Is Pope Francis the world’s biggest New Orleans Saints fan?

As the head of the worldwide Catholic Church, Pope Francis is tasked with leading the Church, spreading Christianity, and acting as a vessel between the faithful and God.

In the Digital Age, that means meeting the flock where they are, which means spending time on social media. Over the time of his papacy, Pope Francis has consistently spread his message to parishioners via social media, such as X.

However, some of his recent messages have left NFL fans and parishioners alike a little confused.

For example, on November 1 Pope Francis sent this message about saints, and how they are “poor, meek, merciful, hungering and thirsting for justice, seeking peace.” That included a hashtag for the word saints.

Which, well, prompted this:

That’s right, as part of the NFL’s relationship with X (formerly Twitter), the hashtag ahead of “saints” served as a prompt to drop in the fleur-de-lis, the logo of the New Orleans Saints.

On November 5 Pope Francis sent another message regarding saints, again using the hashtag. Again, the fleur-de-lis was dropped in as a result:

On Thursday morning it happened again. Pope Francis sent out a message calling all parishioners to be saints with joyful hearts. Again the hashtag was used, and again the fleur-de-lis appeared:

On Thursday, the Saints offered a response:

Now perhaps there is a deeper message here, one that goes beyond Pope Francis trying to spread the good word and getting caught accidentally by the hashtags. Perhaps he is just a huge fan of the Saints?

Both in the Gospel and on the field.