Pope puts faith in Twitter in new mission to spread word

The Vatican, which already has a presence on YouTube and Facebook, is trying to reach out to an increasingly internet-savvy audience but denied that it was dumbing down Catholicism by squeezing the wisdom of the gospels into messages of 140 characters or less.

“The tweet can be reformulated, redistributed, relaunched and disseminated,” said Father Claudio Maria Celli, the head of the Vatican’s pontifical council for social communications, as he announced that Benedict XVI was to start tweeting. No date for the first papal tweet has actually been set and an account name has not been confirmed, and it appears highly unlikely that the 84-year-old will be showing photos of himself or informing the world what he is eating for breakfast. The Pope, whose tweets will probably include links to his speeches, is said to be an internet enthusiast and has overseen the launch of the Vatican’s YouTube channel and the Pope2you website, which is aimed at young people and has a link to a Facebook page and an iPhone application. During Lent, the site’s Twitter feed will tweet 40 phrases from the Pope’s message for Lent – one a day and the Vatican says that while tweets from Benedict’s new personal account may not always be written by the man himself, they will always be approved by him.

The Rt Revd Nick Baines, the Bishop of Bradford, uses Twitter himself and welcomes the news that Pope Benedict is joining its millions of users. “It’s good that the Pope is using Twitter during Lent, potentially connecting with a wider range of people. I hope he listens as well as tweets - that’s the beauty of interactive social media and the more the better.”

The Vatican’s move is seen as a way of reaching a younger audience, although there have been past concerns among some church leaders about the power of the internet. In 2009, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, warned that social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace could encourage teenagers to view friendship as a “commodity” and claimed the internet was “dehumanising” community life.

However, the Church of England has tried to appeal to the internet generation by setting up an online church which offers prayers and worship. Following its launch in 2006, a number of other internet churches have been set up, creating opportunities for people to talk online.

Religious leaders in the UK certainly seem keen to explore different ways of getting their message across. Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and atheist Professor Richard Dawkins went head-to- head to discuss the ultimate question – where we come from and whether God exists. The leader of the Church of England and the UK’s most famous non-believer debated the issue at the event at Oxford University which was streamed live online.

While at the weekend, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, surprised readers and his fellow Church of England clerics with his column in the new Sun on Sunday. Critics said he wasn’t only writing for Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper, which many people feel is simply replacing the old News of the World, but was endorsing the newspaper in the process - prompting a flurry of activity on Twitter.

But are religious leaders just using any means possible to get people interested in God, or are they simply keeping up with life in the 21st century?

Dr David Efird, senior lecturer in philosophy at York University and curate at York Minster, believes it’s the latter. “If you look at Jesus, he spread his message through word of mouth. He met people and talked to crowds because that was the best way of getting through to ordinary people. But nowadays people interact through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and online blogs,” he says.

But you can’t convey the teachings of the gospel in 140 characters? “You can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good and it’s important to spread the message of the gospel using whatever methods we can. It doesn’t mean we can’t preach sermons or write books, it just means there are other ways of reaching people. We can still praise traditional methods of reaching people along with fresh, new means of expression like Twitter and Facebook.”