The news quickly flooded the social media lines, along with some quick jokes. Some posts referenced movie titles: “Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Pope”; “Jurassic Pope”; “Dpope Unchained.”
A Twitter account that looked like it could be the pope’s ((at)JMBergoglio) was flooded with followers, drawing more than 137,000. But it was clearly a fake, with one tweet saying he’d be loved more than Santa Claus.
There is an official pope account: (at)Pontifex. Pope Benedict XVI joined in December under that handle, but it went quiet after his retirement announcement.
Shortly after the new pope appeared, the account tweeted “HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM.” (“We have a Pope Francis.”)
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Associated Press correspondent Jake Coyle in New York contributed to this report.
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David Bauder can be reached at dbauder(at)ap.org and on Twitter (at)dbauder.
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