Seen on OTT: What TheTwo Popes reveals about the lost dialogue in Indian academia Premium

In an academic climate where there is no space for ideas to clash and grow, ‘The Two Popes’ shows what true dialogue could look like.

Robert Francis Prevost became the first pope from the United States on Thursday (May 8, 2025), picking the papal name Leo XIV after cardinals from around the world elected him as the 267th pope of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. This was following Pope Francis’ death on April 21. After decades of conservative leadership of the Roman Catholic Church that culminated in the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the church, had sought to promote inclusion and care for the marginalised over doctrinal purity.

Against this backdrop, I watched the movie The Two Popes (2019) on OTT. Taking us behind the Vatican walls, the movie rewinds to the final days of Pope Benedict XVI, where the conservative Pope Benedict XVI and the liberal future Pope Francis must find common ground to forge a new path for the Catholic Church. Inspired by true events, the movie shows a fictitious dialogue between the two popes. Though their views are poles apart, there is space for an open dialogue. 

After the Vatican leaks scandal marred the Catholic Church in controversy, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (later known as Pope Francis) submitted his resignation as the Archbishop. Bergoglio, who was also in line to become Pope, had received the second-highest votes after Pope Benedict. Perceiving Bergoglio’s resignation as a threat to the Church, Pope Benedict invites him to the Palace of Castel Gandolfo. At the castle, the two popes converse about homosexuality, communion of the divorced, and more. “You have been one of my harshest critics, there’s a lot of competition for that title”, Pope Benedict says to Bergoglio, as their views never align. 

Pope Benedict asks Bergoglio about him openly giving sacraments to those who are out of communion, to the divorced. Bergoglio says, “Oh, I believe giving communion is not a reward for the virtuous, it is food for the starving”. Pope Benedict then questions him, whether his personal beliefs matter more than what the Church has taught for hundreds of years. To that, Bergoglio cites scriptures, “I came to all sinners”. They have a back and forth on the idea of mercy. Bergoglio has the final word: “Mercy is dynamite that blows down walls.” Instead of taking offence, Pope Benedict says, “You have an answer for everything… you are far too clever”.

In many scenes such as these, the movie showed these two religious leaders with opposing views navigating each other’s thoughts, even though they fundamentally disagreed with each other. They were listening, challenging, reflecting, and even becoming friends as a consequence of the dialogue, apparently.

Dialogue has now become a rarity in the Indian context, even in universities and academia. Universities are supposed to be spaces that foster critical thinking, where ideas should clash and grow, where students and teachers question and disagree, but still talk and learn. 

Far from this ideal picture, there has been a lot of talk about the loss of academic freedom in India. Over the past 10 years, India has plummeted on the academic freedom index ranks, according to the “Free to Think 2024” annual report published by the Scholars at Risk (SAR) Academic Freedom Monitoring Project. According to the Academic Freedom Index, India now ranks as “completely restricted”, its lowest score since the mid-1940s.