Pope Francis has been a subject of many memes in the past! We have seen memes of the Pope meeting Trump, the Pope signing Lamborghini, his flying pellegrina, and ofc the Pope slapping!
Though memes are always made to tickle your funny bone, when it comes to things that are religious, people do get offended by such memes!
The latest Pope meme has divided the netizens. Some enjoy just the way it is supposed to be, while the rest have gone to the extent of calling the Pope memes to be “sacrilegious”!
The meme in question is a photo of the Pope that was taken in Brazil back in 2013. Here he holds aloft a wafer of sacramental bread, or Eucharist wafer at the Mass at Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida.
Over the next few years, several variations of this meme template were used. Among them, the popular variation was when the Pope was seen holding albums of various artists!
Like here, we see the Pope holding up a disk in “one direction”!
Earlier this month, the meme template witnessed another change! A tiled variation was spread all across Twitter with the Pope holding aloft strange things ranging from Baby Yoda to Simba!
The picture is broken into four tiles. On the fourth tile, just above the hand, the user replaces the Eucharist wafer with another object!
This meme template quickly started trending on Twitter with the memers displaying their photoshop skills!
But wait wait, don’t just leave yet…
This is where it all started!
— Sue Hulk (@SUEHULK) October 12, 2020
Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba
Sithi uhm ingonyama
— Kay Sosa (@KaySosa300) October 17, 2020
The Pope has the best cards!
— Jacob Oller (@JacobOller) October 16, 2020
Dies out of cuteness!
October 30th.
— Slutty President Warren G Harding (@PopeAwesomeXIII) October 16, 2020
He will save us. pic.twitter.com/aZHizEjVZb
Gamers unite.
So I found the original image used in that Pope meme, and -- unsurprisingly -- he's holding the most holy item of all in it. #N64 pic.twitter.com/sqVqQkZ63h
— N64 Today (@N64Today) October 17, 2020
Nostalgia hitting in 3.. 2..1..
pick a number pic.twitter.com/xMGYMVYs51
— 𝓜 (@505mol) October 18, 2020
However, many were upset with the meme, as they felt that it hurt their religious sentiments. Senior Editor at America Magazine, James T. Keane discussed in length about the “sacrilegious” aspect of the Pope memes.
There's a meme circulating with Pope Francis holding up an object with his eyes closed, and people are shopping in various funny objects. In the original photo, the object is a host being consecrated. This means being turned from bread into the actual body and blood of God. 1/
— (((Simcha Fisher))) (@SimchaFisher) October 17, 2020
i'm so fed up with that pope meme pic.twitter.com/y16bdCNujo
— muscle skoals (@MuscleSkoals) October 17, 2020
But keeping all these aside, the memes did unleash some amazing creativity!
The memes of Pope Francis just shows how memes are evergreen, and no meme template is truly dead. A simple picture can resurface on the internet and become a major sensation.
In a similar fashion, Memes hold the power to make YOUR brand’s online presence SENSATIONAL!
Wanna know how? Get in touch with Youngun India to know more!
Article written by Krishanu Sanyal