Tagle conquers Facebook as D-day announced March 12

As cardinals assemble in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel for the start of the conclave on Tuesday, March 12, an Italian start-up, Decisyon, says Manila Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle generated 52% of social media content from among papal contenders on Facebook and Twitter. He is followed by New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has over 24,000 fans on Facebook and 90,700 followers on Twitter; and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who has over 42,000 followers on Twitter. But popularity on social networks will have little bearing as the centuries-old ritual begins.

All the cardinals swear a solemn oath of secrecy and hold a first vote, where the challenge will be to find a 266th pope able to deal with the many challenges assailing the Church. The church faces growing secularism in the West and rising Islamic radicalism. Internally, it’s Roman Curia is hounded by infighting over sexual abuse by pedophile priests and cover-ups known as “Vatileaks”. The 115 “cardinal electors” – cardinals below the age limit of 80 – are unlikely to veer far from the conservative views of Benedict XVI and his predecessor John Paul II since they were all appointed by the two popes. Seasoned Vatican observers admit that the field is still wide open, though the most oft-cited names are three cardinals in the same mould as Benedict: Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, Odilo Scherer, the archbishop of Sao Paulo, and Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation of Bishops. A two-thirds majority – 77 votes or more – is needed to elect a pope. The smoke from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel turns to white if the papal election has taken place and the cardinal has accepted his nomination. The new pope retires to the “Room of Tears” next to the chapel before emerging onto a balcony over St Peter’s Square to cheering crowds and the cry of “Habemus Papam!” (“We Have a Pope!”)

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