\n<\/p>\n
Follow live updates on the conclave to elect a new pope<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The conclave<\/a> is one of the world\u2019s most solemn, sacred and consequential elections. It is also a secretive meeting of older men who wear red robes and engage in politicking, scheming and smoking while picking the leader of the world\u2019s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.<\/p>\n The internet could not resist.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so wild,\u201d <\/em>Rob Anderson, an author and internet personality who focuses on pop and L.G.B.T.Q. culture, said of the conclave, which begins on Wednesday<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s dramatic and it\u2019s fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the world\u2019s longest-running elections will play out for a global audience that has never been so immersed in social media and fluent in memes. It comes after the release of the movie \u201cConclave\u201d last year, showing that the pope\u2019s election can be watched while eating popcorn.<\/p>\n Now, after years of growing disaffection with the church, many young people around the world are leaning into the memeability of Vatican pageantry and intrigue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe Vatican-core summer has begun,\u201d read a recent article<\/a> in the Italian magazine Rivista Studio.<\/p>\n In a mix of fascination, irreverence, fandom and possible blasphemy, video compilations of cardinals<\/a> with Charli XCX<\/a> soundtracks have popped up online. TikTok creators wearing paper skull caps have mimicked conclave conversations. Influencers have published voters\u2019 guides to the conclave, fan pages for candidates have appeared and rankings of the top contenders based on very un-Catholic criteria have flourished. A meme of a cardinal lighting another\u2019s cigarette<\/a> gathered over five million views on X.<\/p>\n \u201cAll these cardinals are looking impossibly chic in Rome smoking,\u201d Victoria Genzini, an Italian curator who runs a meme page<\/a>, said in an interview. Since Jude Law starred in the 2016 TV series \u201cThe Young Pope,\u201d she said, \u201cthere has been a rise of pop gaze about the Vatican.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to make memes,\u201d Ms. Genzini added. \u201cThe Catholic iconography is camp.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Some online commentators have expressed indignation about the online content, saying that the banter about a Catholic leader is offensive. One criticized \u201chumor at the expense of other people\u2019s beliefs.\u201d Another said the rituals around a pope\u2019s death and succession should be treated as sacred.<\/p>\n \u201cOutrageous,\u201d Jamita Brown, a children\u2019s author, wrote in a comment to one of the videos.<\/p>\n The digital humorists seemed undeterred, however. One meme, inspired by the headline of a New York Times opinion article<\/a> asks: \u201cIs the cure to male loneliness a conclave?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In one TikTok video, Italian TV fashion commentary plays over footage of Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American, wearing a meters-long red cloak<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other videos, the cardinals are introduced as talent-show contestants, or \u201cdivas,\u201d according to Mr. Anderson, the internet personality, who is based in New York and made a series of popular videos<\/a>, called the \u201cpope games,\u201d describing the conclave.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that these old men are locked in a building like a sleepover or a high school lock-in wearing their PJs is hilarious,\u201d <\/em>Mr. Anderson said.<\/p>\n Now, travel bloggers from Dublin and graphic designers from New Jersey are weighing in on the papal pick and sharing their takes on Instagram and X.<\/p>\n The new pontiff, who could be elected by 133 cardinals soon after the conclave begins, will be asked to make difficult decisions on the future of the church and address the Vatican\u2019s straitened finances and its sexual abuse scandals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The internet has \u201ctaken ahold of all the different kinds of personalities that could possibly be the next pope,\u201d <\/em>Mr. Anderson said. \u201cI mean, Pope Pizzaballa,\u201d he said, referring to Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa of Jerusalem<\/a>, considered a front-runner.<\/p>\n \u201cThe internet really was rooting for him simply because they want to be able to say that name a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Even the White House has joined in, publishing an AI-generated photo of President Trump dressed as the pope<\/a>. Mr. Trump, who said he had had \u201cnothing to do with it<\/a>,\u201d brushed off critics, saying they \u201ccan\u2019t take a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n Vice President JD Vance contributed his own dose of humor by posting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who recently took on a new interim role as national security adviser, \u201ccould take on a bit more. If only there was a job opening for a devout Catholic \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A Canadian conservative magazine resurfaced a video<\/a> of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a Filipino prelate, singing an excerpt from \u201cImagine.\u201d (The Lennon song starts, \u201cImagine there\u2019s no heaven,\u201d a line the cardinal apparently did not say.) The website LifeSiteNews accused Cardinal Tagle of a \u201cscandal or scandalous ignorance\u201d<\/a> for singing what it called the \u201catheist anthem.\u201d But others were galvanized.<\/p>\n \u201cKaraoke under the Tagle papacy gonna go crazzzy,\u201d Pope Crave, an account dedicated to fans of the new \u201cConclave\u201d movie, wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some online commentators have turned clergymen like Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Italy \u2014 described by fans as a \u201cprogressive icon\u201d \u2014 into political symbols. His liberal positions have pushed some conservatives to trumpet \u201cNO to a communist pope.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Other observers questioned whether the interest in the conclave would translate into a lasting involvement with the church.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Elisa Giudici, author of the Rivista Studio article, said it was precisely because the church now meant so little to many young people that they believed they were allowed to approach it lightheartedly without feeling impious or stigmatized (or set for a beheading).<\/p>\n \u201cThe conclave used to be experienced as something important from the perspective of faith,\u201d Ms. Giudici said. \u201cNow, that fell through and people experience it as a music festival or the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the voting cardinals are active on social media, but during the conclave, they will have to drop off their phones in the guesthouse where they will stay, a Vatican spokesman said. Signal transmissions for cellphones in Vatican City will also be switched off during the conclave, the Vatican\u2019s governing body said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are, of course, afraid also of political influence,\u201d <\/em>Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Sweden said in an interview last week.<\/p>\n An analysis made available on Monday to The Times by Cyabra, a social media intelligence company in Tel Aviv that monitors disinformation, found that one in five profiles posting on X about the conclave or speculating about the next pope or the future of the church were bots.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But much of the genuine content appeared to come from sources that are traditionally far from the Catholic world or even antagonized by the Vatican, like members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community.<\/p>\n Last year, after Pope Francis<\/a> used a slur against gay men<\/a>, Romans put it on banners, turning the insult into a word of pride. Now, the queer internet is all over the conclave.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much material,\u201d Mr. Anderson said. \u201cEverybody loves this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n