The Vatican unveiled Pope Benedict XVI’s Twitter account on Monday (Dec. 3) as it announced a series of new initiatives aimed at raising the church’s online profile.
The pope’s account, @Pontifex, drew nearly 200,000 followers in the hours after the announcement even though Benedict will not officially start tweeting until Dec. 12. That’s when the pope plans to answer questions about faith submitted to him via Twitter through a special hashtag, #askpontifex, set up by the Vatican.
At least initially, the pope’s tweets will be related to his official speeches and activities but their scope might be extended in the future, for example in response to natural disasters.
Do we really espect the pope is going to be messing around one evening, have a thought come to mind, and tweet it like the rest of us?
Everything tweeted will come through flacks, funkies, and spin doctors just like everything else out of the press office. And given it’s the Vatican, it won’t even be very good spin.