The Pope had hardly finished making his shock announcement of resignation before humorists in Finland began busily tweeting their take on the day's headline news.
"The Pope has quit! I find it most shocking that he was married!" tweeted well known comic strip artist Pertti Jarla of the popular Finnish strip Fingerpori.
"What the Pope needs now is a Protestant work ethic," joked media personality Tuomas Enbuske.
Twitter denizen and writer Tuomas Kyrö tried to uncover the reason for the Pontiff's sudden decision.
"He started to follow (evolutionary biologist) Richard Dawkins' tweets, found out about evolutionary biology and lost his motivation?" Kyrö speculated.
"Latest information indicates that the reason for the Pope's resignation is a poor relationship with his supervisor. No one likes a boss who thinks he is omnipotent," quipped digital networking guru Aki Toivonen.
No one was off-limits, as Twittersphere activists also invoked the Almighty in their irreverent speculations.
"God: The Pope's resignation was the result of a long running lack of confidence, and was not based on any single event," tweeted one microblogger, referencing acrimonious differences between Transport Minister Merja Kyllönen and former head of the Finnish Transport Agency Juhani Tervala. Tervala later left the organization when Kyllönen said she had "lost confidence" in him.
The virtual world was also teeming with conjecture about the Pope’s successor. Apart from infamous Italian Catholic Silvio Berlusconi, the names of potential Finnish candidates were also circulating.
“Has Paavo Väyrynen announced his candidacy?” enquired Ilta Sanomat journalist Johannes Kotkavirta, taking a swipe at veteran politician Paavo Väyrynen, who recently blogged that he would contest Euro Parliament elections as well as Finnish parliamentary elections. Väyrynen was also a candidate in the 2011 presidential election.
“Unconfirmed rumours maintain that Kalervo Kummola is in the Vatican,” remarked sports reporter Riku Salminen.
Kalervo Kummola heads up Finland’s national hockey association and incurred the ire of hockey fans last April, after initially rejecting calls to lower prices for tickets to some games in the hockey world championship series in Helsinki.
