Pontifex breviloquens : a tweeting pope!

Vatican Radio) As Pope Benedict XVI launches his first tweets in Latin on Sunday, January 20 thousands of people will have signed up to his Twitter account: “@Pontifex_ln” . Latin, the universal language of the Catholic Church, becomes the ninth language used for the Pope's tweets.

This event provides Veronica Scarisbrick with the opportunity to put all kinds of queries relating to this venture to our popular ‘Latin Lover’, Carmelite Father Reginald Foster who describes Benedict XVI as "Pontifex breviloquens".

As Father Foster explains a Ciceronian translation of all things 'twitter' is possible. He claims in fact that he almost jumped out of his skin when he realised that in his letter to Atticus, Cicero writes: ‘Breviloquentem iam me tempus ipsum facit’..

That's why, he says, as we go out to tweet translates into : "exeamus brevilocutum", and let's tweet among ourselves: "inter nos breviloquamus".

A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick.

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