The Pope’s first Tweets

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

The Pope’s first Tweets

Nine days ago, the Vatican launched the first personal Twitter accounts for the Pope, giving Pope Benedict XVI the opportunity to tweet in English (via @Pontifex) and in seven other major languages.

The day these accounts were launched, Pope Benedict also invited the world to send him questions about faith via #AskPontifex. He promised to respond to some of these questions nine days later. And now, with tens of thousands of questions in hand, @pontifex has answered: Today, the Pope sent his first Tweet during a live event at the Vatican attended by thousands.

This Tweet was immediately retweeted thousands of times, and shortly afterwards @pontifex and its seven related language accounts began responding to several questions tweeted in the past week. The first question, asked by Spanish journalist @jcalderero in Madrid, asked:

The Pope responded:

The second question, originally in Portuguese, asked how people can remain hopeful in troubled times. His response:

Third, from an American mother:

The Pope answered:

The Pope will be tweeting regularly from here on. Follow him on any of these accounts:

Posted by Claire Díaz-Ortiz (@claire)
Social Innovation team