13 of the funniest Twitter reactions to the pope’s resignation

The Pope

Twitter seems to have come alive to the news that Pope Benedict is set to resign at the end of February. The news was confirmed by his holiness’ spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.

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The BBC is reporting that the 85-year-old religious leader announced his decision in Latin, during a meeting of Vatican cardinals.

Benedict is the 265th pope and the sixth from Germany. He is however the first German to lead the church since the 11th century. He is also the first pope to resign since 1415.

It was not immediately clear why Benedict had chosen to resign, although emerging details from his speech suggest that it is down to his advanced age:

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the pope said.

The papal seat will remain vacant until a successor is chosen.

Given how quickly the news came after the pope got an official Twitter campaign, it’s unsurprising that the announcement gained massive traction on the social network, trending globally as details of the resignation were still emerging:

In fact, there were more than a few references to him joining Twitter:

There were other techie jokes:

At least one person made reference to Benedict’s resemblance to Emperor Palaptine from the Star Wars franchise:

Another tweeted about what the pope’s retirement benefits he might be getting:

This guy compared the Catholic Church to a rock band losing its lead singer:

There was reference to the demands of the job:

Someone also made reference to Simon Cowell’s propensity for capitalising on every opportunity possible:

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