VATICAN CITY
9 News
OMG! The Vatican almost closed the Pope’s Twitter account shortly after it opened because it was bombarded with abuse.
The first pontiff to tweet was Pope Benedict on December 12, 2012 and he had to be shown which key to press.
The man who showed him was Archbishop Claudio Celli, the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
Archbishop Celli is in Sydney for a communications congress and he confessed to AAP that the first tweet sent by Benedict XVI was the only time a Pope actually hit send.
Now it is a technician who transmits Pope Francis’ tweets after the man himself has approved them.
Engagement with social media was a hard sell in the Vatican especially during Pope Benedict’s time.
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