Funniest internet reactions to first American pope Leo XIV

Euronews

09-05-2025

The papal conclave is over and a new pope has officially been announced: Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV.
The 69-year-old is the first-ever American pope, having been born in Chicago, Illinois. And as you can imagine, the internet wasted no time in commenting on the moment, with reactions that verged from humorous to plain dumb – especially when it came to the MAGA crowd, who weren't best pleased that the new pope didn't speak in English for his first speech.
For the sake of sanity, we won't focus on the terminally stupid takes and opt for the sanity-restoring tomfoolery, with a great deal of social media users taking the late Pope Francis at his word when he said 'There is faith in humour' and letting their Chicago pride shine.
The Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, posted: 'Everything dope, including the Pope, comes from Chicago! Congratulations to the first American Pope Leo XIV! We hope to welcome you back home soon.'
Others referenced Chicago's famous deep dish pizza, joking about whether Rome would be able to accept that particular kind of culinary heresy, while some referenced the celebrated Chicago-based TV show The Bear.
Here are some of our favourite reactions to the new pope:
"Smart play for the Vatican to go with an American Pope to avoid tariffs"
Some homework will be required...
No truer word has been spoken.
For those not familiar, Malört is an American brand of bäsk liqueur, a type of brännvin flavored with anise that was introduced in Chicago in the 1930s. Spoiler: it's disgusting.
Impressive run, it has to be said.
The odds look good.
It's mustard and pickles all the way now. Which is no bad thing.
Pope Chuck does have a certain ring to it... Is it too late to make a change?
Looks... sturdy.
The horror... The horror...
This take will not fly. And deep dish pizza is not pizza. To quote Jon Stewart, in one of his finest rants: 'It's a casserole.'
Pope Mush the Dainty.
It did go by awfully quickly, didn't it?
Franco-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud is the target of two international arrest warrants issued by Algerian authorities in connection with the controversy surrounding his novel 'Houris', which won the Goncourt Prize in 2024.
Daoud became the first author of Algerian descent to win the Goncourt Prize – the most prestigious award in French literature.
France has been informed of the two arrest warrants, a spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry said. 'We are following and will continue to follow developments in this situation closely,' said Christophe Lemoine, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, stressing that France was committed to freedom of expression.
The author, who is a French citizen and resides in France, is accused of having used the story of a survivor of a massacre during the Algerian civil war without her consent – an accusation he denies.
Last November, an Algerian court accepted an initial complaint against the writer and his psychiatrist wife for using the story of a patient in the writing of his novel 'Houris'.
Two appeals were lodged against Daoud and his wife, who treated Saâda Arbane.
One complaint came from Arbane, a survivor of a massacre during the civil war in Algeria (1992-2002), who accused the couple of using her story without her consent.
The other is from the National Organisation of Victims of Terrorism.
On learning that these arrest warrants had been issued against him, the writer's lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont-Haïk, said that Daoud would contest them with Interpol.
'The motives behind these Algerian warrants can only be political and part of a series of procedures aimed at silencing a writer whose latest novel evokes the massacres of the black decade in Algeria,' said Laffont-Haïk.
'Houris' is a dark novel set partly in Oran about Aube, a young woman who has been mute since an Islamist slit her throat on 31 December 1999.
The book is banned in Algeria, as the country prohibits any work evoking this period of civil war. Indeed, 'Houris' contravenes an article of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, which prohibits the evocation of the "wounds of the national tragedy" - the expression used to describe the civil war that pitted Islamist groups against the Algerian army from 1992 to 2002, killing 200,000 people and leaving thousands more missing.
Kamel Daoud previously claimed that the story was 'public' in Algeria and that his novel 'does not recount (the) life' of Saâda Arbane.
'This unfortunate young woman claims that this is her story. While I can understand her tragedy, my answer is clear: it's completely false,' wrote Daoud in an article for the French publication Le Point last December. 'Apart from the apparent wound, there is nothing in common between this woman's unbearable tragedy and the character Aube. The wound is not unique. Unfortunately, it is shared by many other victims,' continued Daoud, who accused the plaintiff of being 'manipulated to achieve an objective: to kill a writer and defame (his) family.'
Daoud's publisher, Gallimard, has denounced the 'violent defamatory campaigns orchestrated (against the writer) by certain media close to a regime whose nature is well known.'