News commentary

A new pope with a social media presence

Poynter · Tom Jones · last updated

The white smoke came on Thursday.

As far as news events go, the naming of a new pope is still pretty rare, and a really big deal when it happens. Consider this: there have been only 10 — well, now 11— popes since 1903. For comparison’s sake, there have been 21 U.S. presidents in that timeframe.

That’s one of the reasons there was so much excitement when we saw the white smoke on Thursday. Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago native, became the first American to be named head of the Catholic Church and chose the papal name of Pope Leo XIV, which is how he’ll be known from now on. It took just over 24 hours for him to be elected by a group of 133 cardinals, the largest conclave ever.

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