Holy See press office launches new Twitter account

Vatican City, Jan 30, 2014 / 15:12 pm

The Holy See press office has launched a new Twitter account, aiming to make the world more aware of the activities of the Church and of Pope Francis.

"I hope that people have this help to go and to check what we are saying, what we are saying about the Pope, about the Church," Father Ciro Benedettini told CNA in a Jan. 30 interview, "so there's a better way of knowing what the Pope and what the Church are doing."

Fr. Ciro is the vice-director of the Holy See Press Office which will publish all notifications from the Vatican's "Bulletin" service.

The Bulletin is a special document that is released daily in various languages offering the details and texts of important events, audiences and speeches that occur within the Vatican.

It is available in paper copy for journalists in the press office and can also be seen on the Vatican.va website but they hope the new initiative will give the words and activities of the Pope greater visibility.

Originally developed in a meeting between the press office and the Vatican internet office, Fr. Ciro explained that they wanted the new account to "start by Christmas," however because the messages were first "considered as spam" by Twitter, the launching has been delayed.

They've since achieved the coveted "verified" status for the new Twitter account, which can be found at: @HolySeePress.

When asked what exactly will be available in the tweets, the priest noted that "the content of the bulletin" will not be available, but the news that a new bulletin has been published and a link to the content.

Drawing attention to how the new account will change the way that the Holy See communicates, Fr. Ciro observed that "this is a service to those who are following us," saying that followers don't necessarily go to the press office in order to find out what the news is.

"We announce when we have something new to tell," he stated, describing that the tweets will be sent "automatically" because "when we upload," the Bulletin, "it also gives the announcement."

Although the Bulletin is mostly used by journalists, Fr. Ciro explained that the twitter account is "for everybody; for everybody whose interested," adding that "there are more people who are not journalists than (who are)" out of the current 269 followers.

He hoped it would add something to the way the Holy See Press Office communicates, noting that it wasn't created to address a problem but rather because "this is something more."

Alan Holdren contributed to this report.