As Pope Benedict XVI leaves his papal designation on February 28, 8 p.m. Rome time, so too will his multiple Twitter profiles retire permanently, according to reports from CNN, today, Feb. 22.
All nine of Pope Benedict’s Twitter accounts in different languages will close when he resigns, including, English: @pontifex, Spanish: @pontifex_es, Italian: @pontifex_it, Latin: @pontifex_lnPortuguese: @pontifex_pt, German: @pontifex_de, Polish: @pontifex_pl, Arabic: @pontifex_ar and French: @pontifex_fr where he has amassed almost 3 million followers, 1.5 of that in English.
The Catholic world waited to see what the Pontiff’s first tweet would consist of on December 12, when Pope Benedict utilized social media to spread the word of Jesus.
Simple and concise, with only 140 characters to choose from, Pope Benedict took to Twitter at 5:28 a.m. EST, not to gain followers on the social networking site, of which he already had ascertained over 677,000 and counting that morning, but to expand the followers of Jesus Christ.
Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.
After only 30 minutes of going live, the Pope’s first tweet had been retweeted over 13,000 times.
Catholics worldwide and locally here on Long Island will have to wait and see if the newly elected Pope will resume a presence on Twitter with the same goal as that of Pope Benedict, to reach followers of Christ and spread the Word of God.
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