benedict's xvi

Pope's tweets dissolved

The Catholic Church is one of the few remaining organizations that believes in absolutes.

Sometimes, though, this gives an impression of harshness.

No sooner had the pope bid farewell to his flock than his tweets were summarily removed from Twitter. Pope Benedict XVI officially left office today.

It's true that last week the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI's last tweet would be on February 27.

Yet to see the @Pointifex account deserted feels a little severe.

Currently, the account is open, but is marked simply with the words "Sede Vacante," the Latin for "vacant … Read more

After resigning from papacy, Pope leaves Twitter

Pope Benedict XVI might have only joined Twitter in December, but he's already saying so long to the social network.

According to CNN, Vatican Radio announced today that the Pope's postings on @Pontifex will officially end on February 28 when he ends his reign as the leader of the Catholic Church. Vatican Radio reportedly said that Benedict's last tweet will come on February 27.

It's no surprise that the Pope's tweets will be ending. Earlier this month, Benedict announced that he'd be resigning from the papacy at the end of the month due to … Read more

For the Pope on Twitter, many slings and arrows

When you come down from on high and mix with us, les miserables, it can be a touch depressing.

For though you try to take us seriously, we may not feel the same way. And, well, social media allows us to express our feelings without fear of permanent damnation.

Pope Benedict XVI, famously a recent convert to Twitter, is discovering that mixing with us isn't always pretty.

His Holiness -- and his almost equally holy advisers -- surely believes that one has to speak to the faithful through every available channel.

And yet this entails encountering the unfaithful too: … Read more

Blessed are they who follow as the pope starts tweeting

Offering a blessing to his many followers, the pope's first tweet quickly traveled far and wide through the Twittersphere.

In the first few hours, the tweet picked up more than 38,000 retweets and was tagged as a favorite by nearly 13,000 people.

The first tweet from the head of the Roman Catholic church:

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.

#askpontifex meme takes off before pope's first tweet

Pope Benedict XVI has signed up for Twitter, and though the pontiff has yet to bestow his first tweet upon us, he's racked up nearly half a million followers.

He is also already facing a backlog of questions -- ranging from sincere to raunchy -- from the faithful and the not-so-faithful alike.

Twitter made the announcement Monday that the pope's personal Twitter handle was live and that Vatican City's most famous resident would be taking questions via the #askpontifex hashtag, some of which will be answered by the pontiff himself during a live tweeting session on December 12.… Read more

Pope asks priests to become more Web savvy

The pope is asking priests to become more media savvy by preaching to the faithful from the Internet as well as the pulpit.

In his message for the Catholic Church's 2010 World Day for Social Communications, Pope Benedict XVI called on the ministry to use the latest technologies, such as Web sites and blogs, to preach the gospel and encourage a dialogue with their practitioners.

Scheduled for May 16, the theme of the World Day will be "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word." In his message … Read more

Pope gets a Sony HandyCam

So let's say you're a type of head of state, a prime minister. And you're going around Europe on a tour of the G8 nations. And you're Roman Catholic. Why not stop by the Vatican and give the pope a Sony camcorder?

That's what Taro Aso, prime minister of Japan and a member of Japan's tiny Roman Catholic minority, did Tuesday. According to Sony Insider, the product appears to be an HDR-XR500V HandyCam. They're good consumer models and a great papal gift.

We're wondering if Il Papa will actually use the thing, … Read more

Pope Benedict the next YouTube star?

The Vatican--which recently endorsed an iPhone prayer app and gave its blessing to gadget evangelism--is displaying further receptivity to technology with Saturday's announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will get his own YouTube channel.

According to the Associated Press, the Vatican TV Center and Vatican Radio are collaborating with Google on the project, and texts and video of the Pope's speeches, as well as news about the pontiff, will be posted directly to the channel. More details on the project will be released next week, the Vatican press office said.

Given past tech-friendly moves by the Vatican, the … Read more

To connect with Catholic youth, pope goes digital

Ever gotten a text message from the pope? Well, to commemorate the Catholic Church's annual World Youth Day this July, thousands of young Catholics in Australia will be able to say that they did.

"We wanted to make (World Youth Day 2008) a unique experience by using new ways to connect with today's tech-savvy youth," Bishop Anthony Fisher of the Archdiocese of Sydney said in a statement provided to Reuters on Wednesday. Pope Benedict XVI will be in Sydney for the six-day celebration, which starts on July 15, and Australian youth will be able to connect … Read more