Thou shalt not poke the Pope
Neither shalt thou write on his wall
{original post by Philip Pullella, Reuters May 24, 2009}
You won’t get an e-mail saying Pope Benedict added you as a friend and you can’t “poke” him or write on his wall, but the Vatican is still keen to use the networking site Facebook to woo young people back to church.
A new Vatican website, www.pope2you.net, has gone live, offering an application called “The pope meets you on Facebook,” and another allowing the faithful to see the Pope’s speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.
The Vatican’s World Communications Day today is devoted to communicating the gospel with new technologies.
“We recognize that a church that does not communicate ceases to be a church,” said Msgr. Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican’s Social Communications department.
“Many young people today are not turning to traditional media like newspapers and magazines any more for information and entertainment. They are looking to a different media culture, and this is our effort to ensure that the Church is present in that communications culture.”
