I’m the Pope and I have approved the content of this tweet

The Pope will soon have his “own” Twitter account, which he will use to communicate with people about the Sunday Angelus prayer and his most important speeches. The news was announced by Mgr. Claudio Maria Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, in an interview with Vatican Radio.

An initial “Pope on Twitter” experiment started a couple of days ago, at the same time as the beginning of Lent. The Vatican “ministry of communications” – which created the account, in order to help youngsters get to know the Pope better – launched the initiative which involves sending one tweet a day, between now and Easter, with the words used by Benedict XVI in his speeches.

Today’s tweet reads: “Brothers and sisters, Lent gives us the opportunity once again to reflect on what is at the heart of Christian life: charity.”

When the Pope’s official account is created on Twitter, “it will not mean that the Pope will be pressing a button or anything like that,” the Secretary of the Pontifical Council, Mgr. Paul Tighe explained to Vatican Insider. “The aim is to get the content on Twitter approved directly by him.” But, he added, “We are still working on a system to make this possible.” [Source]

Cool.

The name of the Pope’s account has not yet been decided, Mgr. Tighe explained: “We are discussing this with a number of experts and evaluating different possibilities.”

Hmm, so what would be a good Twitter name for the Pope’s account.

Possible names include “The Pope, a.k.a Papa, Vicar of Christ, Vicar of Peter, Holy Father, Bishop of Rome, Servant of the servants of God, Supreme Pastor, His Holiness, The Rock, Supreme Pontiff, Father of Kings, Governor of the World, Successor of St. Peter, Shepherd of the Universal Church, etc.” [Via Matthew Warner]

Well @TheRock is already taken by Dwayne Johnson. Though I think the Pope has more historic claim to his.

@HisHoliness has by taken by the Dalai Lama.

Unfortunately @ThePope, @VicarofChrist, @HolyFather, @BishopOfRome, @SupremePontiff, @FatherofKings are also already taken.

The Twitter names @SuccessoroftheChiefoftheApostles, @ServantoftheServantofGod, and @ShepherdoftheUniversalChurch are over Twitter’s 20 character limit.

Which leaves @SupremePastor, @GovernoroftheWorld, @SuccessorofStPeter and of course variations on the Pope’s regnal name.

Since the Vatican has publicized there are deciding what Twitter handle to use I hope they already got accounts or the ones they are considering.

He could also go all ecumenical with @PatriarchoftheWest which is not yet taken.

I like @RomanPontifexMaximus which is exactly 20 characters and available.

What say you?