Call me Leo

Anyone who says the Catholic Church is not modernising is simply not paying attention.

- Jane Clifton

First inkling for this writer (a cultural though not necessarily observant Catholic) was the incidence of senior Irish priests - most aged 80 if they were a day - live-streaming the Irish remembrance ceremony for the late Pope Francis on their phones. On their feet, they were: devices unabashedly hoist. There were even – (crosses self) – selfies. Then came the online pile-on in favour of Francis's successor, Chicago-born Pope Leo.

Once, even the playful description of the open-topped papal touring vehicle as “the Pope-mobile” seemed on the edge of blasphemous.

Now, it has to be said, whatever those who occasioned the puff of white smoke intended, the new Pope, albeit surely unintentionally, ticks all the boxes of an internet sensation. We may be on the verge of Pope-a-Robics and Sing-Along-A-Pope.

Unlike the spartan Francis, Pope Leo has so far leaned into both his everyman appeal, and the Papacy's colourful trappings to become - alas, there's no other word for it - marketable.