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POPE BENEDICT XVI will join Twitter from December 12, with regular tweets in eight languages from the account @pontifex – just in time for Christmas, the Vatican said on Monday.
“The first tweets will be answers to questions sent to the pope on matters of faith. The public can start sending them starting now,” the Vatican said.
The account already has almost 50,000 followers, with numbers rising quickly immediately after the announcement.
Users can submit questions on faith-related matters to be answered by the Pontiff, using the hashtag #askpontifex.
An introductory message read: “Welcome to the official Twitter page of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.”
The tweets will be in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish and more languages could be added in future.
The username Pontifex is a nod to the Pope’s standing as the Bishop of Rome; the word ‘pontifex’, literally ‘pontiff’, was used to describe a member of the college of high priests of the Roman religion, similar in standing to the current College of Cardinals.
The Pope is also, therefore, known as the ‘Pontifex maximus’.
“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 in a statement.
It added that Benedict wanted “to ensure that the good news of Jesus Christ and the teaching of his Church is permeating the forum of exchange and dialogue that is being created by social media”.
Several leading Vatican prelates are already regular tweeters including Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, as the tradition-bound institution tries to reach a younger global audience.
Benedict last year launched a new Vatican information portal with a tweet from the Holy See’s Twitter account sent from an iPad. A bemused pope could be seen in images of the event being shown by prelates how to tap on the device.
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The Pope has always been interested in Mass communication.
I’ll ask him why the Vatican is run like a corporation and why doesn’t the Church Sell 99% of its assets and donate like Bill Gates.
Also what it’s like to be CEO of a corrupt outdated organisation which has a terrible record of systemic abuse across the board.
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” – Epicurus
Doubt his “Holiness” would have a straight and honest answer.
Can you get that to fit into a 140 character tweet?
It’s such a well run ‘corporation’ that annual spending by the church and entities owned by the church on health-care is $98 billion. In 2010 they were the largest single charitable organisation in the US.
While I’m sure you really don’t care. “Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent” The answer is he’s able but you have been given Free Will to make your own choices. And you can choose to do ill. I wouldn’t call giving one a choice “malevolent”.
At the end of the day, you’re responsible for your own actions. You can’t say “It’s God’s fault because he didn’t stop me doing evil of my own free will”.
Very basic Christianity. Are you a product of Catholic Schooling? Illustration if any that sending kids to a Catholic School does not indoctrinate them at all.
Saintruth I have a question for about your so called free will. God give you your free will so he commands that you have free will. Its not a freedom so as the boss insists you have it. I do agree with you that I am responsible for my self & I dont answer to any god. All my actions are my responsibilty I cant blame god for anything including stoning homophobia bigotry murder rape enslavement infanticide. I disgree with your view also on catholic indoctrination. I have a 10 year old that believes the world was created in 6 days & I am having all types of problems explaining that its just a story because she trusts her teachers & Im confusing her as she thinks Im saying her teachers are not telling the truth. Its a minefield.
Free will? Do me a favour. There is no free will in ‘do what I say & worship me weekly (and give money to the basket) or you will burn in hell for all eternity’.
Wake up and live your life for what it is. You get one shot, don’t waste it by falling for the lies of power hungry people written 2000 years ago.
@SaintRuth I’m actually an atheist who believes in evolutionary biology.Luckily I’m not someone who has had a trans-generational belief system imposed on them.
The story logic of religion is flawed and the old free will defence gets rolled out.
We have a corrupt corporation called the Vatican who are anti-women anti-science and basically asking for blind faith supported by no evidence who by there very own dogmatic teachings are hypocritical.
The Jesus they teach about surely wouldn’t be happy with such a wealthy corrupt organisation not spending all the assets to help the people it proclaims to care about.
The track record of the Pope and the Vatican should be enough for any reasonable person to question such a flawed belief system. Then again rational arguments don’t usually work on religious people. Otherwise there would be no religious people.
James ,, not that you genaralise in any way
What has evolutionary biology got to do with anything?
The reason “free will defence gets rolled out” is because that’s the answer to your question.
The rest of what your saying is a rant about the Vatican which has nothing to do with either evolution or God or free will.
Many Religious people are rational. Many are not. It’s the same with athiests. It’s a bit narrow minded to dismiss 99% of humanity as irrational because you don’t agree with them.
I’ll let you in on a big secret…..there is no god! Your welcome
So people bitch, moan and complain that the Church is outdated and “mediaeval” and then when the Pope joins twitter they complain about that too.
Some people don’t want to be happy. They just want to moan about things.
It’s all well and good he’s joined Twitter, but he still thinks we shouldn’t use condoms and gays are doomed to burn in hell. Yeah, he’s REALLY keep up with the times.
Well at least the Vatican is trying to reach out beyond the confines of a mass. It shows at least some glimmer of reform and modernity. More of that please.
Can’t wait to ask him who his favorite designers and labels are. Tips on tax avoidance would be good too.
He won’t be tweeting himself, but will be signing off on them before they are sent…….We can only hope that he looks at the tweets coming in to him, from all over the world……Hopefully many lessons will be learnt by the Vatican as to what is really happening in the world, and then act accordingly,,,,
couldnt give two pontifex
Tweets with suggestions on topics like increasing vocations amongst suitable and interested widows and widowers who wanted to be priests but also wanted a family might encourage change.
Anyone notice how the account isn’t (or wasn’t – haven’t checked lately) verified. I wonder what that means …
Hey, put me down for one of those vacations among suitable and interested widows…a weekend even.
Can’t wait. Should be riveting stuff.
Hope he does a weather forecast..that bloody Met office is downright fallible.
Surely twitter must be unnatural…
Thats the attraction.
I’ve asked him about Leviticus and Original Sin.
It can’t be that original, seeing that they’re all doing it :)
What did you ask him about Original Sin?
.@Pontifex Why do some bits of Leviticus still apply to the Roman Catholic Church and not others? Is Leviticus a buffet?
And if he took all that trouble to die for our sins..surely the least we can do is get out there and make it worth his while?
Damien, I am asking the Pope questions of a theological nature. What are you doing?
Following your lead..you say JC died for my sins…I’ve dedicated my life to making sure I ran up a decent tally.
T O’Logistics. As in logos.
Speaking, metaphorically, of theology, was the divine Marilyn his only begotten daughter?
Ask him how he sleeps at night.
Holding on to his bishopric.
@Gerard If you would like to point out anything incorrect in my statement. Vatican is a Corporation fact.
Vatican and it’s leaders presided over worldwide abuse Fact.
Teaches outdated nonsensical dogmatic beliefs is anti-gay anti-women anti-science fact.
So by supporting such an organisation what does that say about people?
“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” – Albert Einstein
Yes the world of “no conscience” is turning out bad
Who exactly in the Catholic Church is getting rich off their work James? I assume that’s what you are suggesting with the use of the word corporation?
And where are your anti-science examples? I’d imagine most of them are a few hundred years old
@SaintRuth You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep-seated need to believe.
Evolutionary Biology and Science are the only show in town not tales of mythical magical people who are M.I.A for over two millennia but will return to fix the faulty humans they created.
It is better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
@Kevin look at the Vatican’s statements on Cern, on Aids ,on Homosexuality on Stem cell research.On Women’s rights etc they are still back in the dark ages.
My point about the Vatican being a Corporation is simple, Corporations are ruthless and as a so called Church of Faith formed from the teachings of a simple man who taught the opposite to the very organisation which claims to represent Jesus is disturbing indeed.
All the gold, jewels ,art and cash in the Vatican how many sick, hungry, homeless people could it help by selling off the bulk of its assets? Imagine a Church practicing what it preaches, wouldn’t that be a sight!
I’m not sure what comments about CERN you are talking about. A delegation from the Vatican actually visited the facility where Archbishop Tomasi said of science and religion “there is no hostility between the two, but there is a need to talk across the border and see how human knowledge can be advanced”. You can disagree with the Church on their stances related to both AIDs and homosexuality (I certainly do) but I don’t believe their opinions on either are anti-science. And their opinion on stem cell research is that when adult and umbilical stem cells are available then the destruction of embryos is not necessary This in itself is not anti-scientific (the research outcomes will be the same) but merely a question of scientific ethics
The first person so get a #FF from him will have won twitter.
Pontifex means bridge builder; something your new atheists commentators need to reflect on. They are like a group of moronic adolescent youths who scream ‘fascist ‘at any opinion they are afraid of. Debate means engaging with argument not just ridiculing something you don’t like . The pathetic comments about religion and god are purely crass . They claim knowledge about science destroys religion but have they any idea how post modernism has effected our understanding of the nature of scientific evidence ? Do they read about quantum physics and its debate about mystery in the universe? Such stupid bastards !
Anthony. A lot of these so called atheists choose not to betiere in god, simply because it does not suit their personal agendas, it has nothing to do with evolution or science.
Believe
@keego, its guaranteed he’ll produce some paedo’s not save us the anguish of hiding our children from state sponsored dungeons of abuse.
@olefishheadhat
Why is that man dressed as Father Christmas?
#HolyJaysus
Love it
There goes the neighbourhood.
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