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Pope Francis accidentally supports Saints in tweet about actual saints

Pope Francis, the 82-year-old head of the Catholic Church, made an important announcement on Twitter on Sunday. He appeared to announce to the whole world and his 18 million Twitter followers that he is a New Orleans Saints fan.

Before any Saints fan starts imagining the elderly pontiff riding in the Super Bowl parade in his famous Pope Mobile, perhaps while wearing many sets of beads around his neck, we need to take a step back. Could there be anything else Pope Francis was talking about in that tweet? Perhaps the thing that the football team was named after?

It’s exactly that. Pope Francis canonized five new saints at the Vatican on Sunday: Cardinal John Henry Newman, Giuseppina Vannini, Mariam Thresia Chiaramel Mankidiyan, Dulce Lopes Pontes and Marquerite Bays. Pope Francis, being an aged religious figure, didn’t realize that hashtagging “Saints” on Twitter would make the football team’s logo appear, since Catholic saints have been around for over 1,000 years.

Pope Francis accidentally became a football fan after an unintentional hashtag mishap on Sunday. (Photo by Giuseppe Ciccia/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Pope Francis accidentally became a football fan after an unintentional hashtag mishap on Sunday. (Photo by Giuseppe Ciccia/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

It’s not terribly surprising that Pope Francis didn’t know about Twitter giving the “Saints” hashtag to the football team. The man is over 80, doesn’t watch television and spends most of his days praying and visiting the Catholic faithful. And on top of all of that, he’s from Argentina, a country where the other football (aka soccer) is the most popular sport. In fact, Pope Francis is an avid soccer fan, and has found ways to follow the sport despite making a promise to the Virgin Mary in 1990 to never watch television.

The obvious mistake didn’t stop football fans from sending Pope Francis replies asking for his intercession on other football matters, and from just plain having fun with the pontiff’s adorable Twitter mistake.

The Pope’s blessing may have been unintentional, but the Saints thanked him anyway after their 13-6 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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