As white smoke released into the open air above the Vatican, the world set its eyes on St. Peter’s Square wondering who the new leader of the Catholic Church would be. The public speculated several papal candidates from Canada’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet, to Italy’s Cardinal Angelo Scola to the Philippine’s Cardinal Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle, even former Chicago Bull Denis Rodman made a trip to the Vatican to promote Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana’s papal candidacy. But, alas, Argentina’s Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is now Pope Francis– the first Latin American pope.
The beauty of an event like this—even if you’re not Catholic or a Christian or religious at all for that matter—is witnessing multiculturalism at its best. Even these first graders can see the connection between multiculturalism and the conclave. As the crowd awaited the pope’s first appearance, they waved flags from several nations including France, Brazil, Italy, the United States and many more. The fact that the conclave elected the first South American pope just adds to the multicultural spirit.
A world religion perked the interest of the world yesterday.
Not convinced? Well consider that this conclave was the first where social media had a real presence—expanding the reach and speed of the #newpope. According to the Wall Street Journal, the new pope was mentioned 5 million times an hour after being named pope—so, basically, everybody on social media at least got the impression that a new pope is leading the Catholic Church.
What a gift it is to see real time global reactions to a global event.
Did you know?
- Bergoglio is the son of Italians who immigrated to Argentina. An estimated 60% of Argentinean’s have some Italian Heritage.
- Pope Francis chose Francis after St. Francis of Assisi.
- Pope Francis is multilingual– he speaks Spanish, Italian and German.
- While Pope Benedict joined the social media world in 2012, Pope Francis already has Twitter– or is it just fake account?
Cover Photo Source: Catholic Church England and Wales via Flickr
Photo Source 1: Catholic Church England and Wales via Flickr
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Cassandra-Bremer-Our-Space-Photo-e1402061863316.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Cassandra is a Content Manager and Developer at SJG. She earned her BA from Fontbonne University in 2011. Outside the office, she enjoys an active, healthy and well-rounded lifestyle including reading, writing, running, golfing, watching films, listening to music, taking photographs, and consuming media and social media. [/author_info] [/author]