While thousands of people gathered at St. Peter’s Square to celebrate the announcement of Pope Francis, the rest of the world came together on Twitter. As speculation about the new pope swirled about, much like the white smoke from the chimney at the Sistine Chapel, people across the globe tweeted with anticipation. After 45 minutes of post-smoke waiting, the new @Pontifex was announced.
Throughout today, as anticipation mounted about an announcement, we saw over 7 million Tweets about the papacy. As people reacted to Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran’s announcement of the new Pope, we saw more than 130,000 Tweets per minute. The Pope’s official account, @Pontifex, weighed in as he concluded his first address:
HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM
— Pontifex ( @Pontifex) March 13, 2013
Meanwhile, a glimpse into the global conversation:
Since Pope Francis is the former Cardinal of Buenos Aires, good wishes poured in from his home country of Argentina. In fact, the President tweeted her formal congratulations:
A su Santidad Francisco I twitter.com/CFKArgentina/s…
— Cristina Kirchner ( @CFKArgentina) March 13, 2013
A prominent Argentine rabbi shared a photo of himself with the Cardinal:
Tengo el honor de que el Papa #FranciscoI haya escrito el prólogo de mi libro “Argentina Ciudadana” #Bergoglio. twitter.com/sergiobergman/…
— Sergio Bergman ( @sergiobergman) March 13, 2013
Back in Rome, others witnessing the historic reveal shared their experiences from St. Peter’s Square:
PRIMER PAPA ARGENTINO Y PRIMER PAPA JESUITA
— Elisabetta Piqué ( @bettapique) March 13, 2013
Papa Francesco mi ha fatto commuovere con le sue parole. Semplice e generoso, ciò di cui tutti sentiamo necessità. twitter.com/MatteoBraconi/…
— Matteo Braconi ( @MatteoBraconi) March 13, 2013
#Habemuspapam #FrancescoI #VescovodiRoma: ‘ci vediamo domani’ . Grande emozione a #Sanpietro. twitter.com/Mario8863/stat…
— Mario Greco ( @Mario8863) March 13, 2013
Crowd at St Peter’s Sq awaiting new #Pope’s tweets. #twitter twitpic.com/cb37js
— Cara Swift ( @cswift2) March 13, 2013
People excitedly running towards St. Peter’s Square! #pope twitter.com/TVMarci/status…
— Marci Gonzalez ( @TVMarci) March 13, 2013
I was just walking by and saw this going on. Looked important. #HABEMUSPAPAM twitter.com/mccrumagic15/s…
— Brian McCrum ( @mccrumagic15) March 13, 2013
I cannot believe I just witnessed the election of Papa Francesco twitter.com/ErinMishu/stat…
— Erin Mishu ( @ErinMishu) March 13, 2013
Those who couldn’t make it to Rome still tweeted their reactions to the new Pope, wherever they were:
South America is where it’s at now: the Olympics, World Cup and now the Pope
— Chuck Todd ( @chucktodd) March 13, 2013
First Messi, now the Pope. You’re killing it, Argentina.
— Stewart Mandel ( @slmandel) March 13, 2013
May Francesco reboot the Church, recoverlinks that are broken, delete the errors that hurt my faith #HabemusPapam
— Paulo Coelho ( @paulocoelho) March 13, 2013
Un Papa che davvero può cambiare la Storia.
— fabio fazio ( @fabfazio) March 13, 2013
L’emozione per un papa che sceglie di chiamarsi Francesco
— enrico mentana ( @ementana) March 13, 2013
Posted by Claire Diaz-Ortiz (@claire)
Social Innovation Team
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