The conclave is one of the most solemn, sacred and consequential elections of the world. It is also a secret encounter of the older men who wear red clothes and engage in politicians, planning and fumes while choosing the leader of 1.4 billion Roman Catholics in the world.
The Internet was unable to resist.
“It's so wild” Rob Anderson, author and personalities of the internet who focuses on pop and LGBTQ culture, said Del Conclave, who begins on Wednesday. “It's dramatic and is fashionable.”
One of the most long -lived elections in the world will take place for a global audience that has never been so immersed in social media and fluently the memes. It comes after the release of the film “Conclave” last year, showing that the Pope's elections can be observed while they eat popcorn.
Now, after years of growing disaffection with the Church, many young people from all over the world are leaning against the memory of the Vatican's room and intrigues.
“The summer of the Vatican-Core has begun,” has read a recent article on the study of the Italian magazine.
In a mix of charm, irreverence, fandom and possible blasphemy, the video collections of cardinals with Charli XCX soundtracks have sprouted online. TikTok creators who wear paper skull caps imitated conclave conversations. The influencers published the guides of the voters at the conclave, the pages of the fans appeared for the candidates and the rankings of the best contenders based on very non -Catholic criteria have flourished. A meme of cardinal lighting of one cigarette of another has collected over five million views on X.
“All these cardinals seem incredibly chic in Rome smoking,” said Victoria Genzini, an Italian curator who manages a page of memes, in an interview. Since Jude Law recited in the 2016 television series “The Young Pope”, he said, “there has been an increase in the pop gaze on the Vatican”.
“It's easy to do memes,” added Mrs. Genzini. “Catholic iconography is the field.”
Some online commentators have expressed indignation on online content, stating that the jokes about a Catholic leader are offensive. One criticized “humor at the expense of the beliefs of others”. Another said that the rituals around the death and succession of a Pope should be treated as sacred.
“Strauting”, Jamita Brown, a children's author, wrote in a comment on one of the videos.
However, digital humorists seemed undaunted. A meme, inspired by the title of an opinion article of the New York Times asks: “Is the cure for male solitude a conclave?”
In a video by Tiktok, the comments of Italian television fashion plays on the movies of Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American, who wears a red cloak long meters.
In other videos, the cardinals are introduced as competitors of talents, or “Divas”, according to Mr. Anderson, the personality of the Internet, which is based in New York and made a series of popular videos, called “Pope Games”, describing the conclave.
“The idea that these old men are stuck in a building like a pajama party or a block of high schools wearing their PJs is funny” Mr. Anderson said.
Now, the travel bloggers of Dublin and New Jersey graphic graphics are weighing the papal choice and sharing their interpretations on Instagram and X.
The new pontiff, who could be elected immediately after the beginning of the conclave, will be asked to make difficult decisions on the future of the Church and face the narrow finances of the Vatican and his scandals of sexual abuse.
Internet “took into consideration all the different types of personality that could be the next pope” Mr. Anderson said. “I mean, Pope Pizzaballa,” he said, referring to Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa di Jerusalemme, considered a front-runner.
“The Internet really cheered for him simply because they want to be able to say that name,” he said.
Even the White House has joined, publishing a photo generated by the AI of President Trump dressed as Pope. Mr. Trump, who said he had “nothing to do with it”, swept the critics away, saying that “they cannot make a joke”.
Vice -president JD Vance contributed with his dose of humor by publishing that secretary of state Marco Rubio, who recently assumed a new provisional role as a councilor for national security, “could hire a little more. If only there had been a job for a devoted Catholic …”
A Canadian conservative magazine revised a video of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a Filipino prelate, singing a “image” extract. (Lennon's song begins, “Imagine that there is no paradise”, a line that the cardinal apparently did not say.) The Lifetensws website has accused Cardinal Tagle of a “scandal or scandalous ignorance” for singing what he called “Ateo atheist”. But others have been galvanized.
“The karaoke under the papacy of Tagle will go into crowds”, Pope Crave, an account dedicated to fans of the new film “Conclave”, wrote on X.
Some online commentators have transformed priests such as Cardinal Matteo Zuppi d'Italia – described by fans as a “progressive icon” – in political symbols. His liberal positions have pushed some trumpet conservatories not to a communist pope “.
Other observers have wondered if the interest in the conclave would translate into a lasting involvement with the Church.
Elisa Giudici, author of the article by Studio magazine, said that it was precisely because the Church now meant so little for many young people who believed they were authorized to get closer to us without feeling Empi or stigmatized (or prefixed for a beheading).
“The Conclave had lived as something important from the point of view of faith,” said Giudici. “Now, he has failed and people experience it as a music festival or Olympics.”
Many of the voting cardinals are active on social media, but during the conclave they will have to abandon their phones in the pension where they remain, said a Vatican spokesman. Signal transmissions for cell phones in the Vatican city will also be off during the conclave, said the Vatican government body.
“Of course, we are also afraid of political influence” Cardinal Anders Arborelius from Sweden said in an interview last week.
An analysis made available on Monday at the Times from Cyabra, an intelligence company on social media to Tel Aviv that monitors disinformation, discovered that one in five profiles that published on X on the conclave or speculating on the next pope or the future of the Church were robot.
But much of the authentic content seemed to come from sources traditionally far from the Catholic world or even corrected by the Vatican, such as members of the LGBTQ community.
Last year, after Pope Francis used an insult against gay men, the Romans put it on banners, transforming the insult into a word of pride. Now, the internet queer is everywhere.
“There is so much material,” Anderson said. “Everyone loves this.”