“Drippy Pope” was fake, but can “Influencer Pope” become a reality? ABC News took a look at the social media habits of some current members of the College of Cardinals, who will begin the process of selecting a new pope tomorrow.
Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, the archbishop of Tokyo, has a modest Instagram following of around 3,000 but is not afraid to post a selfie. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the former archbishop of the Philippines, has 642,000 followers on Facebook.
But it’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, who seems most at home in the digital age. He has almost 300,000 followers on X, where he has been posting videos from around Rome and even some news of the cardinals’ meeting locations leading up to the conclave.
Gustavo Entrala, a former communications consultant for the late Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, said he can’t imagine any of the cardinals are actively “posting for the fact that they want to be elected.” However, the next pope will lead the 1.4 billion members of the Catholic Church, so it makes sense that candidates would want to connect with them.—HVL