In the 24/7 world of today’s media, Pope Francis has emerged as a global celebrity, says the editor of The Tablet, as a result of the soft power and charismatic authority underpinning the papacy in the twenty-first century The Daily Mail has long been one of Britain’s most successful national newspapers but today it is a global player thanks to the impact of its website. Its executives closely monitor the number of “hits” that its online stories receive – immediately measuring the popularity of items with its readers. You would expect that, for a mass-market tabloid, the top attractions would be today’s celebrities, such as film stars, pop idols and members of the royal family. But a religious leader? In November 2013, Pope Francis became one of the Ma