Pope-ular culture

WHEN A LIFE-SIZE cardboard cutout of Pope Francis stopped by Hasan Abdul-Azziz's soap stand at a farmers market in Wilmington, Del., last week, he knew just the type of soap that would please a pope.

"The pope needs something that's holy," Abdul-Azziz said, as he handed a bar of soap to Christa Scalies, the woman standing behind the papal cutout.

Scalies, who kept her hand on the pope's back to prevent him from blowing over, took one whiff.

"It's got frankincense," Scalies said. "You do know what you're talking about!"

Abdul-Azziz smiled.

"It's got frankincense and myrrh," he said. "I do know what I'm talking about."

As the poster boy for Catholicism, Pope Francis is known as a stand-up guy who often bucks Vatican tradition and pops up in the most unlikely of places to interact with normal folks.

The same thing can be said for his life-size cardboard cutout, known as the Pop-Up Pope, who's been spotted in photos with fans at LOVE Park, at the farmers market in Wilmington and even at McGillin's Olde Ale House, an unlikely spot, but not for Pope Francis, who once worked as nightclub bouncer in Argentina.

Pope Francis has reached rock-star status.

"The rock-star greeting is not new to Pope Francis," said the Rev. Stephen DeLacy, vocation director for diocesan priesthood at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. "What is new is how immediately he's growing the rock-star status beyond what others have."

Pope Francis has been on the cover of Rolling Stone, he makes grown men cry like little girls at a Justin Bieber concert, he's an honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters and the World Meeting of Families has sold more than 80 life-size cutouts of his likeness at $160 a pop.

"How do you explain something like that?" said Philadelphia's Archbishop Charles Chaput. "It really is an extraordinary phenomenon."

The phenomenon has even been labeled as "The Francis Effect." Some say that it could be responsible for an increase in the number of young people entering church vocations and for a rise in the number of Catholics who now say their faith is "strong."

Pope Francis is already having an effect in Philadelphia, where he will be part of the World Meeting of Families.

The World Meeting of Families staff takes their cardboard cutout around town as part of what they call Philly Francis Fridays. Lizanne Pando, director of marketing and communications for the group, declined to say just how many cardboard popes the staff keeps on hand.

"I don't know if I can reveal that information because there's really only one holy father," she said. "I think that every one you see is the real one, just like Santa, or the Phanatic."

The World Meeting of Families staff also keeps a life-size pope cutout permanently placed in their office lobby.

"CEOs will stand up after a meeting and say, 'Um, before we leave can I take a picture with the pope?' " Pando said. "We even had an archbishop from Tanzania come to the office, and he was on his way to Rome to have an audience with the pope, and he wanted a selfie with the [cardboard] pope."

Several varieties of the papal cutout can be found for sale online. Scalies and her friend, Paul Tanner, purchased their cutout online from Australia, one they call "the happy, smiling, waving pope," and began taking it around Philadelphia and Wilmington at the end of March.

The friends, who met at Sacred Heart Oratory in Wilmington, call their cutout the Pop-Up Pope and they document his travels on Twitter, Instagram and through their website popuppope.com.

As people pose for photos with the Pop-Up Pope, Tanner and Scalies start conversations with them about the pope's visit and their impressions of the holy father. The friends also have a bag filled with positive Bible quotes and Pope Francis tweets that they hand out.

"We're trying to build up the excitement for his visit," Scalies, 46, said. "My friend Paul and I are just happy Catholics."

"Happy Catholic," is an understatement for Scalies, who photobombs people with the Pop-Up Pope at LOVE Park or makes the cutout dance to KC and the Sunshine Band's "I Want to be Your Boogie Man."

"It's a lot of fun, I love to see the reactions," said Tanner, 52, a certified catechist. "And I love sharing the pope's simple message: Love one another, love God. That's all he wants us to do."

Recently, two priests and three seminarians who are bicycling 1,400 miles from Florida to New York to raise vocational awareness of the priesthood, were greeted by a crowd of well-wishers - and by the World Meeting of Families' cutout of Pope Francis - as they made a pit stop at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.

In his public greeting to the bicycling priests, who call their group Biking 4 Vocations, the Rev. DeLacy hinted at the effect Pope Francis has had on the church.

"There is no doubt why the church in the United States had a 25 percent increase from the previous year's ordination class," DeLacy said. "Also, this enthusiasm for the priesthood, helped by the anticipated papal visit, explains why this year's incoming seminarians for Philadelphia is more than double last year's."

In a later interview, DeLacy said that Pope Francis is showing others how dynamic ministry can be today.

"It's a real gift he has and it's animating the church," he said.

Sebastian Gomes, writer, director and producer of "The Francis Effect," a documentary from Salt + Light Media, a nonprofit Catholic media organization, said he defines "The Francis Effect" as "a sudden shift in an old narrative."

"The Catholic church - people look at it is as an old, antiquated, run-down institution," Gomes said. "When Pope Francis came on the scene, he immediately changed the narrative. Suddenly, the Catholic church was relevant again, it was in touch with regular people."

Decades of stories and court cases about priests abusing children had cast a pall over Catholicism. The Rev. Joe Fitzgerald of Rockville Centre, N.Y., one of the bicycling priests, said Pope Francis has brought light back to the church.

"Let's face it, this horrible situation that came forth from the priest scandal, we can't pretend it didn't happen," Fitzgerald said. "People who have been hurt by the church . . . we have to do something to embrace them, encounter them . . . and Pope Francis is doing it."

Pope Francis is also focusing on the core message of Catholicism more than his predecessors, according to Gomes.

"What his time as pope has revealed is that the Catholic Church before him was doing a very poor job of communicating its essential message: That God loves every person, that God welcomes every person and that forgiveness and mercy are for everybody," he said. "It's important to realize, through the example of Pope Francis, that the way you do something is almost as important as what you do."

Mark Gray, senior research associate with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, said one survey since Pope Francis took office shows that the percentage of Catholics who are raised and remain Catholic as adults "went up a little bit." He also said the percentage of adults who say they are strongly Catholic increased while the percentage of those who say they aren't strongly Catholic decreased.

"You can't say there's any sort of trend beginning, you need multiple data points to know there's a trend," he said. "But things went in a direction many people weren't expecting."

Gray said he's heard people speak of "The Francis Effect," and while he doesn't believe it's a myth, he thinks the media gets a "little exuberant" with the idea.

"The notion that it's going to create a whole bunch of new Catholics, that's the myth," he said. "It's just not in the cards."

Much like the Spanish Inquisition, one thing Pope Francis has on his side is the element of surprise.

"Even at the highest level of the Vatican there are people holding their breath saying, 'What is he going to do next?' " Gomes said. "There is that element of surprise that Pope Francis has and because of that he's become a celebrity - the spontaneity and surprise become news."

On Thursday, Pope Francis is once again expected to make headlines with the anticipated release of a papal encyclical on climate change, wherein he calls climate change a moral issue that disproportionately effects the poor.

While recently getting his photo snapped with the Pop-Up Pope at LOVE Park, Damon Landry, 43, who is not Catholic, said he likes how Pope Francis operates.

"He speaks to all kinds of new and progressive things," Landry said. "The Republicans are pissed, but it is 2015 - not 1975."

Fitzgerald, the biking priest, said another thing that makes Pope Francis unique is his ability to not only be a part of important global discussions, but also, to inspire them.

"The thing about Pope Francis is he's remaining relevant, he hasn't gone away," Fitzgerald said. "He's challenging us to grapple with our faith. We can't seclude ourselves, we've got to go out to the fringe."

And go out to the fringe, Pope Francis does. On his first birthday as pope, he invited a group of homeless men to celebrate with him at the Vatican. On his second birthday as pope, he ordered that 400 sleeping bags be given to homeless people in Rome.

"I think that people have a great sense that he is a genuinely warm human being who cares for the poor and dispossessed," Chaput said. "People are attracted to goodness and they're attracted to helping others."

What's unique about Pope Francis' popularity is that it stems, in part, from his devotion to the less fortunate.

"When we think of politicians and celebrities, you don't tend to think of those who live a life of sacrifice for others," Gomes said. "To have somebody climb that high and think of themselves so low is unheard of. He becomes a new standard for leaders to judge themselves against."

Swedish tourist Peter Faleborn, 65, who posed with the Pop-Up Pope in LOVE Park, said while he's not Catholic, he thinks this is the first pope that is "really taking care of normal people."

"He's out, he's in public, he's not living in this big flat out there in Rome," Faleborn said. "He's got a two-room apartment and that's enough because he doesn't have any lovers."

When the Pop-Up Pope visited the Good Boy Biscuits & Bones tent at the Wilmington farmers' market, vendor Ryan Anzisi, who is nondenominational, said he thinks this pope is a man of the people.

"From what I see, he seems like he's the people's pope," Anzisi said. "He relates to people in a way others haven't."

While Pope John Paul II was a philosopher and Pope Benedict was a theologian and "bookworm," Pope Francis is a pastor who is most comfortable "walking with people through their daily lives,"Gomes said.

Steve Murray, 54, who posed with the Pop-Up Pope recently in LOVE Park, believes the pope will bring joy and pride to Philadelphia with his visit.

"People are going to feel special because he could have went anywhere in the United States and he's coming here," Murray said. "Even if somebody's in the ghetto, they're going to turn around and say: 'But the pope came to Philly!' And that's wonderful."

Gomes, producer/writer of "The Francis Effect," said that while Pope Francis will visit New York City and Washington, D.C., prior to his trip here, he thinks the time in Philadelphia will mean the most.

"The time he's in Philadelphia, it's not about world politics, it's not about the Congress, it's about being with families and being with ordinary people," Gomes said. "He wants to do that, that's why he's going, it's what's drawing him.

"It's going to be mind-blowing."

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