Pope using Twitter to spread faith
VATICAN CITY — Benedict XVI, the pope known for his hefty volumes of theology and lengthy encyclicals, is now trying brevity — spreading the faith through his own Twitter account.By: Nicole Winfield , The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — Benedict XVI, the pope known for his hefty volumes of theology and lengthy encyclicals, is now trying brevity — spreading the faith through his own Twitter account.
The pontiff will tweet in eight languages starting Dec. 12 using his personal handle (at)Pontifex, responding live to questions about faith during his weekly general audience, the Vatican said Monday.
Within 10 hours of the Vatican’s announcement, Benedict had already garnered nearly a quarter-million followers on the English version of (at)Pontifex alone, with thousands more following him in the eight other language accounts.
All that, and he hadn’t sent a single tweet.
He may never hit the 1 billion faithful that the Catholic Church counts around the globe, but he’s odds-on to get 1 million followers by the end of the year, British bookmakers Ladbrokes said.
The pope sent his first tweet last year from a generic Vatican account to launch the Holy See’s news information portal, and 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 for the 85-yearold Benedict has been the subject of intense speculation ever since, and Monday’s news conference was packed, a strong indication of the interest it has generated.
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