Pope Francis’s Twitter Followers Hit 5 Million; Angry Bird Stalks Pontiff

Pope Francis's popularity continues to soar. Barely one month from his election and resuming the use of the @Pontifex handle, his nine Twitter accounts in different languages have reached more than 5 million followers.

Besides the English language of his primary Twitter account which counts more than 2.2 million followers, the other accounts carry the same tweets in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Polish, Latin and Arabic tongues.

When his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, closed the account on Feb 28, he had only 2 million followers.

The pope's Twitter followers, though, still pales in comparison to U.S. President Barack Obama who has 29.3 million followers and Lady Gaga who has 27.5 million followers.

Another indicator of Pope Francis's growing popularity is a Pew Research Centre study released on Wednesday that said 84 per cent of Roman Catholics in the U.S. have a favourable view of the pontiff.

Of the 1,001 adults Americans covered by the Pew survey, 193 are Catholics. Including followers of other religion, 57 per cent of Americans gave their thumbs up for the leader of the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, while 29 per cent said they could not yet rate Pope Francis, who was elected in the conclave on March 14.

When Pope Benedict was elected by fellow cardinals in 2005 to succeed Pope John Paul II, three months into his term, only 67 per cent of American Catholics had a favourable opinion of the German pope. However, the record holder is Pope John Paul II who enjoyed a consistent 90 per cent favourable rating in Pew polls.

But Pope Francis, who was Argentinean Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio before his election, appears to have followers also of the avian type, in particular a medium-sized seagull spotted several times within the Vatican grounds in the past two months.

It was initially spotted at the 2013 Caravan of Peace event held on the last weekend of January when Pope Benedict released two doves which are symbols of peace. The first dove flew to a window ledge, but the second was attacked by the seagull, reports The Spur.

It appears to be the same seagull seen on top of the Vatican chimney during the conclave. As a result of that angry bird's prominence, Vatican officials started a Seagull Watch with the aim of capturing the seagull, although they assured the seagull would not be harmed.

The no harm policy befits Pope Francis who took his name after St Francis of Assisi, known for his talking to birds, wolves and other animals.