Pope Francis

About

Pope Francis is the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church. He has obtained notoriety online for what some people consider to be a more liberal approach to Catholicism than in the past.

Background

Born in 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pope Francis was originally named Jorge Mario Bergoglio.^[1] He was first ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1969, and was elected to the papacy in 2013 after Pope Benedict resigned.^[2] He is the first pope in over 1000 years to not be from Europe, and the first to take the name Francis, after the Jesuit saint St. Francis of Assisi.^[3]

Since his election, Francis has continued his work in advocating for action to fight climate change, poverty, and the death penalty, while still maintaining Catholic doctrine on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.^[4] Pope Francis is often lauded for his progressive stance, respecting interfaith dialogues, and for leading an ascetic, humble lifestyle. However, the Vatican often claims that his proclamations are often taken out of context by the Western media in order to promote him as more liberal and less bound by the traditional strictures of Catholicism.^[5]

Online History

Pope Francis has referred to the Internet as "a gift from God."^[6] His initial election, during the 2013 Conclave, was the first Papal Conclave to exist in the time of social media, and therefore made a large impression throughout the Internet. The conclave lasted two full days, and over 130,000 people signed up for a website called Pope Alarm,^[7] which promised to text them the results when the new Pope was elected. In addition, thousands more people signed up for a "Fantasy Pope", in the style of fantasy baseball.^[8] When the Pope was elected, the Twitter profile @Pontifex tweeted "HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM" and received over 33,000 retweets, but the tweet was later deleted when the feed was rebooted for Pope Francis.^[9]

Pontifex Twitter Feed

@Pontifex is the official Twitter account of the Pope which serves as the official communication line between The Vatican and the Catholic community at large. It was originally launched under Pope Benedict XVI in December 2012 and re-launched following the pontification of Pope Francis in March 2013. Shortly after the election of Pope Francis on March 13th, the Twitter handle was restored from “Sede Vacante” indicating the vacancy of the papacy to Pontifex. Pope Francis’ first tweet read “Habemus papam franciscum,” which translates to “we have a new pope [Francis].”

Pope Selfie

On August 29th, 2015, an Italian twitter user named FabioMRagona became the first known person to ever take a selfie with a standing pope.^[10] The selfie, which included the user, Pope Francis, and two others, received 230 retweets and 195 favorites. The practice has become frequent as users, especially children, take photographs of the pope with cell phones. The search term "Pope Selfie" produces hundreds of such photos on Twitter,^[11] and has been documented by Mashable,^[12] Good Morning America,^[13] and the Washington Post.^[14] On September 22nd, 2015, Mashable reported that the Pope's security detail on his trip to the US would not allow bystanders to use selfie-sticks to take photographs of the pope.^[15]

2015 Papal Visit

In September 2015, the Pope visited Cuba and the United States. During his visit, the word "Pope" received over 1.6 million mentions on Twitter, at a rate of about 500,000 per day.^[17]

United States Visit

During his visit to the United States, Pope Francis planned to address both a joint session of the United States Congress and the 2015 meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.^[16] To celebrate the Pope's visit, Twitter unveiled four different ,a href=/memes/hashtag>hashtag-based emojis . Any user who tweeted the hashtags #popeinUS, #popeinDC, #popinNYC, and #popinPhilly would automatically see a celebratory emoji appear next to the hashtag.^[18]

During the first 24 of his visit, the hashtag #thepopeisdope^[20] began trending in the United States. On September 24th, Kim Kardashian tweeted^[21] the phrase "The pope is dope," garnering upwards of 23,000 favorites and 19,000 retweets within four days (shown below).

The following day, the tech news blog Gizmodo^[22] and the news site Observer^[23] published round-ups of Internet reactions to the Pope's visit, including a number of notable image macros (shown below).

On September 26th, the PopeIsHope Vine channel uploaded a short remix video featuring a scene from the 1976 sports drama film Rocky featuring the Pope's head superimposed over the protagonist Rocky Balboa (shown below). Within 48 hours, the video gathered more than one million plays, 4,300 likes and 1,600 revines.

Wake Up Album

On September 25th, 2015, the track "Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!" from Pope Francis' upcoming rock album Wake Up^[24] was released on SoundCloud^[25] (shown below). The complete album is set for release on November 27th, and will include the Pope's speeches from locations around the world accompanied by progressive rock music composed by various Italian musicians.

Private Meeting with Kim Davis

On September 28th, 2015, the Pope made a statement that government officials should have the "human right" to refuse granting marriage licenses to homosexuals.^[28]

"Conscientious objection must enter into every juridical structure because it is a right. I can’t have in mind all cases that can exist about conscientious objection but, yes, I can say that conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right. And if someone does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right."

On the following day, Kim Davis' lawyer Mat Staver announced that his client had privately met with Pope Francis the previous week at the Vatican Embassay in Washington, D.C.^[27] On September 30th, ABC News broadcast an interview with Davis, in which she confirmed the meeting and says the Pope thanked he for her "courage."

“I put my hand out and he reached and he grabbed it, and I hugged him and he hugged me. And he said, 'thank you for your courage.’”

Following the interview, many Twitter users posted jokes mocking Davis and expressing skepticism that the meeting actually occurred (shown below). On September 30th, The New York Times^[26] reported that Vatican officials confirmed Pope Francis had a private meeting with Davis.

Search Interest

External References