Cardinals Not Allowed To Tweet During Conclave

A new Pope will be chosen to lead the Catholics of the world soon - and the powers that be do NOT want those making the decision to be influenced by Twitter. Of the 117 Cardinals eligible to vote for a new Pope, nine of them are on the microblogging platform - but they won't be tweeting during Conclave (the new Pope selection process). Their little red vests depend on it! Catholic News reports that the College of Cardinals includes at least nine active tweeters. And "[f]rom the moment they enter the Sistine Chapel to cast their ballots, they will be forbidden access to their accounts along with all other forms of communication with the outside world." Who are these actively tweeting Cardinals (so you know who to place your bets on for sending that "oops" tweet)? Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York (@CardinalDolan) Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston (@CardinalSean) Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, (@CardRavasi) Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer of Sao Paulo (@DomOdiloScherer) Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan (@angeloscola) South African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban (@CardinalNapier) Spanish Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach of Barcelona (@sistachcardenal) Colombian Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota (@cardenalruben) And finally, we have Cardinal Roger M. Mahony (@CardinalMahony), the retired archbishop of Los Angeles. And in case you were wondering: Cardinal Scola started tweeting in May 2009. Cardinals Ravasi, Scherer and Napier began in July 2011. Cardinals O'Malley, Martinez Sistach and Dolan began in March 2012, and Cardinal Salazar just launched his account in December. Cardinal Scola has the lowest retweet rate - 40 percent, while Cardinal Dolan topped the list at 100 percent, which is the same retweet rate @Pontifex enjoys. The others have a retweet rate of between 82 percent and 90 percent. I hope they plan to confiscate everyone's smartphones, sounds like the last temptation of Christ to me! Don't worry, I can say that - I'm Catholic. Even if there isn't an "oops" during the Conclave (as I'm pretty sure there won't be), expect a flurry of tweets from these fellas after the deed is done as most are tweeting away in recent days about going to Rome to vote for the next Pope. What's that? You thought "Pride" was among the seven deadly sins? Well, it is - but it's also called a "cardinal" sin, so maybe that makes it okay. (Vatican image from Shutterstock)

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Cardinals Not Allowed To Tweet During Conclave

Mary C. Long

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Mary C. Long