April 10, 2014: In a post on the social media on Thursday, Pope Francis tweeted on
Christian Charity, asking the faithful to encounter the suffering Christ among the
suffering. The Pontiff wrote on his Twitter account @pontifex: “Jesus teaches us to
not be ashamed of touching human misery, of touching his flesh in our brothers and
sisters who suffer.”
Pope Francis has often spoken about a radical Christian
charity. In his message for the Twenty-Ninth World Youth Day in January 2014, Pope
Francis had said “We have to learn to be on the side of the poor, and not just indulge
in rhetoric about the poor! Let us go out to meet them, look into their eyes and listen
to them. The poor provide us with a concrete opportunity to encounter Christ himself,
and to touch his suffering flesh.”
The Pope has now close to 11 million followers
on his Twitter account @Pontifex. And the re-tweeting of Pope’s message is reported
to be reaching at least 60 million people. The Pope’s English-language handle alone
has over 3 million followers. The papal tweets are published in nine languages on
the micro-blogging website.