Faith & Family News: Conclave Coverage, 'Chosen' News, 'Soul on Fire'

In this month's faith & family media news: it's time for a real Conclave, and TV is there for it; The Chosen creator Dallas Jenkins offers updates; and Sony's Affirm Films releases a new movie about a courageous Catholic.

The Real Conclave

Leaving aside the fanciful film by the same name, we are looking at a real Conclave to choose the next pope, in the wake of the Easter Monday death of Pope Francis.

The broadcast and cable-news networks, international networks, and various news outlets were all over coverage of the pope's death and the funeral on Saturday, April 27, which was held on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.

About 250,000 people were present for some portion of the funeral and the procession of the pope's coffin through the streets of Rome to the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major, where he had requested to be interred.

There aren't any definitive figures of how many of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics watched the funeral on TV outlets around the globe -- and later on streaming or on YouTube -- but just the AP's live YouTube coverage garnered 988K views.

And, Radio Prague reported that nearly 2.2M people in Czechia alone watched all or part of the funeral. That's about a fifth of the country's total population of 10.86M. You can extrapolate from there -- and many more watched news reports and clips about the event.

If you missed it, here's full coverage of the funeral Mass from the YouTube channel of Catholic broadcast, online and satellite network EWTN, which has 1.6M views so far:

So, with the Conclave coming, expect the same lineup of networks, streamers and social-media outlets to give blanket coverage to the proceedings -- and the speculation about them.

We are currently in the Interregnum between papacies, and EWTN offers a full rundown of what to expect.

Also, this entertaining clip from the Popes 101 episode of Family Theater Productions' online series Catholic Central give a visual and concise summary of how it all takes place.

Each outlet covering the Conclave will have its own commentators offering opinions on papal possibilities and on the Church at large, and they'll vary from reverent to merely informative to covertly (or overtly) skeptical.

For the most informative and positive, from a Catholic perspective, it's probably best to stick with faithful outlets like EWTN, Catholic TV, Salt & Light TV and Vatican News, but Catholic personalities, such as Bishop Robert Barron, will pop up on major news outlets to offer insights and analysis.

The Chosen Updates

With the hit Gospels-based drama having just finished screening its Season 5 episodes in theaters, The Chosen creator, co-writer and director Dallas Jenkins offered his most recent livestream to fans on April 27.

Jenkins didn't announce an exact premiere date for Season 5 at the show's new exclusive streaming home on Prime Video, but he did have some good news for those waiting to watch it free on The Chosen App.

We already knew that episodes would land on the app 90 days after their premiere on Prime Video, but Jenkins added:

We're not doing it one episode per week [on Prime Video], which would mean eight weeks of releases, and then that would delay the Chosen App release. We're going to release it at the same cadence as we did in theaters.

So, the first two episodes will come at once; the second week, the middle three episodes will come out all at once, at the same time; and then the third week, the final three episodes will come out."

This means that all eight episodes of Season 5 will release over three weeks on Prime Video, which will shorten the 90-day window before the episodes land on the app.

Jenkins pointed out that, now that The Chosen is going to be a Prime Original, it'll be up to Prime Video to first announce the exact premiere date for Season 5.

He also addressed the premiere of Season 6, which is currently in production in Texas and Utah, emphasizing that he would not be giving specifics until dates -- and how the season would roll out -- are confirmed.

Jenkins did say that Season 6 would come out in 2026, but probably not around Easter, as has happened with previous seasons, saying:

... most likely it will come out some time next year, but it won't be early. There's the finale, which is going to be a global theatrical event. So, that's going to come out after the first six episodes have come out. So there's going to be a period of time in between episode 6 [of Season 6] and the finale.

So, to sum up, Season 6 will probably premiere sometime later in 2026 on Prime Video, but the last two episodes will be released to theaters around the world. Season 6 covers the Crucifixion, so you may imagine that those final episodes feature some monumental events.

There's a lot more in the livestream, so here's the whole thing:

Sony Affirm's Soul on Fire

Affirm Films, the faith-based division of Sony, has scheduled Soul on Fire, based on the life of Catholic inspirational speaker John O'Leary, for an Oct. 10 nationwide release, starring John Corbett as O'Leary.

From Deadline:

William H. Macy (Fargo), John Corbett (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), and Joel Courtney (Jesus Revolution) star in the film, directed by Sean McNamara (Reagan), which adapts O’Leary’s 2016 bestseller of the same name. As seen in the film, O’Leary’s story begins with his miraculous recovery from a near-death accident when he was 9 years old.

Given no chance of survival, John endures an unbelievable road to recovery with the support of his family, faith, community and the kindness of his all-time idol, Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Jack Buck. Grateful for his miracle and shaped by life’s struggles, John’s mission to better the world inspires millions to do the extraordinary.

Also starring DeVon Franklin (Jesus Revolution), Masey McLain (The Baxters), and Stephanie Szostak (A Million Little Things), Soul on Fire was adapted for the screen by Gregory Poirier

Catholic News Agency (via the National Catholic Register) caught up with O'Leary as he watched filming at the Shrine of Saint Joseph in downtown St. Louis.

“I’m overwhelmed and utterly in awe of how great our God is and to bring forward stories like this…John O’Leary is so ordinary, which is why this extraordinary story of survival and endurance and faithfulness and community and God’s grace is so awesome,” O’Leary told CNA.

“I’m grateful that we get to share that story now in a movie … I recognize my story is not about me. It is about community, it’s about prayer, it’s about God, it’s about hope. It’s about recognizing that our life is about something bigger than ourselves. And I love celebrating that work every day,” he said.

If you want to hear a bit of O'Leary, here's a keynote address he gave to FOCUS Catholic's SEEK conference in 2017 ...

Image: Shutterstock/Canva

Kate O’Hare, a longtime entertainment journalist, is Social Media Content Manager and Blog Editor at Family Theater Productions.