The New Pope

On March 12, 2013, 115 cardinal electors gathered in the Sistine Chapel to elect the new pope after Pope Benedict XVI resigned on February 28. After black smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel chimney four times, the fifth vote resulted in white smoke: a new pope had been elected.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio emerged onto the Vatican Balcony in St. Peter’s Square, took the name of Pope Francis I and did something a little strange: before giving his first papal blessing, he asked the crowd to first give them his blessing. If you weren’t watching the news coverage, the ENTIRE square, 150,000 people (see picture below) fell silent.

 

Complete silence.

So, who cares? There’s a new pope, there’s been a pope for like, 2000 years, sometimes even more than one at the same time. Well, there’s social media, more specifically, there’s twitter.

Pope Benedict & His Twitter Problem

So you’re telling me I have to be pope and have a working twitter?? I’m out.

Pope Benedict XVI had sent his first tweet to launch the Holy See’s news information portal, trying reach out to all people via social media to suggest unity. But Benedict hadn’t really gotten onto the #digcom bandwagon since his twitter account had only existed for merely 78 days while he was still pope. Along with the positive tweets from some came a load of criticism and hatred. Its has even been speculated that Benedict’s twitter account added to his resignation. Below, you might understand why.  Caution: language 

 

WHO DOES THAT?! TO THE POPE?!?

The New Pope’s Twitter Is Here!

Pope Francis just started his new pope twitter account as @Pontifex

What a cutie.

In his inaugural message, Pope Francis said, “Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.” Hopefuly this will mean that not only will Pope Francis lead the 1.2 billion Catholics of the world, but he’ll embrace the current social media situation.

Tweet me sometime!!!

 

For more on this, check out these articles:

Pope Francis Hits Twitter & Asks Catholics To Pray For Him

‘F*ck off pope’: Pope Benedict Joins Twitter & Is Greeted With These Vicious ‘Bile&Hate’ Tweets