Pope tweets from an iPad

[obeygiant]

VATICAN CITY, Dec 12 (Reuters) - After weeks of anticipation bordering on media frenzy, Pope Benedict solemnly put his finger to a computer tablet device on Wednesday and tried to send his first tweet - but something went wrong.

Images on Vatican television appeared to show the first try didn't work. The pope, who still writes his speeches by hand, seems to have pressed too hard and the tweet was not sent right away. So, he needed a little help from his friends.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli of the Vatican's communications department showed the pontiff how to do it, but the pope hesitated. Celli touched the screen lightly himself and off went the papal tweet.

"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," he said in his introduction to the brave new world of Twitter.

The tweet was sent at the end of weekly general audience in the Vatican before thousands of people.

The pope actually has eight linked Twitter accounts. @Pontifex, the main account, is in English. The other seven have a suffix at the end for the different language versions. For example, the German version is @Pontifex_de, and the Arabic version is @Pontifex_ar.

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

The pope already had just over a million followers in all of the languages combined minutes before he sent his first tweet and the number was growing.

huffy-poo

I thought Apple was the forbidden fruit?

[TSE]

Pretty cool stuff, haha.

[yg17]

Awesome, now Pope Rat can use Twitter to blast gays and anti-AIDS measures in Africa.

[obeygiant]

Originally Posted by yg17

Awesome, now Pope Rat can use Twitter to blast gays and anti-AIDS measures in Africa.

Hey BTW I binged "evil pope lazers" and I found this image for you.

[iJohnHenry]

Originally Posted by yg17

Awesome, now Pope Rat can use Twitter to blast gays and anti-AIDS measures in Africa.

Now play nice.

He's really trying to move forward from the 12th Century.

[Shrink]

Originally Posted by iJohnHenry

Now play nice.

He's really trying to move forward from the 12th Century.

At that rate, in ten centuries he'll only be...er....ten centuries behind!

It's a losing battle...

[likemyorbs]

You always wonder why they elect such old popes and then pretend to be all sad and shocked when they finally croak.

[iJohnHenry]

Originally Posted by likemyorbs

You always wonder why they elect such old popes and then pretend to be all sad and shocked when they finally croak.

I'm surprised that the 24/7 adrenaline rush, that they must get from this position, doesn't kill them almost immediately?

[aarond12]

Originally Posted by iJohnHenry

I'm surprised that the 24/7 adrenaline rush, that they must get from this position, doesn't kill them almost immediately?

Was that an altar-boy joke?

[NewAnger]

I asked him if he was ready to hear my confession and got no reply.

[iLuvMyMacToo]

Likely not the Pope himself doing the tweets he can hardly sit up straight on the loo on his own little else type a tweet

[sim667]

"Lead choirboy wouldnt strip for me in the vestuary. #FML"

[Carlanga]

Originally Posted by yg17

Awesome, now Pope Rat can use Twitter to blast gays and anti-AIDS measures in Africa.

now now, play nice.

I find it depressing that many that are against something try to bash the other person because they found their beliefs on life to not be aligned w/ them. Acting like this is just as bad as the reporters on Fox News.


As for the twitter account, I do find it interesting for such an old style pope. Maybe this indicates the church could move forward and keep up better with times. Also, pretty funny that he follows himself in different languages. He should start following political people and tweet them, that would bring some interesting chats to twitter. And, he should start using #hashtags in his tweets.

[PracticalMac]

The REAL reason Pope resigned.