Did you know Pope Francis has Twitter accounts in nine languages and almost 53 million followers?

He recently wrote these followers.

‘Thank you to all who follow me on this account which was opened 10 years ago to proclaim the joy of the Gospel. Let us continue to build up this network as a free space to promote encounter and dialogue and to value what unites us.” (https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/1602279602281480196)

I remembered a site 80 Reasons to Love Pope Francis.

In this Vincentian Mindwalk I would like to present a selection under two headings… his simplicity and piercing observations.

Things people Love Pope Francis for

After his election, he stopped by his hotel to pick up his suitcase, paid his bill and moved into the Vatican guest house in instead of the papal apartments.

He’s the first pope to have an Instagram account, reaching one million followers in just 12 hours.

Currently, he tweets to some  53 million followers on Twitter at @Pontifex.

And he appreciates a good selfie.

He doesn’t mind when kids interrupt his speeches to hang out. In his children’s book, Dear Pope Francis, he was asked, “If you could do one miracle, what would it be? “I would heal children.”

No other Pope  has taken kids for a spin in the popemobile.

1,500 homeless people were invited to the Vatican for pizza. As a treat, he opened the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel to homeless people for a private tour.

There is now a new homeless shelter near the Vatican. Poor and homeless people in the VIP seats at a charity concert.

While visiting Washington, DC, instead of dining with Congress, he had a meal with homeless people.

He told bishops to show compassion for broken marriages. And called on church officials to live modestly.

“I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.

The church should be like a “field hospital.”

How many popes can say they were once a bouncer at a nightclub in Buenos Aires.

Now he has one lung, but it does the job of two!

Pope Francis makes piercing observations…

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”

“If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy, and people say, ‘What are we going to do?’ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat, or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing.”

“Today, the news is scandals; that is news, but the many children who don’t have food – that’s not news. This is grave. We can’t rest easy while things are this way.”

“An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth… Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them.”

“Whenever we encounter another person in love, we learn something new about God.”

“If our hearts are closed, if our hearts are made of stone, the stones find their way into our hands and we are ready to throw them.

Anything in particular that struck you?

Originally posted on Vincentian Mindwalk