The gospel meets the Twitterverse
Pope Francis has embraced tweeting, and his online fans have embraced him back
Tweet Jesus!
As Michael J. O’Loughlin sees it, the much-loved Pope Francis is cannily spreading the gospel 140 characters at atime. O’Loughlin, 29, is a reporter for the Boston Globe’s Crux, a project covering the Catholic Church, and has just published The Tweetable Pope. In the book, he makes the case that Francis, who though almost 80 and fronting one of the world’s oldest institutions, is best understood through the thoroughly modern lens of Twitter.
While his predecessor Benedict XVI authored the first papal tweet on Dec. 12, 2012, two months before vacating the papacy, it’s Francis who has made a name for himself in the Twitterverse.
“Using his @Pontifex account, Pope Francis communicates ancient truths, spiritual insights and bursts of wisdom instantly to his millions of followers,” O’Loughlin writes.
As O’Loughlin explains, Francis doesn’t hit send on his own tweets. Instead, he comes up with ideas. His staff then print proposed messages in Italian or Spanish, the Pope’s two primary languages, and bring them back to him. Once he signs off, they’re taken to the Vatican Secretary of State’s office and away they go.
“I thought he would have farmed out the entire operation to a PR team, but I was surprised that he’s as involved as he is,” O’Loughlin told the Star.
The annual Twiplomacy analysis of Twitter accounts said in April that, for the third year running, Pope Francis was the most influential Tweeting global leader.
Worldwide leaders for English-language tweeting are, not surprisingly, from the laity — Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. Francis ranks well back, with more than seven million followers. But he tweets in several languages and his combined total of followers is more than 21 million.
“When in history has a pope ever been able to communicate directly to 21 million people at a time?” O’Loughlin writes.
“Before television the answer would be never. Even with television, the answer would be very rarely. This Pope reaches 21 million people, on average, four to five times a week.”
It’s the retweets of his messages by his own followers that give him even greater reach. @BarackObama has more than 65 million followers, but on average gets about 1,200 retweets. @Pontifex gets 10,000.
A quick glance through the collected tweets of @Pontifex “gives his followers a sense of his passions, priorities and plans for the church,” says O’Loughlin.
And it’s a medium that, on a significant level, fits the man, he argues. “This Pope says what’s on his mind in ways that ordinary, salt-of-the-earth believers can understand.”
To be sure, his tweets aren’t always lofty theology, but consist of practical advice that recognizes human beings as prone to unlovely emotions.
“Are you angry with someone? Pray for that person. That is what Christian love is.” — June 17, 2013
In his tweets, Francis does not work the ethereal realm, but finds his beat squarely on terra firma.
On Nov. 11, 2013, he tweeted: “We remember the Philippines, Vietnam and the entire region hit by Typhoon Haiyan. Please be generous with prayers and concrete help.”
“It’s a powerful platform,” O’Loughlin said in an interview. “One tweet from the Pope can kind of get a topic trending.”
After the murderous attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, he tweeted simply: #PrayersForParis. He has tweeted about kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria, a tornado in Oklahoma, a Korean ferry disaster, a mining disaster in Turkey, and, notably, on climate change:
“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” — June 12, 2015
If, as O’Loughlin says, Francis tweets the Church’s ancient truths in a modern way, it’s worth considering that the teachings of Christ nicely lend themselves to brevity.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (73 characters.) “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (63 characters.)
Perhaps no tweet from @Pontifex better captured his approach to the job than this one:
“It is better to have a Church that is wounded but out in the streets than a Church that is sick because it is closed in on itself.” — May 16, 2015
As O’Loughlin said, “Francis wants the church to be where God’s people are, and many of us are on Twitter.”