Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga, the prelates of pop culture that dominate Twitter with tens of millions of followers, might want to be watching for the popemobile in their rear view mirrors: Pope Francis' various Twitter handles now have more than 10 million followers, three times that of his predecessor (though the credit for expanding the Vatican's social media outreach must go to Benedict XVI, who made the first papal tweet).
The pope's tweets range from social justice oriented to sentimental to deeply spiritual, including:
If we are to know the Lord, we must go to him. Listen to him in silence before the tabernacle and approach him in the Sacraments.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) October 21, 2013
Or this:
Too often we participate in the globalization of indifference. May we strive instead to live global solidarity.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) October 26, 2013
With Fox News asking whether the Catholic Church has lost its moral authority, and Rod Dreher insisting that it irrevocably has, it's hard to tell what kind of influence Pope Francis is having in the Twitterverse. But given the number of young adults on Twitter, the pope's presence there can't hurt.
