Pope Made History Today

Today was an important day in history and it was not because of the phenomenon of the date and time being 12/12/12 12:12:12, which everyone has been raving about on Facebook and Twitter.  See my post about it HERE.

No, what is important about today is that Pope Benedict XVI sent the first papal tweet ever.  That is the truly amazing event that occurred today and which we should all be raving about.  I think its pretty neat that our Holy Father, at the young age of just 85, has made the effort of using a means of social communication that many young people today favour.

The pope’s first tweet read: “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.”

The pope will be tweeting the answers to questions that he receives via twitter.  The first question he answered on Twitter today was this: “How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives?”  The pope responded to the question: “By speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need.”

Below is a screen shot of the popes first 5 tweets today.  I hope that we will see millions more.

If you want to want to follow the pope on twitter go HERE.  His twitter handle is @Pontifex and he already had 817,788 followers on Twitter when I posted this on my Blog. 

Don’t forget that many of our South African bishops are now also on Twitter.  Here are the links to their Twitter feeds.

Cardinal Wilfred Napier - @cardinalnapier

Bishop Edward Risi - @egrkeimoes

Bishop Michael Wustenberg - @bpmichaelaliwal

Diocese of Aliwal - @AliwalDiocese

Diocese of Kokstad - @DioceseKokstad

Diocese of Witbank - @DioceseWitbank

Diocese of Eshowe - @DioceseOfEshowe

Diocese of Gaborone - @DioceseGaborone

Of course you shouldn’t forget to also follow me @marknelza and my parish Twitter account @MaterDolorosa.