Giulia Evolvi is a scholar of religion and digital media whose work focuses on online discourse, religion in Europe and social media. She examines how religion is communicated, contested and reshaped in digital environments.

Dheepa Sundaram is a professor at the University of Denver. Her research examines the formation of Hindu virtual religious publics, online platforms, social media, apps and emerging technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Diana Walsh Pasulka is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her areas of specialization include Catholic studies, religion and new media, digital culture and gender.

This edition of ReligionLink explores seven issues that may deserve attention in 2022.

Heidi Campbell is a professor of communication at Texas A&M University. She has researched a variety of topics, including online faith communities, new media ethics and the relationship between digital culture and religion. She has studied questions related to the nature of community, identity, authority and authenticity online through ethnography, case studies, interviews and textual analysis.

Thomas Peters started and runs the American Papist blog and works with Catholic Vote. He speaks about Catholicism and politics, pro-life issues and pro-family activism, the future of social media and youth activism.

J.M. Berger is an analyst and author, and he focuses on extremism, extremist activities in the United States, and extremist use of social media. He works with the Brookings Institution and the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, publishes the web site Intelwire.com and contributes to Foreign Policy. He recently co-authored ISIS: The State of Terror with Jessica Stern. He can be reached through Ashley […]

Read a March 11, 2013, account by journalist John Thavis about the last conclave, in which Bergoglio was reportedly runner-up for the papacy.

Religion News Service posted reactions from other religious and secular leaders. In a separate RNS story, Jewish leaders said they see an ally in Francis.