Behind the memeification of the conclave and the viral ‘Tagle core'

Euronews

08-05-2025

They may be small and seemingly harmless, but emojis can carry more weight than you might guess. Sometimes they serve as nothing less than social hand grenades.
That's the message from Unnur Magnúsdóttir, an Icelandic consultant with Dale Carnegie, who leads workshops on emoji use. Her focus is on helping people navigate the waters of emoji communications, especially in professional settings.
She explains that any given emoji one person sees as friendly or funny could strike someone else as confusing or even offensive.
Food-related emojis are particularly prone to misinterpretation, she says.
While they may appear innocent, some of them carry sexual innuendos that users may not be aware of, posing a risk in workplace communication.
Even the classic smiley face isn't always safe territory: the degree of a smile and the shape of the emoji's mouth can send subtly different signals, and generational divides only add to the confusion.
For example, older users may view the thumbs-up emoji as a sign of approval or encouragement. But to younger generations, it can seem dismissive or even passive-aggressive, highlighting a cultural shift in digital expression.
To explore this further, Icelandic broadcaster RÚV asked pedestrians to interpret a selection of emojis. The responses varied wildly. One person saw a certain emoji as joyful, while another thought it expressed sadness or irritation.
The exercise showed that in the world of digital communication, meaning isn't fixed —and that even the simplest symbols can speak volumes.
As the conclave begins today, social media has been hard at work already when it comes to turning the process of electing a successor to the late Pope Francis into something that feels more like the Met Gala and less like a secretive ritual.
How? Through memes.
Heresy for some; adding some lightness to an ancient ceremony featuring a lot of elderly men in robes for others. And for those who aren't convinced by that second option, let's not forget that it was Pope Francis who said: 'There is faith in humour.'
Many are choosing to memeify the conclave through the film Conclave, which has seen a spike in viewership numbers since the death of Pope Francis, while others are trying to make light of what some are describing on TikTok as the 'Sistine Chapel sleepover'...
"Let's Go Girls"
'Being in a conclave sounds sick. just locked in a room with your absolute boys voting on which one of your friends is just gonna be the man until they die'
'i would have the best time at a conclave because it's basically just a work convention where you get paid to gossip plot and scheme. god is literally demanding that you judge your coworkers. in his name we pray'
Aside from social media users – specifically Gen Z - adding their unique take to the proceedings, the internet has also found its winner: Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.
Indeed, Cardinal Tagle, 67, is often dubbed the 'Asian Francis' for his warmth, apparent affability and his progressive views. Clips featuring Tagle have been going viral over the past week.
On TikTok, he has become everyone's favourite. One viral video shows him joking that he knows only three Polish words: kielbasa (sausage), pierniczki (gingerbread) and vodka.
There are also several videos the cardinal singing along to John Lennon's 'Imagine' in 2019.
The clip received backlash from some conservative Catholics, including LifeSiteNews.
'Shocking', reads a post on X of Cardinal Tagle singing along to 'Imagine'. It described the song as an 'atheist anthem rejecting religion, heaven, and Christ's Kingship'.
'The song's lyrics directly contradict Catholic doctrine... Is this scandal or scandalous ignorance?'
Many came to Tagle's defense. One user commented: 'The guy sang a song about world peace. If that's really the most dirt you can dig up on him, he'd make an excellent pope.'
Another user added: 'God forbid a pastor advocates for peace.'
Gen Z have fought back, championing and memeing the clip in support, and sharing other wholesome clips of Tagle, including one of him dancing in a church.
Others have created edits to show their support and one video titled 'Tagle core' has gone viral, showing the Filipino cardinal singing, laughing and dancing.
Still, some traditionalists aren't impressed, including Filipino papal contender Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, who warned against turning sacred rituals into public spectacles.
In a Facebook post, he cautioned against using social media to campaign for favourites.
'Creating or sharing campaign videos, even with good intentions, risks turning a sacred discernment into a worldly spectacle. It may inadvertently pressure or politicise the conscience of the electors, and distract from the silence and prayer needed to truly hear the voice of the Spirit,' he wrote.
While some Catholic circles bemoan the conclave's 'irreverent' memeification and continue to raise ethical questions about making light of sacred traditions, it's worth reminding that the last conclave took place in 2013, when social media was in its infancy.
Amused or shocked by the viral content, it can't be too surprising in 2025.
The phenomenon only shows how Gen Z deal with serious events by creating online moments. There's joy - and catharsis - to be found in that. As long as the memes don't spread disinformation, there's also a case to be made for the language of memeification actually helping the Church, as it modernises a sacred but archaic ritual. Furthermore, online buzz is now a potential gateway into more serious conversations.
So before anyone cries blasphemy, it's worth not condemning humorous content from the get-go. To do so would only prove that the Church is averse to evolve with the times.
And who would castigate a man with such a lovely singing voice and an infectious laugh?
'A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.' Proverbs 17:22.
Some would do well to crack a Bible.
We first met him as a rookie, clumsy and a bit overwhelmed by the intricacies of the European Parliament; now we find him still just as awkward, but this time catapulted into the heart of the European Council. Samy, the endearing parliamentary assistant from the series Parlement, brilliantly portrayed by Xavier Lacaille, returns for one last battle in the fourth and final season that's now available on the France Télévisions website.
Political intrigue, colourful personalities, backroom maneuvering and a great deal of conflict and confusion… the European institutions provide the ideal setting for a good political drama. However, they have perhaps been overlooked by popular screenwriters, who've set their stories within the more prominent White House or the Elysée Palace rather than in Brussels and Strasbourg.
According to Maxime Calligero, co-writer of the series Parlement, this lack of interest stems from a persistent image: that of a European Union perceived as technocratic and consensual, founded on cooperation, stability, and overcoming disagreements.
"For a story to exist, there has to be conflict. But Europe, for historical reasons, was built away from conflict. The European institutions were created to foster compromise,' he says.
Parlement shakes up the uniform and polished image the European institutions want to portray, revealing their tensions, absurdities, and power plays.
'Having worked for the European institutions for a long time, I know the backstage of European compromises—that is to say, the low blows, the negotiations, the conflicts between members of parliament and between member states. Our job as screenwriters was to bring that hidden conflict to the surface, the one the public never sees, but which definitely exists within the European institutions, and to turn it into fiction material,' continues Maxime Calligero.
The heavy weight of bureaucracy, procedures and cultural differences within the European institutions are rich sources of comedy, leading to absurd situations, hilarious misunderstandings, and witty dialogues.
'What is a weakness of the European Union—its complexity—becomes a strength, because complexity is always a good vehicle for comedy,' Calligero adds.
While Parlement plays with the institutional machinery and paradoxes of the European system, the tone of the series remains light and ironic, steering clear of harsh mockery or cruelty.
'In Parlement, we're more on the side of comedy than satire, because we have a lot of affection for our characters. There are very few characters we don't end up redeeming. We don't glorify the European Union, but we don't criticize it either. We try to laugh, not at the European Union, but with it,' says Calligero.
Watch the full interview with Maxime Calligero in the player above.