The Pope wants priests to reach out on social networking sites.

The leader of the Catholic church is asking his priests to start tweeting.

Pope Benedict XVI clearly understands the power of the Internet.  In a recent message from the Vatican, the Pope has encouraged Catholic priests to become more web savvy and take advantage of powerful communication mediums such as Twitter and FaceBook.

“The spread of multimedia communications and its rich ‘menu of options’ might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled,”  he stated.

“Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, Websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelisation and catechesis … Responding adequately to this challenge amid today’s cultural shifts, to which young people are especially sensitive, necessarily involves using new communications technologies,” the Pope added.

The religous leader feels that the Internet will help “enliven their pastoral outreach”.

The Vatican has not been known for their technological advancement.  In 1992, the Vatican finally acknowledged that the Earth revolves around the sun.