Pope Francis, who died on April 21 at the age of 88, knew how to preach in the social media era.
He kept up with the latest apps, seeing them as opportunities to reach Catholics wherever they are. Though he stopped watching television in 1990, he joined Instagram in 2016, setting a record with 1.4 million followers in less than 12 hours. In the final days of his life, he was on weekly WhatsApp and video calls with a parish in the war zone of Gaza.
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Young Catholics found him relatable, and it helped that the leader of the largest Christian church was also a fan of the world’s most-watched sport, soccer. He grew up rooting for the club San Lorenzo from his native Buenos Aires and met with legendary Argentine players Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona.
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Though his days as nightclub bouncer (true) ended decades ago, he knew how to party. Tango, he said in 2010, “comes from deep within me.” In 2014, hundreds of couples danced it in St. Peter’s Square, in a show of appreciation for him.
As with other newly anointed celebrities, it took Francis a while to get used to being in the spotlight. “The only thing I would like is to go out one day, without being recognized, and go to a pizzeria for a pizza,” he told an interviewer in 2015. So the Pope ordered in; in 2017, he blew out a candle on a 13-ft.-long mozzarella and tomato pie for his 81st birthday.
The only thing he loved more than pizza was sweets. Friends from Argentina would bring him alfajores, Argentine cookies filled with caramel and covered in chocolate. In February 2014, he posed with a life-size chocolate statue of himself, a gift made out of 1.5 tons of cocoa. His go-to caffeinated drink was maté, and he would accept a cup whenever one was offered on a rope line.
What social media users ate up were his photo ops. True to his eponym St. Francis of Assisi’s love of animals, and his role as shepherd of more than 1 billion Catholics, he went viral in 2018 posing with a baby lamb around his neck at a live nativity scene.
After homilies, Francis was always game to pose for selfies, especially with teens. And though he once described the Internet as “a gift from God,” he also worried that the social media platforms designed to keep people connected were making them more isolated, stating in 2018, “The world of virtual communication is a good thing, but when it becomes alienating, it makes you forget to shake hands.” It’s a lesson that can apply to adults too.