Conclave 2013: Electing a Pope in a Social Media World

ABC News, Alyssa Newcomb, March 10, 2013

Cardinal Christian Wiyghan Tumi of Cameroun joins fellow cardinals in prayer
 inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, April 18, 2005, at the beginning
of the conclave. (Arturo Mari/Osservatore Romano/Pool/Getty Images)

When white smoke billows out of the Sistine Chapel's chimney, the centuries-old signal that a new pope has been chosen, thousands of people will get a text message and an email.

It's not a service from the Holy See, but rather Pope Alarm, a new website launched before the start of the conclave on Tuesday that promises "when the smoke goes up, you'll know what's going down."

Once the new pope is introduced to the world on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, thousands more will then check their Fantasy Conclave picks to see how they fared.

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"I love the fact contemporary media is giving people access to new ways to the conclave," said Matthew Bunson, general editor of the Catholic Almanac. "It demonstrates that there is intense interest all over the world."

When the 115 cardinal electors enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday for the start of the conclave, they'll have the prayers and support of people who have registered to "adopt a cardinal."

After someone enters their email address on the Adopt a Cardinal website, they're assigned one of the 115 cardinal electors to keep in their prayers. The cardinals know about the site, and they seem to approve. 

"To all participating in 'Adopt a Cardinal' project: 'Thank you very much for 'adopting' us. Your prayers are helping us discern God's will," Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, South Africa tweeted.

Once the conclave begins, the cardinals will live detached from the outside world until a new pope is chosen.

Cell phone jamming devices are installed in the Sistine Chapel in order to insure the utmost secrecy, and for the approximately nine cardinals who are active on Twitter, that means taking a social media vacation.

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"When you finger down the list of tweeting cardinals, many of them are considered pabaile (papal contenders)," Bunson said. "Cardinal Angelo Scola (of Italy) tweets aggressively. Cardinal Odilo Scherer (of Brazil) has a Twitter, and of course Cardinal Timothy Dolan (of New York) is very popular online."

The cardinal electors will vote four times per day-- twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon-- until the reach a two-thirds majority.

If the next pope were chosen by an online popularity contest, three social-media-savvy cardinals would have to duke it out for the top spot.

The Twitter and Facebook accounts of Cardinals Timothy Dolan of New York, Luis Tagle of Manila and Gianfranco Ravasi of Italy have accounted for more than 85 percent of cardinals' social-media use, according to Decisyon, an Italian start-up specializing in social media analysis.

While Bunson called being social media savvy "a plus" for the contenders, he said it's essential the new pope embraces Twitter, as Benedict XVI did, and other forms of digital media.

"Certainly popes have embraced the use of radio, film, and television and then the Internet," he said. "Social media is the next area of communication that has to be used and understood if the church is going to evangelize and get the gospel out there."

ABC News has put together a Twitter list, including some of these cardinals and our own reporters who are on the ground in the Vatican. You can follow them all here.

Excommunicated female priest Janice Sevre-Duszynska,
protests in Romeon March 7, 2013 (AFP, Tiziana Fabi)

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“ … Spirituality (Religions)

Number one: Spirituality. The systems of spiritual design on your planet are starting to change. This is not telling you that certain ones are going to go away. They're simply going to change. Some of the largest spiritual systems, which you would call organized religion on the planet, are shifting. They're going to shift away from that which is authority on the outside to authority on the inside. It will eventually be a different way of worship, slowly changing the rules while keeping the basic doctrine the same.

The doctrine of the Christ has always been to find the God inside. The teachings were clear. The examples of the miracles were given as an example of what humans could do, not to set a man up for worship as a God. So when that has been absorbed, the teaching of the Christ can remain the teaching of the Christ. It simply changes the interpretation. 

The teachings of the great prophets of the Middle East (all related to each other) are about unity and love. So once the holy words are redefined with new wisdom, the Human changes, not the words of the prophets. In fact, the prophets become even more divinely inspired and their wisdom becomes even more profound.

You're going to lose a pope soon. I have no clock. Soon to us can mean anything to you. The one who replaces him may surprise you, for his particular organization will be in survival mode at that point in time. That is to say that fewer and fewer are interested in starting the priesthood. Fewer and fewer young people are interested in the organization, and the new pope must make changes to keep his church alive. That means that his organization will remain, but with a more modern look at what truly is before all of you in a new energy. It is not the fall of the church. It is instead the recalibration of the divinity inside that would match the worship that goes on. It's a win-win situation. The new pope will have a difficult time, since the old guard will still be there. There could even be an assassination attempt, such is the way the old energy dies hard. That is number one. Watch for it. It's a change in the way spiritual systems work. It's a realignment of spiritual systems that resound to a stronger truth that is Human driven, rather than prophet driven.…”