Sales of papal bits and bobbles like photo prints, prayer cards, keychains and even Pope Francis face masks have soared since the pope’s appointment. On Etsy, an online craft goods website, you can score paddleball boards, pillows and plush dolls, all in Francis’s image. ”It’s a new pope, and he’s created a lot of new excitement,” Mark Gould, owner of US online retailer Religious Supply Center, tells Quartz. Gould’s Iowa-based business has already sold over 500 framed pope prints since Francis’s appointment, compared with the 10 or so it sold last year. Prayer cards, which Catholics use to pray for the pope’s health and guidance, have been his second biggest seller since the pope’s appointment. His online store is among the roughly 200 member companies of the country’s National Church Goods Association, which helps meet both institutional and commercial demand for religious goods in the US and abroad....
....To some extent, an uptick in paraphernalia sales comes with any change in pope. Church tradition, for example, requires that every Catholic institution have a picture of the pope in each building, which helps explain the spike in demand for photo prints. But according to those who peddle papal wares, much of the demand is a product of Francis’s popularity among Catholics worldwide.
There are photos at the original, but all are Reuters images and thus have not been reproduced.
People love their idols.