The Pope tells Priests: We Must Blog

Pope Benedict XVI has demanded in a recent message that the Priests start using Social Media outlets including Blogs. As the Catholics 265th Pope, Pope Benedict XVI has been a very surprising and extremely supportive advocate of Social Media and Social Marketing. After the support and momentium gained by social media for the now President Barack Obama it appears as if many of the world leaders has chosen to start using the internet to help them gain and retain followers.

It looks like even though Pope Benedict XVI is a fan of Social Marketing and Blogs, he does not have a Twitter account yet. Last year, he launched a YouTube channel, and six months ago, he released Facebook and iPhone apps to spread the Church’s message. It looks like that he hopes Catholic priests will follow his digital example. It is going to be very interesting to watch the evolution of the Catholic Church’s Social Strategy.

Here is a very small excerpt from the Popes message:

“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. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. 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, evangelization and catechesis.”