HOLY TWEET

Pope Benedict Joins Twitter

His holiness will use the handle @pontifex.

#religion. Pope Benedict XVI has started a personal Twitter account and will begin tweeting Dec. 12. His holiness’s personal Twitter handle will be @pontifex, which beat out other contenders like @BenedictusPPXVI. The tweets will come from his weekly general audiences, Sunday blessings, and homilies, but they may also include reactions to major world events. Though the pope will send his first tweet himself, most other tweets will be written by an aide, and he will sign off on them. And while he is expected to have many followers, Benedict will not follow anyone. A Vatican spokesman said, “This is the new market of ideas, and the church has to be there. We want to use any method to spread the message. It’s cost-effective and not very labor-intensive, and it is aimed at young people.”