Latest news with #papalelection
Wall Street Journal
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
How an American Cardinal Beat the Odds to Become Pope
VATICAN CITY—Cardinal Robert Prevost, seated beneath Michelangelo's monumental fresco of the Last Judgement, buried his head in his hands as the sound of his name echoed off the walls of the Sistine Chapel. It was Thursday morning, and the prelates running the conclave were reading out the ballots. The papal election was shifting the way of the Chicago-born cardinal. His tally was rising with each round of voting, while support for the early front-runner—Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin—was stagnating.
LBCI
08-05-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
White smoke rises over Vatican, signaling election of new pope
White smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney in Vatican City, marking the successful election of a new pope. The centuries-old tradition indicates that the College of Cardinals has reached a consensus after a conclave, choosing the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church. As crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square, the bells of St. Peter's Basilica began ringing, confirming the end of the papal election. The new pope's identity is expected to be announced shortly from the basilica's central balcony, where he will offer his first blessing as the Bishop of Rome.
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Meet the Meme Maker Behind the Conclave's Most Viral Moments
How did you learn a new pope had been elected? Were you glued to a livestream? Maybe you got a push alert. Or, if you are a particularly online type of person, you might have learned from the X account @ClubConcrave, a fan account for the 2024 film about a dramatized papal election process. In recent days, the account has become a source not just for memes but also for regular updates from Vatican City. Susan Bin, a 30-year-old artist in Dallas, started @ClubConcrave last year after becoming obsessed with the film, growing a small community of similarly devoted fans and creating a 'Conclave'-inspired zine to raise money for charity. When the white smoke started billowing from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, Mx. Bin, who runs the account with another administrator, was ready to post the news within seconds, sharing a litany of memes including a cat stylized as a cardinal vaping. (@ClubConcrave, which also goes by Pope Crave, a riff on the popular culture account Pop Crave, beat the official Vatican account to the news by four minutes.) In an interview that has been has been edited and condensed, Mx. Bin discussed the account's unlikely path from the fringes of fandom to the mainstream. Let's get one thing out of the way. Are you Catholic? I am not Catholic! I am so not Catholic. I have been to mass once in my life. You seem to have a bit of a fascination with the pope. When did this begin? I'm just a little bit normal about the pope. I'm an artist and I studied fine art — most artists who go through a studio system have some familiarity with the Renaissance and a lot of that's deeply embedded in the Catholic Church. What drew you to 'Conclave?' I don't typically watch these types of dramatic films. I watch a lot of horror and nonfiction. 'Conclave' is not normally a film I would watch, but I saw the trailer was well cut. I then read the novel because I couldn't find the script. So I knew exactly what I was getting into when I watched 'Conclave,' but the way in which the film transformed the text really caught me off guard. In a good way! How many times do you think you've seen it at this point? Oh, probably in the 40s. I know. Please don't laugh. What is its most meme-able moment? I'm going to go for my favorite and just say the loud Lavazza coffee machine. That's my personal favorite. I know it's not like the definitive one, but it makes me giggle. You turned that obsession into an online community. Tell me how that happened? I'm not obviously the only person that thought 'Conclave' was so prime and ripe for memeing. As soon as I watched, I opened Letterboxd and someone had already written like 'the most diabolical vape hit of all time.' I was like I need to talk to people about 'Conclave,' period. I just kept drawing fan art and making memes. Around November we had a small fandom and I started a 'Conclave' charity zine. The community grew a lot after the Oscars when the movie was released in Japan and Korea. And then, you know, the real conclave happened. In addition to posting memes, you've also been using your account @ClubConcrave to give people news updates. Are you actually in Vatican City? I am currently physically not in the Vatican, but metaphysically I am always in the Vatican and in their walls. We do have Pope Cravers on the ground, though. We have a Discord group that grew out of the zine and the zine contributors, and so that's truly global. There's even some people inside the Vatican. Inside? Do you mean they work for the … I cannot say. Why do you think popular culture, whether that is memes or film and television, is so obsessed with the pope? I would say that the aesthetics and patriarchy of the Catholic Church and its institution is like next to none. It's pretty crazy. I think also the lore … not me referring to a religious institution as lore, but like it has a deep lore. It's an institution that is a bunch of contradictions, it's supposed to be sacred and yet in its history it has been super political. It exists as a state and yet, it isn't. It's like a video game entity. Has anyone online gotten mad about your content? Honestly, no. Everyone's been in pretty good spirits. I think this account finds the people it needs to. It comes from a place of sincerity and humor. Pope Francis spoke in Italian about how it's important to have humor and light in life and that lot of people see Catholic dogma — the institution — as heavy and labor-intensive and, essentially, not fun. I am going on the record and saying I think Pope Francis would enjoy these memes.
The Independent
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Gamblers bet millions on who will be the next Pope
While cardinals take part in the solemn conclave to elect the next pope, a less traditional activity is gaining momentum: betting on who will lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. From online platforms to friendly wagers, guessing the next pontiff has become a global pastime, surpassing even major sporting events in popularity. The intrigue surrounding the papal election has fuelled a surge in betting activity, according to experts and participants. Sam Eaton, UK manager for Oddschecker, a platform analysing odds across various markets, noted the unprecedented global interest. "There's a huge level of interest globally," he said. "I don't think we've had a market like this where we've had so many countries interested in seeing odds." The papal election's betting popularity has even eclipsed the Europa League and Formula One races, according to Oddschecker data. Around the world, thousands of bets on the next pope Hundreds of thousands of people from some 140 countries have visited Oddschecker to review each cardinal's chances of becoming the next pope, Mr Eaton said. He noted special eagerness in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States. In the UK, about £30,000 (almost US$40,000) had been wagered with one leading online betting platform as of last week, Mr Eaton said – a far cry from £1.2 million on the singing contest Eurovision but still noteworthy as a trend, with the conclave days away. 'Betting on the next pope is definitely a niche market in the grand scheme of things, but it generates global interest,' said Lee Phelps, a spokesman for William Hill, one of the UK's biggest bookmakers. 'Since April 21, we've taken thousands of bets, and it's the busiest of all our non-sports betting markets,' said Mr Phelps, who expected a surge in interest once the conclave began on Wednesday. Betting on elections, papal conclaves and all manner of global events is almost a tradition of its own in the UK, but such betting is not legal in the United States. BetMGM, one of the world's top sports-betting companies, said it would not have any bets up. But Mr Eaton noted that in the unregulated, illegal space, one of the biggest sites had US$10 million wagered so far in pope bets. Fantasy 'teams' of cardinals In Italy, betting on the papal election – and all religious events – is forbidden. Some people in Rome are making friendly, informal wagers – the equivalent of $20 on a favorite cardinal, with the loser pledging to host a dinner or buy a pizza night out. Others are turning to an online game called Fantapapa, or Fantasy Pope, which mimics popular fantasy football and soccer leagues. More than 60,000 people are playing, each choosing 11 cardinals – as if for a soccer team – whom they believe have the best shot at becoming the next pope. They also draft the top contender, or captain. As with online wagers, the No. 1 choice for fantasy players has been Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, closely followed by Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. 'It's a really fun game to play with friends and have a laugh,' Italian student Federico La Rocca, 23, said. 'Initially my dad sent it to me ironically, but now that it's going to be the conclave, I decided to have a go and try it.' Mr La Rocca said he chose Cardinal Tagle because 'he looks like a nice guy and fun person'. Players' selections determine the number of points they rake in. But what's the jackpot? 'Eternal glory,' joked Mauro Vanetti, who created the game when Francis was hospitalised earlier this year. Mr Vanetti said he and his co-founder are against gambling, but they wanted to create something fun around the event. 'It seems like in Italy there's a certain inquisitiveness about the mechanisms of the Catholic hierarchy, but it's a critical curiosity, a sarcastic and playful curiosity, so we were interested in this jesting spirit for such a solemn event,' Mr Vanetti said. 'In some ways it deflates the sacredness, in a nonaggressive way.' Some concerns about betting on a solemn event Beyond simply picking who the next pope will be, players and gamblers also can guess how many tries it will take the cardinals to choose the leader, which day of the week he'll be elected, what new name he will decide on, or where his priorities will land on the progressive-conservative scale. While the game and some of the bets have a novel or fun nature, anti-gambling advocates have raised overall concerns about legal gaming and the growing popularity of wagering on all manner of events. A study published last fall found that 10 per cent of young men in the US show behaviour that indicates a gambling problem, which is a rising concern in other parts of the world, too. And for gambling around the papacy in general, some have raised religious concerns. Catholic teaching doesn't go so far as to call games of chance or wagers sinful, but its Catechism warns that 'the passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement'. It says gambling becomes 'morally unacceptable' if it gravely affects a person's livelihood.
Al Arabiya
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Cardinals set for second day of conclave to elect a new pope
The largest and most geographically diverse conclave in history was due to resume on Thursday, with Roman Catholic cardinals returning to the Sistine Chapel to try to settle a wide-open papal election. The red-hatted 'princes of the Church' started the heavily ritualized process of choosing a new leader for the world's 1.4 billion Catholics on Wednesday. In the evening, black smoke billowed from a specially installed chimney visible from St. Peter's Square to signal an inconclusive ballot. No pope in modern times has been elected on the first attempt, so that outcome was widely expected. But given recent history, a final result is possible from the second day, when up to four rounds of voting can take place. A record 133 cardinals from 70 countries are involved in the secret ballot, up from 115 from 48 nations in the last conclave in 2013 — growth that reflects efforts by the late Pope Francis to extend the reach of the Church during his 12-year tenure. Argentine-born Francis, who died last month, was elected at the end of the second day, after five rounds of voting. Eight years earlier, it also took two days but only four votes to elevate Germany's Benedict XVI to the papacy. White smoke would signal the election of a new Church leader. There are no clear favorites, although Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who served as the Vatican's number two under Francis, and Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle are considered the front-runners. If it becomes obvious that neither can obtain the necessary two-thirds majority, votes are expected to shift to other contenders, with the electors possibly coalescing around geography, doctrinal affinity, or common languages. Other potential 'papabili' — papal candidates in Italian — are France's Jean-Marc Aveline, Hungary's Peter Erdo, American Robert Prevost, and Italy's Pierbattista Pizzaballa. During the conclave, cardinals are sequestered from the world and sworn to secrecy, their phones and computers confiscated, while they are shuttled between the Sistine Chapel for voting and two Vatican guesthouses to sleep and dine. In recent days, they have offered different assessments of what they are looking for in the next pope, following a relatively liberal pontificate marked by bitter divisions between traditionalists and modernizers. While some urged for continuity with Francis' vision of greater openness and reform, others longed to turn the clock back and embrace traditions. Many have indicated they want a more predictable, measured pontificate.
