Pope Francis has shown his support for the New Orleans Saints after a typo on social media.
On Friday (November 1) Francis posted a message for All Saints Day on X/Twitter. He included the hashtag #Saints, which automatically produced the NFL team’s fleur-de-lis badge next to the phrase.
“The #Saints are formed by the Beatitudes: poor, meek, merciful, hungering and thirsting for justice, seeking peace,” the tweet began. “They are ‘filled with God’ and incapable of remaining indifferent to the needs of their neighbor. They bear witness to paths of light that we too can trod.”
All 32 NFL teams have a designated expression that automatically triggers their logo emoji when used with a hashtag on X. However, because most of them are animals mistakes such as Francis’s don’t happen often.
On X, NFL fans were in stitches over the error, particularly because of the context of the tweet and the Saints’ poor performance this season.
“Your Holiness, they are 2-6,” one person wrote in response.
The #Saints are formed by the Beatitudes: poor, meek, merciful, hungering and thirsting for justice, seeking peace. They are “filled with God” and incapable of remaining indifferent to the needs of their neighbour. They bear witness to paths of light that we too can trod.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) November 1, 2024
Another person added, “We will now find out if divine intervention can save this team.”
Others questioned whether the pontiff’s tweet meant they should be adding Saints players to their fantasy football lineups.
“Your Holiness, I have no #Saints on my roster. Is this something I need to take to confession?” one person joked.
Another questioned: “Your Holiness, do you think I should start Derek Carr in Fantasy this weekend? I’m not sure if he will be back but you seem very confident in the #Saints for some reason.”
One commenter even joked about how X’s hashtag immediately went to football. “The idea that no one at Twitter could imagine someone hashtagging the word ‘saint’ outside of the context of American football is actively hilarious to me,” the post read.
All Saints Day is considered a time period when the veil between the living and the dead is lifted.
Halloween comes from the original name “All Hallows Eve,” which is the day before All Saints Day that honors martyrs and saints – those who were hallowed, or deemed holy – a tradition begun by the Roman Catholic church in the early medieval period.
This isn’t the first time Francis has made this mistake when using the “saints” hashtag. In 2019, he wrote, “Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new #Saints. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession,” with the exact same Saints logo.
The team ended up chiming in on the joke as they retweeted Francis’s post and wrote, “Couldn’t lose after this. #Blessed and highly favored.”
The Saints will next take on the Carolina Panthers on November 3 at 1 pm ET.
