May 19, 2025 (Summer)
Meme of the Week: Pope Francis and Conclave
Fun fact about me: I am a practicing Roman Catholic. Since I dedicate a good chunk of my life to Jesus, I was very aware that Pope Francis died. On April 21st, 2025, Pope Francis passed away peacefully and went up to see our heavenly Father. Lots of Catholics are saddened by the passing of our Pope, and I am one of those people.
But I gotta admit, the memes that came from it are pretty hecking funny.
With the Pope’s death being international news, a lot of theories have spurred from the unfortunate event. Since a lot of the world isn’t Catholic, the Pope dying is their first glimpse into the Catholic world. So naturally, the general public makes light of a sad situation by memes.
One of the most common memes are those featuring the plot of the movie Conclave. In the movie, the Pope dies, and the Cardinals start the process to elect a new Pope. (Even though it’s dramatized for entertainment, its viewership jumped in the last few weeks.) For example, many people were joking that they should have cameras in the Vatican to film the real conclave, just like the reality show Big Brother.
The other major meme that came out from this is the theory that the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, killed the Pope. Now, I’m leaving my politics out of this, but the idea of JD Vance visiting the Pope and him dying soon after is pretty suspicious. I’m pretty sure it’s not true, since Pope Francis was pretty old, but that doesn’t stop people on the internet from theorizing. A lot of people believe this, and I’m just going to let them be.
Overall, while the Pope dying is a sad thing across the Catholic faith, there have been a lot of silly memes that came from it. I hope Pope Leo XIV can do great things for the rest of the world. For now, I will be laughing at memes about the wild conspiracies about how the Pope died. Once this slew of memes runs its course, we can also snicker at memes featuring our new Midwestern pope.