Pope Francis, the official pop star!

It is difficult to find a person who hasn't heard about the Pope of the Catholic Church. Less than a year old in his papacy, Pope Francis is a well-known pope not only among Catholics but everyone irrespective of faith, religion, race, seems to be talking about him. He is the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church, but the only one who joins the ranks of pop star icons like Janet Jackson, John Lennon, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, who featured on the Rolling Stone magazine cover. But does Pope Francis set the stage on fire like people who normally are featured on this magazine?

Rolling Stone is a magazine known for its musical coverage and for political reporting. So what made the magazine have Pope Francis on its cover page? Did Pope Francis’ millions of Twitter followers draw the magazine to have him on his cover or is it the five magic words - "Who am I to judge?" - that did the real magic. 

"Who am I to judge?" said Pope Francis when he was asked by a reporter about the status of gay priests in the church. These five words uttered by the pope undoubtedly surprised the catholic world, but in the bargain the respect for him increased a thousand fold (Carroll, J. 2013).

The Catholic Church for long has been known to impose a set-of-dos-and-don't on Catholics around the world. These set-of-rules has made many Catholics move-away from the church. But the septuagenarian Pope Francis seems to have changed this by becoming the youth icon of today. The young and the old love him. Like Pope John Paul II, Catholics might not nominate Pope Francis to become a saint, but would want to emulate his style and personality. 

Pope Francis is featured smiling and waving in the Rolling Stone magazine. But I won't be surprised if very soon we'll have a fashion magazine feature him sitting on his Harley Davidson. A pope owning a Harley, I mean really? I don't mind going to mass everyday if the head of the church comes riding on his Harley. Isn't that cool!

It’s not the first time that the pope has featured on the cover of a magazine. A few months back Pope Francis was named 'Person of the Year' by the TIME magazine. The TIME magazine justified its cover story looking at the way Pope Francis captured the imaginations of millions of people in a matter of few months since he took office (Dilts, E. 2013). TIME magazine official say Pope Francis was selected by editors of the magazine who considered suggestions and inputs from the magazines more than 2-million Twitter followers. The magazine believes that pope has given hope for a million of people who moved away from the church.