‘Tagle core’ goes viral on TikTok as Gen Z swoons for pope contender who sang John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’

A cardinal of the Catholic church going viral for singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” was not on this year’s bingo card.

Pope Francis’s passing on Easter Monday sent shockwaves around the world, with around 250,000 visitors flooding St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican to say goodbye to the progressive Pontiff. As the Vatican readies for the conclave, speculations on who might take over the highest role in the Catholic Church is on the rise.

But, on TikTok, users have already chosen its favorite contender: Filipino prelate Luis Antonio Tagle.

Videos of Tagle–a liberal-leaning front runner for pope referred to as “Asian Francis”–resurfaced in the days following the pope’s passing announcement, aimed to paint the contender in a bad light.

“The song’s lyrics directly contradict Catholic doctrine…is this scandal or scandalous ignorance?,” the caption of the video posted by a conservative news agency read. Various users in the comment section denounced the contender, supporting a more conservative option like Guinean prelate Robert Sarah.

Yet many came to Tagle’s defense, with one user commenting “The guy sang a song about world peace. If that’s really the most dirt you can dig up on him, he’d make an excellent Pope.” Another user commented on the same video, “God forbid a pastor advocates for peace.”

God save the memes

Now users are taking it the extra mile, resurfacing more videos and edits and slating Tagle as the internet’s pick for the next pope.

On a video featuring Tagle smiling as he sways his hands and dances in a church, commenters showed their support, saying “I want this pope please god,” “with you, Francis II,” and “I like him, he has my vote from Uruguay.”

Fans have taken to edits to show their support as well, with on video titled “Tagle core,” a spin off of a TikTok trend stitching together videos to the music of Aphex Twin, features the Filipino cardinal singing, dancing, and talking in between laughs.

His support has also been memefied, with users jokingly creating videos “POV” videos, imagining a future where the Vatican is filled by dramatic singing interpretations.

In another video, edited in Korean-fancam style, garnered more than 299,000 likes, with thousands of users debating between Tagle and Sarah on the comments.One user commented, “me following this pope election like it’s reality TV.”

Another user captured the recurring sentiment of social media users, saying “first conclave in the tik tok era i’m so happy to be alive in these historic times.”

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