Pope’s tweet invites Christians to encounter Jesus in confession

December 13, 2013 - In a post on the social media, Pope Francis on Friday invited Christians to experience Jesus in the Sacrament of Confession. “Don’t be afraid to go to the Sacrament of Confession, where you will meet Jesus who forgives you,” the Pope tweeted on his Twitter handle @pontifex. On Thursday, Dec. 12, the papal twitter account completed a year of micro-blogging. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI made headlines across the globe inaugurating the Vatican’s first Twitter account on Dec. 12, 2012. A year later, that account, available in nine languages including Latin, now has close to 11 million followers who receive regular tweets of the thoughts and words of Pope Francis. Furthermore those short spiritual messages are then re-tweeted and relayed reaching around 60 million people worldwide. Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications noted that the Pope Benedict’s decision to open a Twitter account was “really prophetic”. He noted that at a time of increasing spiritual desertification, it’s important to have a drop of fresh water, a drop of spirituality for the spiritual aspect of human beings.