The new pope has become a Gen Z meme ICYMI, Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected as the new pope last week—taking the name Pope Leo XIV—making him the first American to ever hold the title. Naturally (if you know Gen Z), the internet had a field day. From the viral “Balenciaga Pope” AI image to the Church’s anime mascot, “Luce,” Pope Leo XIV’s election is just the latest entry in the Catholic Church’s unexpected pop(e) culture era. And partly thanks to the success of the movie Conclave last year, Gen Z is more intrigued than ever by the Catholic proceedings. Even though most aren’t Catholic themselves, as soon as it was time for Cardinals to gather and choose a successor to Pope Francis, memes began circulating about the gossip-circle nature of this ritual, equating it to things like RuPaul’s Drag Race. And since Pope Leo XIV is from Chicago originally, posts are speculating about whether he’ll have a Midwest accent, if he’d been to Wawa while attending Villanova, and...
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