First tweeting pope to send his last tweet on February 28th

First tweeting pope remains silent over resignation

"Benedict is likely to send his last tweet on February 28, his final day as pontiff before he departs the Vatican in a helicopter."

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to will make his final tweet on February 28, before he departs the Vatican.

Entering the social media sphere was one of the most publicised part that defined his papacy.

His first tweet said: 'Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart'.

The 85-year-old pontiff sent the tweet on a touch screen at the end of his weekly general audience in the Vatican last December.

On his final day he is expected to post his last tweet. The @Pontifex account will then be silent during the 'Sede Vacante' - and until another pope is instated.

The head of the Vatican's communication department, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, hopes the new head of the Vatican will follow in Benedicts footsteps by continuing to tweet.

'During the days after the 28 no tweet will be sent because there is no pope to send a tweet,' he said. 'And so when the new pope will be elected, we are going to present to him such an opportunity,' he told Reuters.

The day Benedict announced his resignation the Vatican news website jumped from 14,000 to 190,000 hits in a day.

VATICAN CITY | Sat Feb 16, 2013 

(Reuters) - It could have been the tweet of the century.

But Pope Benedict decided not to announce his resignation on Twitter, which he joined last year in a foray into social media that has reaped uncertain spiritual returns and could be curtailed by his successor.

Obviously keen to avoid any leak of his resignation - which would have been a risk as his tweets are typed up by an aide - the pope announced it in person, in Latin, to a restricted group of cardinals. The video was then given to the world's media.

News of the first pontiff to resign in seven centuries scorched through Twitter, generating 1.5 million comments in the first 36 hours, according to analytics firm Crimson Hexagon.

But of those, a third were negative, criticising the pope or the Roman Catholic Church, and 38 percent were jokes. Just 7 percent were positive, expressing concern for the pontiff or hope about the future.

"We are receiving tweets that I consider not worthy of a human person," said Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, a Vatican office set up in the 1940s to address the flourishing film industry, but which under Benedict branched into Twitter, YouTube and smartphone download "The Pope App".

An easy target of Internet "trolls", the pope has come in for plenty of online abuse.

"It's a problem," Celli said in an interview in the marble-floored offices near St. Peter's Basilica that house the communications hub. "When you are offending in a vulgar way, that is not worthy of a human being."

Nevertheless, the 85-year-old was not "naive" in joining the micro-blogging site synonymous with instant news, irreverence and mob behaviour. "The idea of the Holy Father was simple: I want to be present where people are present," Celli said.

NO HINT

There was no hint of the resignation in recent tweets, sent from a locked room in the Vatican from a computer kept especially for the purpose and fortified against possible hacks.

Last Sunday, one day before the announcement, he tweeted: "We must trust in the mighty power of God's mercy. We are all sinners, but His grace transforms us and makes us new."

The only tweet from @Pontifex since then was on Ash Wednesday, the start of lent this week, when he reminded his more than 1.5 million online followers the Christian fasting period had begun.

The Vatican's communications apparatus, put in place mostly by Benedict's predecessor, is readying for its busiest weeks since John Paul II's death and Benedict's election in April, 2005.

The day Benedict announced his resignation, hits on the Vatican's news website jumped from 14,000 to 190,000 in a day, forcing technicians to switch from one to four servers to prevent a crash.

Benedict is likely to send his last tweet on February 28, his final day as pontiff before he departs the Vatican in a helicopter.

After that - during the "Sede Vacante" or "Empty See" when there is no pope - the @Pontifex Twitter account will be silent.

Anyone with "The Pope App" on their smart phone will be able to watch for the white smoke that heralds a new pontiff on a live stream trained on the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.

Benedict's push into online media was part of a battle that was central to his papacy: to win back believers in the rapidly secularising developed world. But patchy success means the next pontiff may choose not to Tweet.

"It will depend on him for sure. When the new pope will be elected we are going to present to him such an opportunity," said Celli.

"We need to touch the imagination of people. We need to touch their heart. Because we have a lot of new technology, but do you realise how really difficult it is to communicate with people?"

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/02/16/vatican-resignation-twitter-idINDEE91F04J20130216

Vatican: Conclave electing new pope could start before March 15th

 

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The conclave to choose Pope Benedict's successor could start earlier than expected, giving the Roman Catholic Church a new leader by mid March, the Vatican said on Saturday.

Less than two weeks away from a historic papal resignation, the Vatican also stressed again that the pope was not abandoning the Church in times of difficulties and urged the faithful to trust in God and in the next pope.

Five days after Benedict announced his resignation in Latin to a small group of cardinals, the Vatican was still in a state of spiritual and bureaucratic shock, groping for ways to deal with a situation without precedent for at least six centuries.

Some 117 cardinals under the age of 80 will be eligible to enter the secretive conclave to elect Benedict's successor. Church rules say the conclave has to start between 15-20 days after the papacy becomes vacant, which it will on February 28.

But since the Church is now dealing with an announced resignation and not a sudden death, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the Vatican would be "interpreting" the law to see if it could start earlier.

Cardinals around the world have already begun informal consultations by phone and email to construct a profile of the man they think would be best suited to lead the Church in a period of continuing crisis.

The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new pope elected and then formally installed in a solemn ceremony before Palm Sunday on March 24 so he can preside at Holy Week services leading to Easter.

The 85-year-old Benedict was having as normal a Saturday as possible, considering that his remaining scheduled public appearances can now be counted on one hand.

The Vatican has been at pains to stress that the pope was leaving exclusively because of diminishing spiritual and physical forces and that the pontiff was certain it was the right thing to do and would not hurt the Church.

"Benedict is not abandoning us in times of difficulty," Lombardi said in his weekly editorial for Vatican Radio. "With confidence, he is inviting the Church to trust in the Spirit and in a new successor of St. Peter."

DETERIORATING HEALTH

Benedict's papacy was rocked by crises over sex abuse of children by priests in Europe and the United States, most of which preceded his time in office but came to light during it.

His reign also saw Muslim anger after he compared Islam to violence. Jews were upset over his rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier. During a scandal over the Church's business dealings, his butler was convicted of leaking his private papers.

Meanwhile, new details emerged on Saturday about the state of Benedict's health in the months before his shock decision.

Peter Seewald, a German journalist who wrote a book with the pope in 2010 in which Benedict first floated the possibility of resigning, visited him again about 10 weeks ago and asked what else could be expected from his papacy.

According to excepts published in the German magazine Focus, the pope answered: "From me? Not much from me. I'm an old man and the strength is ebbing. I think what I've done is enough."

Asked if he was considering resigning, the pope said: "That depends on how much my physical strength will force me to that".

Seewald said he was alarmed about the pope's health.

"His hearing had deteriorated. He couldn't see with his left eye. His body had become so thin that the tailors had difficulty in keeping up with newly fitted clothes ... I'd never seen him so exhausted-looking, so worn down."

Keeping to his schedule, Benedict met a group of Italian bishops and Guatemala's president on Saturday morning and in the afternoon was receiving caretaker Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in a farewell audience.

Monti, a devout Catholic, is leading a centrist coalition in next week's elections but the Vatican says the farewell meeting has nothing to do with the vote.

On Sunday, the pope will hold his customary noon blessing from his window overlooking St Peter's Square before going into a previously scheduled, week-long Lenten spiritual retreat. He will emerge from that on Feb 23.

He will then say one more Sunday noon prayer on February 24, hold a final general audience on February 27. The next day he will take a helicopter to the papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, flying into the history books.

Vatican officials said he would stay there for the two months or so needed to restore the convent inside the Vatican where he will live out his remaining years.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Additional reporting by Erik Kirschbaum, James Mackenzie and Tom Heneghan; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

source: http://news.yahoo.com/conclave-electing-pope-could-start-march-15-vatican-151630409.html