He may now be the Pope Emeritus, but an app that was launched by former pontiff, Benedict XVI, is number one on the iTunes chart. With 155,000 downloads across different devices, the app is the most downloaded news app in iPhones in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Peru, Poland, Chile, Mexico, Portugal and of course Argentina.

Argentina is where current pope, Francis, was born and raised, although his parents were actually Italian immigrants. The rise to top of the Pope App indicates the renewed interest in the papacy following the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict and the election of Argentinean Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 266th leader of the 1.2-billion strong Roman Catholic Church.

It is the second most downloaded news app in France and Germany and is in the top 10 in 8 other nations, according to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications which managed the app with content from the Vatican's multimedia news portal.

The app provides news and the official speeches of Pope Francis. It also has images and videos of his appearances and provides live coverage of events in the Vatican and alerts about the papacy.

It also doubles as a webcam of the Vatican by providing a view overlooking St Peter's Square where the papal audiences are held, the view of the dome of the St Peter's Basilica, the tomb of deceased Pope John Paul II and the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.

The app was launched on Jan 23 by then Pope Benedict, just three weeks before he announcement his resignation which took effect Feb 28, 2013.

The use by the Catholic Church of technology is an indicator of how the institution, often perceived as outdated, is trying to keep up with the modern times. Pope Benedict made history by opening a Twitter account in December 2012 using the handle @Pontifex, which is continued by Pope Francis, who even broke his predecessor's record and logged more than 2 million followers days after he resumed using the same handle.

He has so far made 7 tweets since he resurrected the @Pontifex handle.

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