The second the white smoke appeared above the Sistine Chapel, I instantly turned on my tv, as a result of I needed to see who the brand new pope can be, after which hopped on social media, as a result of I knew that the web might inform me extra concerning the new pope sooner than tv might. That, and the memes can be good.
The memes got here first, naturally, flying in more durable and sooner than they ever did with Pope Francis, as a result of the brand new pope was American. Not simply that — Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was from Chicago, with a bio stuffed with cultural touchstones that the American meme financial system grasped instantly: Did the pope ever drink Malort? Was the pope a Cubs or a Sox fan? Was God going to intercede on behalf of the Knicks within the NBA playoffs as a result of the pope graduated from Villanova? The subsequent wave of knowledge was, I’d suspected, going to be information and articles about his upbringing, pastoral historical past and non secular stances — issues that will inform the world what kind of chief this new pope can be.
After which somebody I adopted posted a screenshot from an X account with the deal with @drprevost: three retweets, over the previous three months, that linked to articles harshly criticizing Donald Trump’s immigration coverage. True, they weren’t phrases immediately from then-Cardinal Prevost himself, however they have been indicators of life and intent nonetheless: a quick, unguarded second, a marker that he was lively and engaged, that spoke volumes concerning the new pope’s innermost ideas. I assume he didn’t have time to wipe his socials, I assumed first, understanding {that a} large MAGA political backlash was on the horizon. The pope solely has an hour — if that — between being chosen and revealing himself to the world. Undoubtedly not sufficient time to ensure his timelines are clear.
After which I paused. Wait. Why am I fascinated by the POPE cleansing up his timelines?
I’m not a Catholic, and didn’t develop up one. The very best description of my spiritual affiliation might be “lapsed Buddhist.” However I’ve at all times been intrigued by the Catholic Church as an establishment: its deep historical past, its huge theology, its creative affect and societal dominance, the interior politics and exterior diplomacy of the trendy Vatican. I generally joke that I deal with and exoticize Catholicism the identical manner that white males exoticize Japan, however my fascination itself is honest: I’m astonished that by some means, the Vatican has maintained its mysticism within the trendy period — an earthly waypoint between the bodily and the divine.
Which is why I nonetheless have a tough time wrapping my head round the truth that lower than two hours into his papacy, I realized extra concerning the pope by his digital footprint than I did by the knowledge filtered by Vatican press releases or interviews along with his family and friends.
I realized from his retweets (and the discourse across the retweets) that he supported gun management laws and Syrian refugees, opposed the repeal of DACA, condemned the 2017 bloodbath at Charlottesville, and known as on Trump to assist local weather change laws. I realized that he’d written a book on religious statistics (out there on JSTOR). I realized from one put up that he’d been a registered Republican, solely to study moments later that Illinois doesn’t have partisan voter registration. (The Washington Free Beacon stories that Leo XIV has previously voted in Republican primaries.) I wouldn’t have been shocked if somebody posted a screenshot of the pope’s Venmo transactions.
After which I got here throughout one thing extra intimate: Pope Leo XIV’s private Fb profile.
I didn’t even need to go digging for it. A pal of mine who’d attended an Augustinian highschool despatched it to me, as a result of it was apparently going viral amongst individuals who’d attended Augustinian academic establishments, as a result of everybody who ever went to an Augustinian faculty in america by some means is aware of somebody who is aware of him. Robert Prevost’s account is at the moment set to personal — wild, as a result of 68-year-olds hardly ever set their Fb accounts to personal by default — however there’s one public photograph out there: the longer term Pope Leo XIV, sporting aviators and a black windbreaker, atop a pony. That’s a meme proper there, thought my horrible, earthly, secular thoughts.
With out fascinated by it, I copied the hyperlink and almost despatched it to a bunch chat, earlier than catching myself in disgust. Viral or not, this was the non-public account of a person who’d had a point of a non-public life when he acquired away from bed this morning, and clearly had not anticipated being elected pope. Anybody who harbored the ambition of turning into the non secular chief of 1.4 billion folks worldwide would, at a minimal, most likely be certain that his socials have been safe — that his 172 Fb pals have been masked from the remainder of the world, or that his retweets from 2017 wouldn’t set off a diplomatic firestorm from an impulsive president or a spiteful vp — earlier than he surrendered his digital units on the conclave.
I don’t suppose I’d have paused to ship that social media profile if it had belonged to anyone else: a politician, a celeb, a coworker whom I didn’t know effectively, a blind date who wanted vetting. And there’s a powerful argument to be made that mining any public determine’s digital exercise is honest sport, significantly in the event that they’re political leaders held to a point of accountability. Venmo requests are sufficient to tank congressmen’s careers. Previous tweets can land somebody in sizzling water within the current day. Discovering a former Fox Information anchor’s cellphone quantity linked to a public Google Critiques account can point out a large nationwide safety disaster.
The second you attempt to apply that customary to the freaking pope, although, the logic simply grinds to a halt — not as a result of a world chief shouldn’t be held to this customary, however as a result of it’s totally baffling that one may even mine the socials of the Vicar of Christ. In actual fact, it’s baffling to suppose {that a} spiritual determine might be subjected to scrutiny of their web historical past, or that they possess one thing as anodyne as a digital footprint — significantly somebody inheriting a job that supposedly dates again to the time of Jesus and was established by Saint Peter the Apostle, whose predecessors are historic saints and medieval rulers, and who claims the title of God’s consultant on Earth, based on the 1.4 billion members of the church he leads.
Perhaps obsessing over the pope’s retweets is a uniquely secular, American approach to assess an American pope — not by his management of the Order of Saint Augustine or his ministerial work in Peru, however by his voting file, sports activities loyalty, or whether or not he’s retweeted imply issues concerning the President. (We are a really tribalist nation that solely thinks about issues by the lens of being American.) We at the moment are collectively engaged in mining the metadata of Pope Leo XIV’s former life for clues as to the path of his papacy simply as a lot as we are attempting to divine which means from his alternative of regnal identify and the 13 Leos that got here earlier than him. Frivolous or not, the digital historical past of a non secular determine is now a factor that exists.