Pope Francis
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Pope Francis wants you to give up being a jerk online for Lent
Forget quitting smoking or cutting carbs from your diet. If you're thinking of something to give up this Lent, which starts today (Ash Wednesday), Pope Francis has a surprisingly modern suggestion. During the weekly General Audience in St. Peter's Square today, the Pope told the 12,000 people gathered to "disconnect from cell phones and connect to the Gospel," according to Vatican News, the Holy See's information service. This Lent, Pope Francis said, "is a time in which to turn off the television and open the Bible."
Pope Francis is starting his own Instagram account (update: live)
The Catholic church under Pope Francis is already quick to use the internet to spread its message, but it's about to kick things up a notch: the Vatican has announced that the Pope will launch his own Instagram account, "Franciscus," on March 19th. It's not certain what he'll be snapping, but it's likely that it'll take a different approach than the Vatican's existing Instagram account. The big question is whether or not the Pope will take photos himself -- it'd be great to see a few papal selfies as Lent winds to a close, but we won't be shocked if it mostly amounts to others posting on his behalf. Update (3/19): Sure enough, the Pope's account is live.
Pope Francis to address the world's children on Google Hangouts
Pope Francis likes mixing it up with the public, and has no problem using the internet to do so. To wit, he'll be hosting his second video chat on Google Hangout, a forum that's been popular with other public figures like President Obama for face time with the masses. The chat will be sponsored by his educational entity Scholas, like it was last year when he spoke to students from around the globe (see the video below for a wrap-up). This time, he'll be taking questions from children with special needs and disabilities from Spain, Brazil, India and the US. If you're interested, you can catch the whole event tomorrow at 10:00 AM ET.
