When I sat down to watch Conclave, the acclaimed 2024 film starring Ralph Fiennes, I didn’t expect to find it so funny. The cardinals pulling their little wheelie suitcases across the cobbles of the Vatican, the vape breaks, the gossiping, the Machiavellian undertones. It was all so entertaining and camp. The movie sends up some of the gaudy rituals of the higher echelons of the Catholic Church and sends a message about the inevitability of progress, which are both big talking points following the recent death of Pope Francis.
The pope has been celebrated for eschewing much of the pomp and circumstance around his role and instead choosing frugality and plain living. He was lauded for his views and work on immigration, climate and poverty and was relatively, if narrowly, progressive on homosexuality. Reproductive rights? Well, I think we may continue holding our breath.
It’s been really interesting to watch the reaction to his death and the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope in a Gen Z, TikTok world. When Pope Benedict stepped down in 2013, we were in the early days of Instagram, and TikTok didn’t exist. The elders of Gen Z were still in their mid-teens. As a millennial, I remember where I was when I found out Pope John Paul II died in 2005. I barely recall registering the switch from Benedict to Francis.
[ Is nothing sacred, even at a pope’s funeral?Opens in new window ]
Online, this time has been different. The unfortunate optics of US vice-president JD Vance meeting Pope Francis on Easter Sunday Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, just hours before his death, led to him irreverently yet inevitably being dubbed a “pope killer” by Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang. Then, when the pope’s body went on display in an open coffin for three days of public respect-paying, there was outrage when selfies of mourners with the casket in the background appeared on social media.
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Smartphones at Pope Francis’s funeral didn’t feel out place to me. It’s 2025
Press photos of a sea of smartphones hovering over the scene in the St Peter’s Basilica didn’t feel out place to me, though. It is 2025. Taking a photo, marking an occasion with digital proof that you were there, is part of life now. Multiple dignitaries were seen taking photographs at the pope’s funeral last Saturday. Donald Trump was criticised for checking his emails or checking his steps or whatever he was up to at the same event.
Of amusement to us in Ireland was the reaction to that open coffin. Not everyone performs a wake like us. We love to plonk a dead relative in the sittingroom for a day or two, rouge-cheeked and dressed in their finest, so that neighbours can come around to eat triangle sandwiches and drink tea and comment on how well they look. There are few among us who haven’t touched the granite hand of a deceased loved one.
The pope’s body on display also prompted countless informative TikToks about the processes of embalming and thanatopraxy (a type of temporary embalming).
The combination of Conclave and the proliferation of, well, everything online means there is interest in the election of the new pope beyond religious concern. I’ve been invited to join a sweepstakes, with the chance of taking home cash winnings if my assigned cardinal makes the cut. The popular “whiteboard” format of explaining internet and reality TV show scandals and players has been rolled out to break down the cardinals in the running and what their talking points are.
[ Mary McAleese: Pope Francis was a man of love who ultimately took the timid pathOpens in new window ]
People are rooting for their favourites, but the bar is low. Any bit of wiggle room at all on LGBTQ+ issues, reproductive rights and women in the church will gain brownie points on my side of the internet. While I steadfastly owe nothing to my own childhood indoctrination – except maybe the memories of singing songs from A Woman’s Heart at the 12.15pm Mass in the church folk group – I can appreciate how valuable it would be to see the most progressive pope possible elected.
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg said last year that if “women do not feel comfortable in the church, we have failed our living as Christians”. That’s earned him a few #slays on social media. Canada’s Cardinal Michael Czerny has made LGBTQ+ positive comments, as has Italy’s Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who is on record as saying, “It is a pastoral question, and as such I believe it should be treated: when it becomes ideological it becomes more complex and it is better to leave it aside.”
Like I said, the bar is low, but it is there.
