Which tweeting cardinal could become a "Conclave mole"?
Mauro Pianta
ROMe
Who knows whether one of them might ignore Vatican rules and give into the temptation of tweeting during the upcoming Conclave. 10 of the 117 cardinals who will shortly be shutting themselves inside the Sistine Chapel to elect the new Pope have their own personal Twitter account. Bookies in a number of countries have decided to take bets on who will ignore the tweeting ban during the Conclave, though betting screens rate this as highly improbable.
We will have to wait and see then what Dolan and co. will do. The Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, the man whom the media have branded the “American pope”, has more followers than any other cardinal: 82 thousand of them. Dolan was in fact one of the first to sign up for a Twitter account in February 2009.
Ratzinger’s Italian “minister” of culture, Gianfranco Ravasi, occupies second place in the tweeter’s league, with almost 38 thousand followers. In one of his latest tweets he quotes Goethe: “Man is a sad wayfarer in a dark world”. In recent days Ravasi has been tweeting about the spiritual exercises he is preaching in the Curia. He is the only cardinal on Twitter to present himself with his name, surname and occupation: “Priest and Cardinal President of the Pontifical Council for Culture” on his profile.
The Archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil, Cardinal Odilo Scherer, wins the bronze medal, with 23 followers. In a tweet sent on 14 February, he wrote: “I’m shocked by people’s interpretations of the Pope’s resignation. Is it the Pope who’s not telling the truth?”
The Archbishop of Milan, Angelo Scola, another papabile comes fourth. He has almost 18 thousand followers. In one of his latest tweets the cardinal focused on a subject that is very dear to him: “Education requires a humanity that is visible, it requires maturity.”
Coming in, in fifth place is the Archbishop of Boston, Sean Patrick O’Malley who prefers to simply be called Cardinal Sean by his 10 thousand followers. This brings Sean Connery, agent 007 to mind. Meanwhile, in sixth place we have the Archbishop of Mexico, Norberto Rivera, occupies seventh place, with his 4 thousand-strong “fanbase”.
The Archbishop of Durban, South Africa, Cardinal Napier comes seventh (3400 followers). He writes: “"Thank you" Tweeters for your prayers & offers to pray during the Conclave to elect the new Pope. Keep praying for a truly Christlike Leader”. Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez of Bogota, Colombia is in at eighth place with just over 3 thousand followers. Further down the league we find Sistach, Barcelona’s archbishop, who has 2600 followers and finally the controversial Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, Roger Mahony, has just 559 followers. Despite covering up paedophilia cases Cardinal Mahony will be taking part in the next Conclave. Only a few days ago he tweeted: “Am planning to be in Rome and vote for the next Pope. Will be tweeting daily.” Could he be the Conclave mole?
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