The rise of Pope Crave: The meme page that’s now the go-to for Conclave news

Reuters, PA, the BBC, and Sky News all had live articles about Pope Francis’ death and the subsequent Conclave election, but I’m willing to bet you heard the news of Pope Leo XIV’s ascension through Pope Crave.

Twitter accounts like Pop Crave, Discussing Film, and PopBase have become key resources in news coverage over the last few years. The accounts, and the many more like them, are often the first point of call for people hearing about the latest news in everything from TV and film to politics. Enter Pope Crave, which you might have gathered is a Twitter account reporting on The Pope, the Conclave, and the wider Catholic church.

But where did Pope Crave start? Here’s what we know.

What is Pope Crave?

After one day and 27 minutes in the conclave, a new pope has been elected. Some people found out from major news outlets, and others out found out from Pope Crave (@ClubConcrave), a Twitter account that began as a fan account for Conclave (2024), but – unexpectedly – turned into… pic.twitter.com/wd5aOOJ9SA

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 9, 2025

With nearly 100k followers and counting, Pope Crave has become an overnight success with original coverage of both Pope Francis’ death and the Conclave that followed. They were the first platform to report the news of the new Pope, beating out the mainstream media big boys and the actual Vatican.

During the Conclave, Pope Crave even had a reporter in Rome in the form of American standup comedian Adrianna McCain, who told reporters: “I think it’s really cool to be just involved in this weird way, with these cool people who have this hyperfixation with the Catholic Church in a way that, I think, even the pope himself would have been baffled by.”

Who runs Pope Crave?

pic.twitter.com/GqG0NIzTaU

— Pope Crave (@ClubConcrave) May 9, 2025

Five months ago, in December, Susan Bin set up a Twitter account to talk about her latest obsession: Conclave, the Academy Award-winning film starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow.

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She had become obsessed with the “pageantry” of the Catholic church amid her stressful job as an election clerk in the conservative-dominated area of Collin County, Texas.

“I mean, you probably liked it a normal amount,” she told Rolling Stone. “I did not like it a normal amount.”

She initially intended for the feed to be a promotional site for her From the Crooked Timber of Humanity zine, featuring 70 pages of art and writing exploring the themes and characters in Conclave. Proceeds from the zine go to the Intersex Human Rights Fund, Freedom Fund, and Librarians and Archivists with Palestine. The project has already raised a whopping $75k!

Susan’s co-admin, Noelia Caballero, is an international human rights lawyer who is also a “queer Catholic in ministry” – can this random Twitter account get any more iconic? Turns out it can because Pope Crave is grassroots journalism at its best, employing contributions through a Discord server.

“People reached out — Cravers — and they were like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in Vatican City. Can I be a local correspondent?” Susan explained. “We were boots on the ground. We were doing it DIY punk, very fandom style.”

Though the new Pope has been elected, this doesn’t mean that Pope Crave is coming to an end. Instead, they are hoping to continue coverage of the Catholic church, and specifically, the humdrum surrounding Pope Leo XIV.

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Featured image credit: Vandeville Eric/ABACA/Shutterstock