After back-to-back wins for best picture at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and at Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars, the papal thriller “Conclave” has a chance at a hat-trick on Sunday at the Academy Awards.
The shot at cinematic glory comes at an awkward time: Cardinals and the faithful in Rome have been fervently praying in St. Peter’s Square each evening that life will not imitate art. Millions more are doing so around the world.
Pope Francis, 88, is more than two weeks into a stay at Policlinico Agostino Gemelli, a Rome hospital, for pneumonia in both lungs, along with other infections.
The Vatican said on Sunday morning — two days after a bronchial spasm that required him to undergo noninvasive mechanical ventilation — that the pope was resting after a peaceful night.
On Saturday, the Holy See had reported that Francis was stable and that he was alternating that mechanical ventilation with long periods of high-flow oxygen therapy.
But the crisis on Friday again renewed concerns about the prognosis for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, and its own future.
