@PONTIFEX

It's official. Pope Benedict XVI has entered the world of Twitter. And it couldn't have come at a better time. 

Yesterday, Monday Dec. 3, the pope's twitter was created, and within hours, he had more than 250,000 follows. Talk about popularity. Benedict is expected to post his first tweet at a general audience at the Vatican on Dec. 12. He is now accepting questions about matters of the faith using the hashtag #askpontifex, and he plans to use the Twitter account to answer these questions. 

If you ask me, this is pure genius. 

It's no secret that our society is becoming more and more focused on the media. And we've heard story after story about how technology is pulling people, especially the youth, away from their faith. But it doesn't have to be that way.

When Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media sites are used with purpose, they can, in fact, bring us closer to Christ and help us learn more about Him. And in all honesty, it is one of the most important ways to reach out to the youth of the Church today. Pope Benedict's smart move of joining Twitter has the potential to draw a great number of people into the Church and introduce them to the love that Christ has for them.

Blessed John Paul II put it best: "The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications MEDIA so as to let him have the full impact of the GOSPEL MESSAGE." 

What do we learn from this? That today's media has the potential to be the most effective tool is spreading Christ's message. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and all the other social media sites are here, and I don't think they're going anywhere any time soon. So since we've got them, we should use them. We have the ability to harness the media to reach unfathomable amounts of people. 

Papa Benny is doing it with his Twitter account.

Let's follow his lead. 

Social media, watch out. Catholicism is about to rock the world.