The new pope has become a Gen Z meme. Partly thanks to the success of the movie Conclave last year, Gen Z is more intrigued than ever by the Catholic proceedings. 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 the new Pope Leo XIV being the first American in the role only inspired more viral buzz. Being from Chicago originally, posts are speculating about whether he’ll have a Midwest accent, if he’d been to Wawa while attending Villanova, and his opinions of the current political administration. (Following memes about Vance’s meeting with Pope Francis the day he died.) Though many Gen Z aren’t Catholic themselves, that’s not really the point of this meme obsession—instead, the church has become something of a pop(e) culture fixture. (The Tab, Forbes)
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