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.