'Dear friends… I bless all of you from my heart:' Pope tweets for the first time, then 2nd, 3rd

Mike Gallagher

Dec 12, 2012 - 08:25

Dec 12, 2012 - 08:34

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'Dear friends… I bless all of you from my heart:' Pope tweets for the first time, then 2nd, 3rd

'Using an iPad, Pope Benedict XVI posted his first message from a new Twitter account this morning. He tweeted from Vatican City at the end of his weekly general audience this morning. It read: 'Dear friends

Pope Benedict XVI hit the 1 million Twitter follower mark today as he sent his first tweet from his new account.

Using an iPad, Pope Benedict XVI posted the message at the end of his weekly general audience this moing.

It read: 'Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.'

$\"First$

First tweet: In perhaps the most drawn out Twitter launch ever, Pope Benedict XVI pushed the button on a tablet brought to him at the end of his general audience today

As well as going out to his followers on Twitter, the 140-character message also flashed on the large screens in the modeist Pope Paul VI Hall where the audience was held.

At around the same time the message was sent, the account's followers surpassed the 1 million mark on the eight languages of the handle, adding some 11,000 followers in the last two hours alone.

Today is the feast of the Madonna of Guadalupe and the 85-year-old pontiff has said he will respond to three messages sent to him from around the world using the hashtag #askpontifex, the Vatican said.

The first papal tweet has been the subject of intense curiosity for months.

$\"New$

New technology: Pope Benedict XVI being shown his first twitter message during his weekly general audience

Pope Benedict actually sent his very first tweet over a year ago, using a generic Vatican account to launch the Holy See's news information portal.

Someone in his name tweeted daily during Lent, part of the Vatican's efforts to increase the church presence in social media.

A personal Twitter account has been the subject of speculation ever since the Vatican's senior communications official said in February the idea was gaining traction.

Vatican officials have acknowledged the pope won't actually type the messages and that someone in the Vatican's secretariat of state will write them on his behalf. But they have insisted that the words will be his alone, culled from his speeches, homilies or catechism lessons.

As incongruous as it may seem for the 85-year-old Benedict to be on Twitter, Vatican officials have stressed that he is merely walking in the footsteps of his predecessors in using the latest in communications technology to spread the faith.

Pope Pius XI, for example, caused a similar stir when he launched Vatican Radio some 80 years ago to bring the pope's message on radio waves around the globe. The Vatican also has its own newspaper, television service and maintains dedicated YouTube channels and an Inteet news portal.

Although Pope Benedict sent today's first tweet himself, in the future most will be written by aides and he will sign them off before they are sent.

The tweets will be going out in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic and French. Other languages will be added in the future.

Greg Burke, senior media advisor to the Vatican said the Twitter handle @Pontifex is appropriate for a number of reasons.

'The handle is a good one. It means \"pope\" and it also means \"bridge builder\",' he said. 'The Pope wants to reach out to everyone.

'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.

'He will tweet what he wants to tweet,' Burke said.

Primarily the tweets will come from the contents of his weekly general audience, Sunday blessings and homilies on major Church holidays.

They will also include reaction to major world events, such as natural disasters.

But while the Pope will be one of the world's most high-profile tweeters and have many followers, he will not be following anyone himself.

The Pope's Twitter page is designed in yellow and white - the colours of the Vatican, with a backdrop of the Vatican and his picture.

$\"Livery:$

Livery: The official account features Vatican livery and images of the city state, as well as the Pope's signature

It may change during different liturgical seasons of the year and when he is away from the Vatican on trips.

The Vatican said precautions had been taken to make sure the Pope's certified account is not hacked.

Only one computer in the Vatican's secretariat of state will be used for the tweets.

Pope Benedict XVI blessed the possibilities of social media last year but waed it may lead to isolation.

'The Pope's presence on Twitter is a concrete expression of his conviction that the Church must be present in the digital arena,' the Vatican said.

'This initiative is best understood in the context of his reflections on the importance of the cultural space that has been brought into being by the new technologies ... 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,' it said in a statement.

$\"Mass:$

Mass: Pope Benedict XVI sits by a crib during his weekly general audience this moing

The Pope, who still writes his speeches and books by hand, has given a qualified blessing to social networking.

In a document issued last year, he said the possibilities of new media and social networks offered 'a great opportunity', but waed of the risks of depersonalisation, alienation, self-indulgence, and the dangers of having more virtual friends than real ones.

The Vatican decided against using a personal Facebook page for the pope because they thought it was too personal an interaction and would require more manpower to keep updated.

In 2009, a new Vatican website, www.pope2you.net, went live, offering an application called 'The Pope meets you on Facebook\", and another allowing the faithful to see the pontiff's speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.

The Vatican famously got egg on its face in 2009 when it was forced to admit that, if it had surfed the web more, it might have known that a traditionalist bishop whose excommunication was lifted had for years been a Holocaust denier.