[OPINION] From holy smoke to hollow mockery: When memes made a circus of the conclave
Hold onto your zucchettos—the conclave has gone viral. As cardinals locked themselves inside the Sistine Chapel to elect the next pope, the outside world was doing something else entirely: meme-ing. Or worse, meme-icking—my term for the viral sport of turning solemn rituals into grotesque spectacles. And nowhere was this more feverish—and frankly, more tasteless—than in the Philippines.
In a country where Catholicism is both faith and fandom, memes have become national currency. But this time, the spectacle crossed a line. Videos spliced Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s speeches with pop anthems, TikToks crowned him "the Pope we deserve," and memes absurdly compared him to beauty queens who they think deserved the crown in pageants—as if the conclave were some Miss Universe coronation night rather than the Church’s most sacred process of spiritual discernment.
Let’s call this out: turning the papal election into a beauty pageant is not just crass—it reflects a deeper, chronic Filipino obsession with “beauty pageants” that cheapens everything it touches.
Filipinos, for all their professed religiosity, often seem to act with staggering insensitivity to context. Jeepneys blare horns around hospitals and churches, karaoke machines assault neighbors at midnight, feet—bare and unwashed—rest casually on church pews. This same tone-deafness turns a solemn Vatican ritual into a tawdry joke-fest. What could have sparked deep reflection about leadership in the global Church instead became a shallow viral sideshow.
Yes, memes can evangelize. Yes, humor can lighten heavy moments. But there’s humor that uplifts—and humor that desecrates. And many Filipinos, in their frantic race for likes and hashtags, seem blind to the difference. As Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David rightly warned, sacred discernment must not be reduced to a "worldly spectacle." But too many Pinoy meme-makers shrugged, intoxicated by the dopamine hit of virality.
This is cultural shallowness, plain and simple—an unwillingness to treat serious matters with the gravity they deserve. The conclave is not a fiesta, not a “pageant,” not a TikTok trend. It’s a sacred moment of prayer, discernment, and yes, drama—but not one meant to be trivialized into slapstick.
Pope Francis has said, "There is faith in humor." Scripture, too, says, "A joyful heart is good medicine" (Proverbs 17:22). But medicine, abused, can become poison. Filipinos must ask themselves: Is this laughter a sign of spiritual joy, or is it eroding our sense of the sacred?
Let them meme, yes, but let them also know when to kneel, when to be still, and when to treat holy things with reverence. The conclave deserves better than to be parodied into irrelevance. The Church deserves better than to be reduced to a circus.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of PhilSTAR L!fe, its parent company and affiliates, or its staff.
