...
By Marni Rose McFall
Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Imagine there's a singing pope. It's easy if you've seen the resurfaced 2019 video of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle singing the 1971 John Lennon song. Tagle is among the favorites to be the next pope, and the video has resurfaced amid the conclave.
Why It Matters
The next pope will instantly become the perhaps the most recognizable living religious figure on earth, with a considerable sway over the 1.4 billion Catholics in the world.
Read More on News
...
The conclave began on Wednesday to elect the successor to Pope Francis, who died on April 21, having led the church since 2013. 133 cardinals gathered at the Vatican to elect a new Pope on Wednesday. Conclaves have lasted for years, though the most recent have only lasted a few days. A candidate must receive a two-thirds majority to become the next pope, something which will be signaled by white smoke from the chapel.
What To Know
Tagle's rendition of Lennon's 1971 song came during a youth gathering in 2019. The video of him performing the song was uploaded to YouTube 13 days ago and has received 59,000 views on the site as of press time. It has also gone viral on TikTok.
Tagle performed an abridged rendition of Imagine and deliberately omitted the line's which some consider to be controversial in a religious context, including "Imagine there's no heaven," "no hell below us," and "no religion too."
Instead, he sang, "Imagine all the people, sharing all the world."
Though the abridged version was not enough to assuage criticism from the Catholic circle, who have decried his performance of the song.
LifeSiteNews, a Catholic publication, called it "shocking" on social media and questioned if it was "a betrayal of Catholic teaching."
Tagle is from the Philippines, where karaoke is a major part of the culture, present in nearly every home, bar and neighbourhood. He is currently considered to be a strong contender to continue the legacy of Pope Francis, and is known for being an advocate for inclusion.
Tagle is also becoming increasingly popular among Gen-Z and has inspired many videos and fan edits in his honour on the platform, TikTok. One video, which had the text overlay "woke filipino pope please," has been viewed over 700,000 times as of reporting. Videos of him speaking are also quickly going viral and garnering hundreds of thousands of views on the platform.
What People Are Saying
Chad Pecknold, a professor at the Catholic University of America in a post on X: "Cardinal Tagle's performance of John Lennon's infernal song "Imagine" comes not, I think, from a future successor of Saint Peter, but from a world which is passing away."
The account @lomelisturtles on X, in a post viewed over 600,000 times: "cardinal tagle singing imagine,, may god grant us a pope who sings."
What's Next
The next pope will inherit a Church at a crossroads, one that is grappling with declining influence in Europe and North America, growth in the Global South and ongoing internal debates about its future.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines