Twitter Goes Papal!

Image Courtesy The Vatican

Well, I guess Twitter has been blessed in a way. One of its newest members happens to be the head of the Catholic Church on Earth. The Vatican announced on Monday, Dec. 3, that Pope Benedict XVI just signed up for his Twitter account under the handle @pontifex, which means bridge builder in Latin.

Pope Benedict is expected to publish his first tweet on Wednesday, Dec. 12, which will respond to questions he is now accepting at #askpontifex, his official Twitter hashtag.

According to the Vatican, as reported by The New York Times ("Twitter Has a New User: The Pope," Dec. 3), a tweet from the pope tweet should be be considered a "papal teaching,” or a message from the pope that is simply "entrusted to a new technology.”

Pope Benedict using an iPad. Photo: Gaia Pianigini,
Rachel Donadio, The New York Times, Dec. 3, 2012

The pope's venture into Twitter is just one more sign of the Catholic Church's growing use of social media. Before signing up for Twitter, Pope Benedict created his own Facebook and YouTube accounts. The pope also has his own social media website, http://www.pope2you.net, and the Vatican has its own downloadable mobile phone application (app).

Vatican's YouTube Twitter Announcement

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has acknowledged that bishops around the world face an "urgent call" by the Vatican to use social media to "evangelize the new 'digital continent' of social media." The Church's use of social media is intended to engage its 1.2 billion followers, especially young people. 

In 2010, USCCB Communications Committee member Bishop Ronald Herzog (Alexandria, La.) told fellow bishops, "If the Church is not on their mobile device, it doesn't exist. The Church does not have to change its teachings to reach young people, but we must deliver it to the them in a new way."

Courtesy of The Vatican

In announcing Pope Benedict's new Twitter account, the Vatican affirmed, “The pope’s presence on Twitter can be seen as the ‘tip of the iceberg’ that is the church’s presence in the world of new media.”




Stay tuned, and consider following the pope. Do you think if I follow him, he will follow me? Hmmm.

Key words: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican, social media, mobile phone