Papa Francis is Watching You

"Unmerciful! Unmerciful! Unmerciful!"

This could be from some young-adult dystopian future. There's "Papa" leading the Two Minutes Hate against ex-Cardinal Goldstein and his nefarious band of neo-pelagianists.

Interestingly, it was posted by Vatican Media advisor Thomas Rosica. It is creepy to discover that Rosica made it his Facebook cover photo.

Update: As some of you may have noticed, I changed the title on the post to link it more clearly with the picture. I would be remiss if I didn't also include a meme that appeared on my own Facebook page shortly after I linked to this post.

This Yahoo News story gives the context--a "surprise" video message from Pope Francis at a Stadium rock concert celebrating the Jubilee Year of Mercy. 

Among other things, Francis said that living without God was like not getting a signal on your iPhone.

Maybe we should call him iPope.

I liked, if that is the right word, the bit about the teenager gushing that when she got right up to him she found that the Pope was just an ordinary guy.

But note her claim that she was not given a penance during confession (and she also gushes over this). While this does not negate the forgiveness of her sins, it is technically a violation of the confessor's role in the sacrament.

No doubt the sacraments were made for Francis, not Francis for the sacraments.

Vatican City (AFP) - Happiness is not an app you can download on your mobile phone, Pope Francis told thousands of teenagers on Sunday at a mass to mark a weekend dedicated to youth. 

"Freedom is not always about doing what you want. In fact it is the gift of being able to choose the right way," he said in a homily punctuated by regular bursts of applause from the crowd on a packed St Peter's Square. 

"Your happiness has no price. It cannot be bought and sold: it is not an application you download on a mobile phone. Even the latest version cannot help you to grow and become free in love." 

An estimated 70,000 teenagers were in Rome for a weekend of events to celebrate Francis's Jubilee year dedicated to the theme of mercy. 

In a surprise move on Saturday, the 79-year-old pontiff heard confessions from 16 of them and a video message from him was broadcast at a rock and rap concert in the Stadio Olimpico. 

One of the teenagers chosen to confess to the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics said she had been trembling as she approached the chair on which the pope was sitting in St Peter's Square. 

"But as soon as I sat down I had the feeling of being next to a normal person rather than the pope. Francis is really one of us," Anna Taibi, 15, told La Repubblica newspaper. 

The Sicilian teenager said she had been touched by Francis's tenderness as he listened to her confession. 

"I expected him to give me a penance ... instead he absolved me and let me go." 

The importance of mobile phones to contemporary teenagers was also reflected in Francis's message to the concert. 

Clutching an iPhone, he told his audience that living without Jesus was like not having any signal. "Always be sure to go where there is a network: family, parish, school," he said.