The Pope now has his own personal Twitter account, meant to bring  the Vatican closer to its 1.1 billion members.

“Dear friends , ” he announced last June,” I just launched News.va.  Praise be our Lord Jesus Christ!  With my payers and blessings.  Benedictus XVI”

On World Communications Day last June he encouraged Catholics to join Facebook and Twitter, important tools for exchanging information.  He commented:  “To proclaim the gospel through the new media means not only to insert expressly religious content into different media platforms,  but also to witness consistently, in one’s own digital profile and in the way one communicates choices, preferences and judgements that are fully consistent with the gospel, even when it is not spoken of specifically.”

In addition the Vatican have introduced some new products, a Church -approved  app for confession, and the Pope2you website, which lets followers read his speeches and follow his travels.

This is all very laudable.  But who was it who talked about the medium and the message?    Maybe his time could be better spent reviewing the latter?

And a greater misuse of time is hard to imagine than having his flock waste their lives on Facebook.  But there you are.  1.1 billion members.