Amidst Sex Abuse Coverup Scandal, Pope Francis Tweets That It’s His Job To ‘Communicate A Lifestyle’…Then Deletes It

On Thursday, even as he continued his silence with regard to accusations that he helped cover up sexual abuse within the Catholic Church from top-ranking members of the Vatican hierarchy, Pope Francis took to Twitter to issue another of his cryptically new-agey nostrums: “We Christians are not selling a product. We are communicating a lifestyle.”

This tweet drew the ire and mockery of thousands of users, who pointed out first that the Pope’s language was vaguely reminiscent of a “Mad Men” advertising agency, and second that the Pope’s latest communiques hadn’t exactly communicated a valuable lifestyle. The Pope then deleted his tweet and replaced it with this, slightly less Hollywood version: