The Pope now has his own personal Twitter account that he will begin using next week. The eighty-five year old Pope Benedict XVI joined the popular social platform this week and within hours of signing up has managed to gain 250,000 followers with thousands added since. Using the handle @pontifex, the Pope is expected to send out his first tweet on December 12th from one computer that is located in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Normal security precautions have been taken, according to the NY Times.
A statement from the Vatican read that the Pope plans to correspond about matters of faith while answering questions that use the hash tag #askpontifex. “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,” the announcement read. Pope Benedict’s tweets will circulate in several languages that include English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Since signing on to Twitter, many are forecasting that he will become one of the most influential figures on the network, giving powerful celebs like Justin Bieber and Britney Spears some serious competition.
