"Intra omnes": media, pop e politica nel conclave del 2025

The 2025 conclave exemplifies how sacred ritual and popular culture intertwine within today’s media context. While the Vatican sought to preserve solemnity, its carefully staged visuals circulated across television and social media, generating playful, ironic, and politicized reinterpretations. From memes, fantasy games, and AI-generated content to news coverage and entertainment formats, the conclave revealed the blurred boundaries between religion, politics, and spectacle. Fictional narratives, such as Conclave (2024), overlapped with real events, reinforcing the reading of the election through the lens of popular narratives and political polarization. The choice of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, further amplified these dynamics, commented and parodied in tv programs such as Tv Talk and Propaganda Live. Ultimately, the 2025 conclave illustrates how Catholic authority is negotiated in a mediatized arena where sacred traditions coexist with playful, participatory, and secular reinterpretations – often with the tacit complicity of the clergy.