Yes, The Pope Shall Tweet!

The most powerful leader in the Catholic community, Pope Benedict XVI, is about to join the biggest micro-blogging website in the world. A spokesperson from the Vatican shared the news on November 9, 2012, with millions of Catholics expected to immediately follow the holy Twitter account. Pope Benedict is at the helm of the Catholic Church, which is comprised of around 1.1 billion members worldwide. According to the Associated Press, it is quite unlikely that the Pope himself will be the one tweeting, considering his old age of 85 years and inexperience in social media platforms and the Internet. Experts speculate that a team or individual will be tasked to fill in the 140-character allotment for the holy leader. The Vatican has yet to announce the official account for the Pope, but it is expected to contain Papal pronouncements, spiritual quotes and other words of wisdom from one of the world's most influential men himself. It can be recalled in the past that Pope Benedict had warned online users about living a parallel life, considering the attractions that the internet offers. However, he is not completely alien to the benefits produced by social media platforms. The pope actually tweeted when the news-information portal of the Vatican was released. The Pope also has a fan page on Facebook which has over 65,000 likes. Other spiritual leaders are known for using the Internet and being a member of the most popular social media sites. The 14th Dalai Lama?has 4.5 million likes on Facebook, while Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has over 10,000 followers on Instagram (@khamenei_ir) and around 6,600 followers on Twitter (@khamenei_ir). [Figures as of November 2012] Twitter is constantly used by religious and influential leaders to share the gospel and other related quips and quotes. Retweets are very common especially among churches' groups and organizations. There is also an online platform called Pope2you, which allows individuals to get quick information using their mobile devices.