#1184 Holy Friending

There used to be a song we would sing in Sunday school that went, “What a friend we have in Jesus...” I was reminded of it the other day when I read an article about the Pope being on Facebook.
That’s right, the ultimate product testimonial---Approved by the Pope.
Looks like Facebook’s Hail Mary marketing pass to the Vatican worked.
It’s part of the current Pope’s efforts to get the church more modern. Reach out to the younger folks. Let’s hope we don’t hear him do a “righteous rap” anytime soon. Although that blessing with a hand gesture thing is totally gangsta.
Modern hasn’t been easy for His Holyness. His trying to trade on the Obama campaign slogan of “Yes We Can” with the Church’s, “Yes We Vati-Can” was a little nerdy even by Papal standards.
But it’s tough. What makes you the Pope is your removal from earthly passions, so it’s not easy to engage on a worldly level. You don’t see the Dalai Lama in an alpaca sweater. You don’t want the Pope to be too hip.
But I worry a little about him moving heavily into the interweb. The Vatican has a website now. And the Pope sends out messages. And I hear he blogs. There’s two words that clash like green olives and chocolate milk. Pope and blog. Who conceived of that travesty? Not a very immaculate conception if you ask me.
And there’s that other internet thing, Twitter. I know sending messages by white doves was a little unreliable, but do we want the Pope “tweeting.” There is something almost blasphemous about the thought of getting a “tweet” from the Pope.
Still, I bet he’s used to having a lot of followers.
The Pope has said no twittering at this point, but he’s still doing the Facebook thing. Which brings up a whole new set of problems. Like how weird it would be to get one of those invitation emails. “The Pope would like to be your friend.”
Or how devastating it would be to be unfriended by the Pope. Forget about excommunicated, you’d be, like, Ex-co-friendicated.
What a friend we have in...
America, ya gotta love it.