Pope's 10 million Twitter followers derive from unlikely places
A visiting Vatican official said a large part of the 10 million Twitter followers
of Pope Francis are Filipinos working abroad, especially in the Middle East.
“When
the pope went on Twitter … we were surprised to see that in the Middle Eastern countries
and Gulf states, there was a huge following. Then we realized that those were the
Filipinos,” Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for
Social Communications, told reporters in Manila on Thursday.
He said Twitter
has been an important tool for Filipino workers to exercise their faith despite being
in places where religious freedom is limited.
“These Filipinos are in a situation
that is not easy for Catholics, but Twitter is something that allowed them some connection
to the Church,” said Msgr. Tighe, who is part of the team that manages the Pope’s
Twitter account @Pontifex.
"What I want to tell Filipinos around the world
is: make sure you see in social media the potential to build good relationships among
yourselves, to build up your faith and sense of belongingness to the church and closeness
to Christ," he said.
Msgr. Tighe said the pope usually composes his tweets
in Spanish or Italian and a team translates the messages to seven other languages.
The
church official also discussed the Vatican's acquisition of the .catholic domain from
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
Msgr. Tighe said the
Vatican took the .catholic domain as "a way of having a space in the digital arena
where the Church can have an authentic presence.”
He said if all Catholic institutions
use the .catholic domain, people will easily find authentic Catholic sites.
Msgr.
Tighe said his office is hoping that churches that have developed a digital presence
will help those in other parts of the world that are not so developed as “an exercise
in church solidarity in community.”
Msgr. Tighe is in Manila for the Catholic
Social Media Summit this weekend.Source: UCAN