For two days in May, the world sat watching a little chimney above the Sistine chapel (and the seagulls who were also very interested in the proceedings). Whenever a new Pope is elected the world seems to pause, watch, and, of course, comment. In 2025 this means memes, tweets, and all manner of short form content. We’ve rounded up some of the best.
Even before the conclave officially started, Catholics tried explaining to others just how the election of a new pope works.
Pretty soon after, after just 2 days of voting Pope Leo he appeared to the world and made his first address as leader of the Church.
And people (Catholics and not) took to their search engines to figure out what exactly XIV means.
credit: Catholic Memes on Facebook
And the memes began…
credit: Catholic Memes on Facebook
Cardinal Prevost was, to many, an unfamiliar face. He served as the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and was made a Cardinal in 2023 but he was not at the top of many lists of papabile. In the coming days the internet filled us in on various facts about the new pope’s early life, most of which were true.
He met JPII.
credit: Catholic Memes on Facebook
He plays Wordle.
He studied math, sparking this joke. If you don’t get it, it’s ok, I also chose to forget highschool algebra ever happened.
As the Pope began to make statements and comments people tried to piece this together with his track record to figure out where Leo stands but, perhaps, this is was a bit futile.
Besides being Catholic, the most salient fact about our new pontiff is, of course, his American roots. Born south of Chicago in the town of Dalton, Illinois Robert Francis Prevost is the first american-born Pope ever. While he did spend many years doing missionary work and even became a bishop in Peru and attained Peruvian citizenship, he was still born here and grew up here.
This has sparked a particular kind of reaction.
Many online speculate as to what changes or preferences an American might bring to leading the Church.
credit: Catholic Memes on Facebook
In response to the exciting news of the Pontiff’s birthplace, we honored Pope Leo with the most aggressively American way to express pride in a public way: a highway billboard.
Of course, there’s been no shortage of comments that Pope Leo may not be happy with everything the country of his birth is doing.
Pope Leo XIV is, of course, not just from America but the Chicago metro area specifically, that is, as we say in the Midwest, Chicagoland.
from Catholic Memes on Facebook
Later this month there will even be a Mass at the White Sox baseball stadium.
In general, we American Catholics have been stoked for Pope Leo.
While it hasn’t even been a month since Pope Leo was elected he has already had several sharable moments.
Someone gave him a Pope Leo plush which he caught one handed while in the Popemobile.
He celebrated his inaugural Mass on JPII’s birthday and wore one of his chasuble’s.
.He sang the Regina Coeli in Latin and we all learned he has a great singing voice.
His first Tweet was fire.
His homily at his inauguration Mass also had fire quotes like this one.
People are excited about his comments about Eastern Christians about what they may mean for unity between the churches.
While there is likely much, much more to come from Pope Leo XIV so far the Internet has welcomed him with open arms. His own social media presence has grown and news and memes continue to be shared. As Pope Leo begins his reign and we enjoy the quips and humor we should remember though that the most important thing we can do for our Pope is to pray for him. Viva Il Papa!