Pope Francis tweeted for the first time Sunday on the reactivated @Pontifex account, only four days after he formally succeeded Benedict XVI.
The @Pontifex twitter account has been reactivated after being deactivated in order to avoid confusion over which Pope was tweeting. All of Pope Benedict XVI’s tweets have been deleted.
Two American interns, Sean Hudgins and Danielle McMonagle, take care of the Pope’s social media accounts. Both interns attend Villanova University—a Catholic school in Pennsylvania, reported Mashable.
The two interns update the News.Va English language Facebook page and are always on the lookout for fake Pope accounts.
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“We also monitor Twitter activity so we’re on the lookout for impostor accounts, things like that, because there’s the risk—I know with the tweet that happened the other night—almost immediately a bunch of fake Pope Francis accounts were made. We watch for things like that,” Hudgins told Mashable.
“I initially was a little concerned. Was I going to be able to handle schoolwork and doing a nine-to-one internship during the day as well? But it hasn’t been a problem at all,” he said. “Not to bash previous internships, but I’ve done a lot of other internships and [this has] been a very different experience, something I don’t think you’re going to get from summer internships in the [United States]. I’m definitely a big proponent of it.”
