Pope Benedict XVI will start tweeting from a personal Twitter account on December 12. Picture: Andrew Medichini/AP
HE'S only been on Twitter a matter of hours, but the Pope is already being trolled.
Pope Benedict XVI joined the social media network last night under
the username @pontifex, and has already amassed more than 250,000
followers despite not tweeting a thing.But while the faithful hold their mouse fingers in anticipation awaiting His Holiness' first tweet, thousands of others have begun gleefully trolling him with jokes and abuse.
"I just got a DM from @Pontifex stating that someone is saying bad things about me in Catholic Digest,'' tweeted @Sister_Roberta, which prompted the reply "@Sister_Roberta @Pontifex you should hear what 3 out of 4 priests say about you in confession!"
"Hey @Pontifex do you answer prayers because I can't seem to get through to your boss,'' joked @LeviathanPride.
"So, do the tweets of @pontifex represent the views of his employer?,'' tweeted @thekeenanwire
Responses to the Pope's announcement that he'll join the Twitter network.
"RT @Pontifex the whole unbaptised babies going to hell thing is bollocks. Condoms do work. Genesis is made up,'' tweeted @thehistoryguy, who added: "That's refreshing.''
"RT @pontifex love it when you call me Big Papal,'' tweeted @longwall26
Other Twitter users haven't been so jovial, tweeting anti-Catholic messages and condemnation of child abuse within the church and labelling the Pope a "serial spammer''.
"@Pontifex When you helped cover up the rape of children by your priests did you speak to God about this first?'' tweeted UK Guardian journalist Patrick Strudwick.
"You are not God's messenger. He doesn't exist. Give the money to the poor and apologise for everything @pontifex #catholic #pope,'' wrote @woobasher.
However as the Pope is currently only following seven other Twitter users - all foreign language versions of his own account - he's unlikely to be bothered by trolling as long as he ignores his Twitter mentions.
The Vatican reports Pope Benedict XVI will begin tweeting "concise phrases… to try and share the Good News of Christ" on December 12 at midday, Rome time (10pm AEDT).
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