How the social media world reacted to Pope Benedict’s first tweet

The first papal missive from @pontifex and his six other accounts in different languages was quickly followed by a half dozen more tweets over the next several hours. That initial tweet, sent out notably on 12-12-12, was retweeted 50,000 times and marked as a favorite 20,000 times. He had amassed over a million followers before sending the tweet.

The Vatican confirmed that the pope will not actually be sending the tweets out himself, but they will indeed be his words. The Wall Street Journal reported a group called the “Pontifical Council for Social Communications” will be overseeing the Twitter outreach.

The Pope did hit the “send” button for first tweet in an event that was caught on video. It 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.”