The Pope Joins Facebook

Pope Benedict XVI is bringing new meaning to the term, "social media evangelist." Theology and church life can be powerfully expressed through social media tools and, apparently, Pope Benedict gets that.

Mashable's Adam Ostrow reports that the pope--who has already joined the YouTube crowd--now has a Facebook application and a related website, Pope2You. The app allows users to send virtual postcards with papal messages and photos to friends on Facebook.

The pope writes in a message for World Communications Day, "New Technologies, New Relationships. Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship,'' that he understands young people are more at ease in the digital space. World Communications Day is Sunday.

The young, he says, have grasped the connective nature of social networking: "Many benefits flow from this new culture of communication: families are able to maintain contact across great distances; students and researchers have more immediate and easier access to documents, sources and scientific discoveries, hence they can work collaboratively from different locations; moreover, the interactive nature of many of the new media facilitates more dynamic forms of learning and communication, thereby contributing to social progress."

The pope talks of respect, dialogue and friendship in his message, saying that friendship is one of the human concepts that has gained "renewed prominence" in social networks. But he cautions that friendship should not be trivialized.

"It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop online friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbours and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation. If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may, in fact, function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development."

The pontiff concludes by challenging young Catholics to be evangelists in the digital world: "It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this 'digital continent.' Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: The greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the 'Good News' of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people. Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion."

Pope Benedict apparently won't be directly accessible on Facebook. The VaticanNews on Twitter posted that Reuters reports that friends will be unable to "poke" the pontiff on Facebook or write on his wall. I guess that also means he can't accept a "you're cool" request or join a "super snowball fight."

Still, with humor and an apparent interest beyond novelty, Pope Benedict has taken one virtual step closer to the people he shepherds, and that's a good thing.