Pope Benedict XVI, @Pontifex, blesses followers with first Twitter message
Photo credit: AFP / Getty Images | Pope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves St. Peter's Basilica after Vespers with members of Rome's universities. The pontiff blessed his followers in his first Twitter message. (Dec. 1, 2012)
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Pope Benedict XVI blessed hundreds of thousands of followers Wednesday in his first Twitter message after joining the social network earlier this month.
"Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter," read the tweet, sent at the end of the Pontiff's weekly general audience. "Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart," the 85-year-old pope wrote.
The English version of his account @Pontifex, Latin for Pontiff, had more than 750,000 followers as of 1:26 p.m. in Rome, Benedict's official Twitter page showed. The first papal tweet was also sent through his Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish and Arabic accounts.
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This is not the first time Benedict has reached out to cyberspace in an effort to attract young people to the Church.
Last year the Pope used an Apple Inc. iPad to send his first post on Twitter through a non-personal Vatican account.
