OPINION: What the Inland Empire/San Gabriel Valley Says About the Pope

Social media is abuzz with the news of the selection of the new Pope. Moments ago, the billions of Catholics and fellow Christians welcomed Pope Francis I to the Papacy.

Some of the comments coming out are silly. Some are hopeful. Here are a few comments already sent out through by folks locally in the Inland Empire/San Gabriel Valley. We didn’t edit these. They are coming to you abbreviations and typos. Please share your own Tweets or even Facebook statuses here with us in the comments section.

After the introduction of the new Pope:

Allen J. Wilson ‏@AllenJWilson, Pope Francis I has a Twitter account @JMBergoglio I wish the excellency all blessings as he leads the Catholic Church!

Kevin McKenna ‏@ThatguyKMac, I'd like to be the first to invite Pope Francis to this weekends @NHRA Amalie Gatornationals. We'll show you some white smoke.

MARZ ‏@rissapolis, To any of my Catholics: why is my grandma crying tears of joy for the new pope?

Michael V. Wall ‏@MiWall81, A Jesuit pope??! Jesuits killed Abraham Lincoln, tried to kill King James and the people working on the KJV bible translation etc. Uh Oh..

Erick Alvarez @bigheadErick, Congradulations Jorge Mario Bergoglio ...Pope Francisco I.

Stephanie Vargas Stephanie Vargas ‏@__Vsteph__, Pope Francis ..wonder what was going through his mind ..as he stood there in front of all these people ..

Jeff Pope ‏@JeffPopeRadio, Sadly, I was not named the new Pope - because I refused to be called "Francis." But I still had a better chance than Roger Mahoney.

Trevor Williams ‏@NeverGonnaGetIt, vegas this weekend to celebrate the choosing of the new pope.

guidaa✝ ‏@babyguidaa, This was the most amazing thing to watch. We have been blessed with a new Argentinian pope. Pope Francis

Katharine Tompkin ‏@kattompkin, Love the compassion & humility of the new Pope Francis.I pray God blesses him to do great things in His name in the Church and in the world.

Before the announcement:

Brian Edward Goff ‏@bgoff52, Any chance we get a Pope that doesn't look like the Emperor from Star Wars #PopeWatch

Qrys Bin Thynkn ‏@QrysBinThynkn, The new #Pope will sit in a palace of untold riches while hundreds of millions people starve day after day. Congratulations, #Catholics.

Eliza Bayne ‏@ElizaBayne, They should choose a Pope that's best-suited for the job, but they'll probably just go with the one who had the best sob story.

Liz J Sandler ‏@Lizzielynne, RT @TheSoup New pope is not a Kardashian. This is progress people.

Andrew G. Gahol ‏@Andrew_Gahol, Papal fun fact: White smoke means there's a new pope. Black smoke means no pope yet. Green-tinted smoke means Snoop Dogg's in the house!