Wait for Vatican white smoke fires up social media

ype has been building on social media around the Catholic Church’s secretive, centuries-old tradition of conclaves to elect a new pope, animating users from the White House on down.US President Donald Trump on Saturday posted an apparently AI-generated image of himself wearing papal vestments and sitting on a throne, one finger directed to the heavens.

The striking picture was the most notorious among thousands that have bubbled up since the death of Pope Francis on April 21 and ahead of the cardinals’ gathering from Wednesday.

More than 1.3 million…