Pope Benedict XVI is getting his own Twitter handle: @pontifex. He'll begin tweeting in eight languages, including Spanish and Portuguese, on Dec. 12, doling out inspiration, answers to scriptural questions and digital blessings in 140-character snippets.
Internet communication isn't the 85-year-old pontiff's forte. He still prefers to write messages and speeches out longhand, instead of typing them on a keyboard.
But the Vatican has decided to get with the times. This will be the pope's personal Twitter account; the Vatican itself already has an official handle with 110,000 followers, though it follows no one.
The new account will allow the pope to speak directly to his digital followers, and the Vatican says he'll write each of the tweets himself.
"We are going to get a spiritual message. The pope is not going to be walking around with a Blackberry or an iPad and no-one is going to be putting words into the Pope's mouth," Greg Burke, senior media advisor to the Vatican said. "He will tweet what he wants to tweet."
Benedict will actually hit the button to send the very first tweet, though after that, he'll likely write out his thoughts and an assistant will compose, type and send the messages. He is a very busy man, after all.
The pope does have some experience with Twitter. In June of last year, he sent the first tweet from the Vatican English news account, @news_va_en, writing, "Dear friends, I just launched News.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI."
The new handle itself surprised some commentators. Other likely handles were @BenedictusPPXVI, the pope's name is Latin. And of course, he could have used @Pope.
But the new handle reflects the Vatican's desire to be more influential in a world that is becoming less dependent on spirituality. "Pontifex" means both "high priest" and "bridge builder."
Benedict is not known for his brevity, so tweets present some difficulties for the Vatican. "Reducing the pope's message to 140 characters is definitely a challenge but we have seen that a profound thought can also be expressed in a brief Biblical passage," said Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Vatican's communications commission. "We can see this as sparks of truth or pellets of wisdom".
But they also view it as an opportunity to directly communicate with millions of followers. ""I think the risk would be not to go there because you are afraid of going there. Then you would leave vacant a space that is important to spread the pope's teachings," said Monsignor Paul Tighe, also of the Vatican's communications commission.
And perhaps they're feeling a little left behind. The faithful can already reach the Dalai Lama on Twitter, @DalaiLama.
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