Følg paven på Twitter

Så er det altså offisielt. Pave Benedikt XVI er på Twitter som @Pontifex.

Det var under en pressekonferanse i Vatikanet mandag at pavens inntreden i det sosiale nettverket med over 600 millioner brukere ble presentert. 

Samtidig sendte Vatikanets pressekontor ut en pressemeldig med litt bakgrunnsinformasjon.

The Pope’s presence on Twitter is a concrete expression of his conviction that the Church must be present in the digital arena. This initiative is best understood in the context of his reflections on the importance of the cultural space that has been brought into being by the new technologies. In his Message for World Communications Day 2009, which was published on the same day as the Vatican’s Youtube channel was opened, Pope Benedict spoke of the necessity of evangelizing the ‘digital continent’ and he invited young believers, in particular, to introduce into the culture of this new environment of communications and information technology the values on which you have built your lives.

At 86 år gamle Benedikt blir å finne på Twitter fra og med 12. desember, er dog en naturlig forlengelse av Kirkens nettsatsning og økte tilstedeværelse på sosiale medier de senere år.

The Church is already richly present in this environment – there exist a whole range of initiatives from the official websites of various institutions and communities to the personal sites, blogs and micro-blogs of public church figures and of individual believers. The Pope’s presence in Twitter is ultimately an endorsement of the efforts of these ‘early adapters’ 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. His presence is intended to be an encouragement to all Church institutions and people of faith to be attentive to develop an appropriate profile for themselves and their convictions in the ‘digital continent’. The Pope’s tweets will be available to believers and non-believers to share, discuss and to encourage dialogue. It is hoped that the Pope’s short messages, and the fuller messages that they seek to encapsulate, will give rise to questions for people from different countries, languages and cultures.

Formatet for Benedikts Twitter-bruk vil ifølge dagens rapporter basere seg på spørsmål og svar. Du kan allerede nå stille paven spørsmål ved å bruke hashtagen #askpontifex. Det er ventet at paven svarer på utvalgte spørsmål den 12. desember.

I mellomtiden ser det ut som om hans medarbeidere har en storstilt sorteringsjobb foran seg...