Pope’s last tweet

In his last tweet in the social micro-blogging network Twitter, Pope Benedict XVI thanked the world for its support and urged Christians to put Christ in the centre of their lives. “Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives,'' read the final tweet at Pope Benedict's Twitter account, @Pontifex. It was sent around 5.00 pm local time on Thursday, shortly after he took off from the Vatican in a helicopter for the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. Later, when his pontificate ended at 8.00 pm that tweet and all of Benedict's previous ones were deleted and the profile was changed to “Sede Vacante,”, the symbol with a special striped umbrella extended over a pair of crossed keys.
Pope Benedict became history’s first Pontiff to join the social networks, Facebook and Twitter, and sent his first tweet on December 12. Since then, he has tweeted 28 times in several languages simultaneously, with his English-language account alone registering 1.6 million followers. However, contrary to some news reports, the Twitter account, @Pontifex is not shutting down permanently, but only going into ‘hibernation’ during the “Sede Vacante”, and will be available for use by the new Pope as he may wish. Meanwhile the Vatican's Secretariat of State has launched its new Twitter account @TerzaLoggia, which will offer official news and information, during the "interregnum," the period between popes. As of March 1, the new account had not tweets but already had over 3,000 followers.