Pope turns to Twitter to speak to the world

Anyone who says the Church is irrelevant needs only look at the Pope who has managed to rack up nearly half a million Twitter followers without even making a single tweet.

The Pope will make his Twitter debut as @Pontifex on 12 December but the page is already live and at the last count had 468,572 followers.

The 85-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church already has around 1.2 billion followers around the world.

It's not likely he'll be using Twitter to share what he had for breakfast, but rather to impart some spiritual wisdom to help his followers understand God and the world they live in.

Senior media adviser to the Vatican, Greg Burke, said the Pope would also be personally answering questions sent to him via the hashtag #askpontifex.

"All the Pope's tweets are the Pope's words. Nobody is going to be putting words into his mouth," he said.

The tweets will be translated into several languages, including Spanish, English, Polish and Arabic.

Burke added: "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 labour intensive and it is aimed at young people."

News
Fire severely damages historic Amsterdam church on New Year’s Day
Fire severely damages historic Amsterdam church on New Year’s Day

A major fire tore through one of Amsterdam’s best-known historic buildings in the early hours of New Year’s Day, seriously damaging the property and forcing people to leave nearby homes.

Rwanda’s president on the defensive over church closures
Rwanda’s president on the defensive over church closures

Rwandan President Paul Kagame defended the government's forced closure of Evangelical churches, accusing them of being a “den of bandits” led by deceptive relics of colonialism. 

We are the story still being written
We are the story still being written

The story of Christ continues in the lives of those who take up His calling.

Christians harassed, attacked all over India at Christmas
Christians harassed, attacked all over India at Christmas

International Christian Concern reported more than 80 incidents in India, some of them violent, over Christmas.