The success of Pope Benedict’s first tweet back on December 12 has prompted His Holiness to invite Catholic Church leaders and the faithful to utilize social media as “new spaces for evangelization” during a press conference this past Thursday, Jan. 24.
The press conference for World Communications Day 2013, held on the feast day of St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers and journalists, was the optimal moment for the Pontiff to spread his social media message that focused on the “importance of social networking sites as portals of truth and faith and new spaces for evangelization.”
After Pope Benedict took to Twitter at 5:28 a.m. EST on December 12, 2012, not to gain followers on the social networking site, but to expand the followers of Jesus Christ, he is now expounding the importance of social media to be used as a tool for Catholics to help spread the Gospel message of God’s love for all people within this Year of Faith.
In an interview regarding the 47th World Communications Day Message, Philippa Hitchen spoke to Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, illuminating Pope Benedict’s social media contemplations. The full address can be heard here.
The Pope is asking two fundamental questions ….how can new media contribute to human progress and secondly, what can we Christians do in that arena to help and support the development of social networks in a positive manner…
If you are looking for daily inspiration, follow Pope Benedict on Twitter @Pontifex, although don’t expect him to follow back. The eight profiles the Pontiff follows are his other Twitter handles in assorted languages.
The Pope’s Twitter profile was expected to reach one million followers by Christmas and has now, as of today, approached almost 1.5 million. In this Year of Faith, as proclaimed by the Holy Father, following the leader of the Catholic Church on Twitter is just one small step to Belong More Deeply as Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre has requested of Long Island Catholics.
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Deirdre Haggerty, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this article may be reproduced without prior written permission and consent from the author or Clarity Digital Group LLC, DBA Examiner.com.
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