Screenshot of a tweet from Pope Francis about the keys to Heaven, which many Christians have interpreted as a subtweet to President Trump (Twitter)

Twitter is a great way to communicate directly with everyone from Kim Kardashian to President Trump. Even the Pope is on Twitter, providing a direct line to Catholicism’s top dog. But lately people have been taking the phrase “Is the Pope Catholic?” less as a rhetorical device and more as a literal question.




We recently wrote about a tweet from Pope Francis that said the Bible asks us to welcome migrants and foreigners. Many Twitter users were not happy about that.

“How often in the Bible the Lord asks us to welcome migrants and foreigners, reminding us that we too are foreigners!” the Pope tweeted from the official Pontifex Twitter account.


Ever since that tweet, people have been taking anything the Pope says as a subtweet to President Trump and his harsh policies on immigration and refugees. With Trump’s most recent directives—which can be liberally interpreted as orders to deport all 11 million undocumented people currently in the US—the anger against the Pope has pushed into overdrive.

“Jesus entrusted to Peter the keys to open the entrance to the kingdom of heaven, and not to close it,” the Pope tweeted just an hour ago. Judging by the reactions, people on Twitter seem to think (probably justifiably) that this might have something to do with President Trump closing America’s doors to immigrants and refugees.

And yet again, we have plenty of Christians on Twitter explaining the Bible to the Pope:





I’m still stuck on what to call this phenomenon. Popesplaining? Biblesplaining? Being an all around dick to the person who you believe is the representative of God’s word on Earth?

I’m not Catholic, so it’s probably not my place to give it a name. But the last one might be too long.