Boston Globe journalist and Catholic commentator Michael O’Loughlin opens a wonderful window into the heart and revolutionary mission of Pope Francis by examining his extensive and revelatory use of social media—published to coincide with the pontiff’s visit to the United States in September 2015.
Michael O’Loughlin uses Pope Francis’s almost daily “tweets” to his 21 million followers to explain why this pope has captured the world’s imagination and to explore his strategy and vision for the Catholic Church. Grouped by the Pope’s most pressing concerns—forgiveness, mercy, injustice, poverty, war, joy, the environment, and more—The Tweetable Pope uses Francis’ pithy 140-character (or fewer) missives as a prism to view the biographical, historical, and spiritual context of his messages and how each is part of a larger vision.
O’Loughlin contends that these seemingly simple communications provide a direct line to the Pope’s heart, illuminating a peaceful, loving, and courageous visionary committed to restoring the church to the original Christian tenets of its founder, Jesus Christ—love, mercy, grace, and compassion—and reshaping it as a force for change to help the most needy. A thoughtful and enlightening examination of how the pope is using this exciting and fascinating new medium to communicate directly to his flock, The Tweetable Pope is an inspiring and moving testimony of how we, too, can be more centered on what matters most to God.
How do you reinvigorate an institution that prides itself on preserving two thousand years of history? That is the challenge Jorge Mario Bergoglio faced when he became Pope Francis in March 2013. From the beginning, with his commitment to "remember the poor," Francis embarked on a mission to "rebrand" the Church so that it better reflected its founder, Jesus Christ, instead of preserving institutional power and prestige. Amid surprising pronouncements and reforms and a humble and humorous approach to his office, Francis's most surprising strategy may be his decision to leverage a modern innovation that his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had begun to use: a Twitter account with which, for the first time in history, the pope can communicate directly with his global flock. With more than 21 million followers reading Tweets in 9 languages, Francis regularly posts his 140-character (or less) sermons a few times each week.
The Boston Globe and Crux journalist Michael O'Loughlin argues that Pope Francis's social media output reveals the secret to his popularity and provides a window into his priorities, passions, and exciting and revolutionary vision for the Church. With chapters on the primary themes used in Francis's Tweets—the poor, forgiveness, immigration, youth, mercy, joy, even "sports," and more—O'Loughlin explains the biographical and historical context for what the pope writes as well the spirituality these posts embody. Surprisingly, O'Loughlin discovers that by following these 140-character sermons, we not only better understand the pope's revolutionary agenda but can also be inspired to be better Christians.
"To say that Pope Francis is reaching millions with his tweets is a statistic. To explain why he is reaching millions is authentic education and new evangelization. O'Loughlin masterfully offers the background, context and foreground of Pontifex's brilliant method of communicating with the world."
