VATICAN CITY (AP) -
He already has a billion followers.
Now, Pope Benedict XVI will
join the Twitter-sphere, tweeting from a personal account along with
the world's celebrities, leaders and ordinary folk.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi made the announcement Thursday, saying details about Benedict's handle and other information will come when the Vatican officially launches the account, perhaps before the end of the year.
The 85-year-old Benedict
sent his first tweet from a Vatican account last year when he launched
the Vatican's news information portal, aimed at the world's 1.1 billion
Catholics. The new Twitter account will be his own, though it's doubtful
Benedict himself will wrestle down his encyclicals, apostolic
exhortations and other papal pronouncements into 140-character bites.
Benedict, who writes longhand and doesn't normally use a computer, will more likely sign off on tweets written in his name.
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