction: Pope Benedict didn't care about soccer. At all. He preferred classical music and intellectual pursuits.
- The Reality: While the world wanted them to watch the game together, the Vatican confirmed at the time that Benedict likely wouldn't be watching. He wasn't a sports guy.
The Darker History: Argentina’s "Dirty War"
The movie spends a lot of time on Bergoglio’s past in Argentina, specifically his actions during the military dictatorship in the 1970s. This is the part of the film that stays closest to the "true story" label, though it still simplifies a very messy history.
The film depicts Bergoglio trying to protect his fellow Jesuit priests, Franz Jalics and Orlando Yorio, who were eventually kidnapped and tortured by the regime. In real life, the accusations against Bergoglio have been a point of massive contention for decades. Some critics, including Yorio before he passed away, felt Bergoglio hadn't done enough to protect them or had effectively "withdrawn" the church's protection, making them targets.
However, since becoming Pope, many other accounts have emerged of Bergoglio secretly hiding dissidents and helping people escape the country. It’s a gray area. The movie frames it as a source of deep, soul-crushing guilt for Francis. While we can’t know his private confessions, the historical timeline of the kidnapping and his leadership of the Jesuits is factually grounded.
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The Real Relationship Between Benedict and Francis
If they weren't best friends sharing Fanta, what was their actual relationship like?
It was actually quite respectful, though probably more distant than the movie suggests. When Benedict resigned in 2013—a move that shocked the world because popes almost never quit—he promised "unconditional reverence and obedience" to his successor.
For the ten years they lived as neighbors (Benedict in a converted monastery in the Vatican gardens and Francis in a simple guesthouse), they did meet. Francis often called Benedict a "wise grandfather." But they weren't exactly "pals." There were real tensions between their camps. Conservative followers of Benedict often used his writings to criticize Francis’s more liberal reforms.
Key Differences Between the Movie and Real Life:
- The Resignation: Benedict didn't resign because of his conversations with Bergoglio. He resigned because of his failing health and the sheer weight of the scandals (including the priest abuse crisis and Vatileaks) that he felt he no longer had the strength to handle.
- The Personality Swap: The movie paints Benedict as a cold, grumpy academic and Francis as a warm, joke-cracking Everyman. While Benedict was definitely more reserved, those who knew him personally often described him as extremely gentle and shy, not necessarily the "God’s Rottweiler" persona the media loved.
- The Abbey Road Connection: Yes, Benedict did record an album at Abbey Road Studios (Alma Mater), which is a fun bit of trivia the movie gets right.
Why the "Fake" Parts Matter
When people ask is The Two Popes a true story, they’re usually looking for the "gotcha" moments. But the film’s "fictions" serve a specific purpose. By inventing these conversations, the filmmakers were able to dramatize a massive internal conflict within the Catholic Church that is very real.
The Church is currently split between people who want to hold onto centuries of tradition (the Benedict camp) and those who want the Church to evolve to meet the modern world (the Francis camp). By putting these two ideologies in a room—even if the room is a movie set—the film explains the stakes of the 21st-century Papacy better than a dry history book ever could.
How to Dig Deeper into the Real History
If you want to know what actually happened without the Hollywood gloss, here are the best places to start:
- Read "The Pope: Francis, Benedict, and the Decision That Shook the World": This is the book by Anthony McCarten that the movie is based on. It’s much more detailed about the history.
- Look into the 2012 Vatileaks scandal: If you want to understand why Benedict really felt he had to leave, look into Paolo Gabriele, Benedict's butler who leaked private documents. That’s the real-life thriller.
- Check out the Aparecida Document: If you want to see the "real" Bergoglio’s theology before he was Pope, this 2007 document from the Latin American bishops is where he laid out his vision for a "missionary" church.
The movie is a beautiful "what if." It’s a story about two very different men finding common ground. Just don't expect to find any evidence of that pizza delivery in the Vatican archives.