You can now follow Pope Benedict XVI on Twitter as he on June 28 became a member of the social networking site, reports the Sun.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church joined Twitter after he launched the most recent news website of the Vatican. The site covers local as well as world news, with special emphasis on spreading peace and fraternity in 140 characters or less.

The national daily tabloid reports that the Bishop of Rome tapped on an iPad to launch the news portal. Earlier the portal was made available on Facebook and Youtube – two other popular social networking websites.

The purpose behind linking the site with Twitter was to reach out to a larger audience who use social media on a regular basis, says the Sun, adding that the historic moment was captured on video and can be seen on the internet.

The 84-year-old father of the Vatican said in his first tweet: “Dear Friends, I just launched News.va. Praised be our Lord!”, the English daily quoted. Commenting on the occasion, project coordinator Thaddeus Jones observed that the Pontiff was fascinated with the latest digital technologies and wore an expression of joy.

It is fair to say that the event marked an occasion where tradition embraced technology and paved the way for future development of digital communication. According to Thaddeus Jones, the moment, albeit “lighter”, would go down in history as the beginning of a new era in global communication.