The movie as I see it, provides the viewer perhaps, the path Catholism in particular to the papacy, is treading - towards liberalism, relativity and relevance. The message/plot is brillantly crafted in the climactic choice of a unifying Asian Pope; unifying to guard and save Roman Catholicism from the seed of destruction that lurks within and from belligerent external forces whose intent is to drive Catholicism and by extension Chistianity to its corner of irrelevance and eventual decay and oblivion.
My two cents.