Posted on 12/03/2012 2:31:40 PM PST by NYer
Pope Benedict joined Twitter today and was greeted by hateful tweets from Catholic bashers laced with profanity. Pope Benedict XVI ’s new Twitter account has been revealed, @Pontifex, and it already has more than 100,000 followers and is expected to be eventually followed by millions.
The Vatican revealed the new personal Twitter account for Pope Benedict XVI, and said the leader of the Catholic Church would answer one question about his faith every week — with the first coming next Wednesday. Users of Twitter can send questions using the hashtag #askpontifex or #B16 and church officials said the first tweets from the account would come this week.
“The Pope’s presence on Twitter is a concrete expression of his conviction that the Church must be present in the digital arena,” the Vatican said. The Pope’s involvement in the popular social media outlet “can be seen as the ‘tip of the iceberg’ that is the Church’s presence in the world of new media.”
Pope Benedict himself will hit the button to send the first tweet from the account, but others will send tweets on his behalf frequently. The term @Pontifex means “bridge builder” in Latin.
Immediately after the announcement, the account was hit with a rash of vile tweets.
Roseanne Barr said, “the pope is just another man in a dress telling women what to do.”
“Hahaha The Pope Has Twitter Accounts Now Let’s Hit This Bitch Up With Some Hate Tweets,” another user tweeted.
Some other hateful tweets include:
“Hey @Pontifex hahaha f— off pope go back to middle ages n take ur backwards mind set w/ u.”
“The pope is on Twitter! Yay now I can let him know how much I hate him!”
“Hey Pope piss up a rope you old bastard”
“Ask him when the Church is going to change their prohibition on condoms, which is causing millions to die in the Third World.’”
Catholic ping!
As my husband always says: “It’s not my world.” And it isn’t.
Well, the honored Pope just visited an e-sewer. Who’s surprised? I hope he wasn’t.
Agree totally. Thanks for reinforcing that notion.
This was a poor idea, for a multitude of reasons.
This would have shown itself, had they entered the medium gradually. As it is, it is like taking a shortcut across a plowed, muddy field.
My wife & I had a Christmas party for our staff last night, most of whom are twenty or so years younger than we.
We hired a DJ and there was dancing.
Your husband is right.
Good post. I like the word e-sewer. That’s what they and others like them are.
At least a sewer carries away effluence. The internet has become a fever swamp for this sort of thing.
Aw...I hate that so many people agree with me. I don’t know what to do with the remainder of my life!
I am not Catholic so please don't take offense to my ignorance of Church leadership structure, but its my guess is that you don't get to the Vatican level of the Church, much less be selected Pope, without having been through a persecution for your faith a time or two. His response to these attacks may just might get through to someone - maybe not the attacker but someone else watching.
And the haters will have to 'follow' the Pope to keep up with what he's saying, right? God can use that exposure for His good.
Well said!
How idiotic.
Do millions of people slavishly obey the condom prohibition while completely ignoring the prohibition on sex outside of marriage?
You are trying to respond to someone who also believes that abolishing the 2nd A. will cause unicorns to rise up from Mother Earth, eat all the bad guns and poop Skittles.
The same Skittles that Trayvon used to make Purple Drank.
How stupid. 3rd world guys don’t use condoms because they are uncomfortable and probably believe it’s the woman’s job to use birth control. Of course, I don’t think 3rd world guys even THINK.
One would hope those who are taking pot shots at the pope (without even a competing theology that they could express in a form that held water for five minutes) would stop and listen. It’s so much liberal sloganeering though. Alinsky and his disciples never included “listen to your opponents” in their rule book. To do that, would be to risk all.
Oh, and I am not a Roman Catholic either, I disagree with some Roman Catholic theology. But cheap pot shots are cheap pot shots.
Thanks, HiTech. Thanks to you I googled this and found out just what this creepy kid was doing. Wow.
Our beloved Pope Benedict is graced with all the God-given intellect and compassion that he needs to respond to these attacks. God bless him.
Your reaction and response reflects catholic theology. Thank you!
The Trayvon thing was yacked about much earlier this year. Recently it got brought back to mind by a recently released photo that showed that George Zimmerman really got bloodily pasted by the little angel (who was punching his head into the sidewalk). And the race baiters came back out in force to scream “Goody Goody.”
Maybe you can write a Broadway tragedy about this. Heaven knows they have enough comedies.
Welcome to the universe of the Obama constituency, your Holiness.
Wading through that nonsense needs the patience of a saint (and the discretion of one, too).
I have no doubt that at least some of these tweeters have just taken the first step in the change of their lives.
The very coldest ones might not even bother stopping to mock, for all it means personally to them. They might mock, however, if they believed that mocking advances an agenda they want advanced.
I meant the “drank” thing. Wow. How many people knew - as soon as they read - skittles and iced tea - what the kid was about? And then kept their mouth shut. Obviously, the lily white media knew nothing about this drug concoction.
“Pope Benedict joined Twitter today and was greeted by hateful tweets...”
Picking up any newspaper on any day of the week and reading for three minutes will reveal that the world’s population includes an astounding percentage of ghouls.
Hey you might wax lyrical about purple drank.
Yeah, the poor little pickaninny. (I hope I spelled that right. My spell checker wants to use picnicking.) Now nobody but the devil was hoping he’d get himself into trouble — certainly George Zimmerman didn’t — but get himself into trouble he did. The excess of dextromethorphan, then a goodly toke of mary jane. And through those altered eyes, our little angel sees some suspicious questions about what the heck he is up to, as some scheme to track him down and kill him, and it seems half of black America is ready to say “Amen bro” to that notion. And still, George didn’t physically do or even threaten squat to him until starting to get his head beaten on the sidewalk.
OK, now we return to our same-ole-same-ole.
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Agreed. I had my concerns about who our next Pope would be after the passing of Pope John Paul II, but wept tears of joy when Pope Benedict was chosen. He has exceeded all my expectations.
I have no doubt that at least some of these tweeters have just taken the first step in the change of their lives.
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You may very well be right. I hope so.
I don’t believe your pope or anyone is the vicar of Christ any more than Osama Obama is...Jesus Christ doesn’t have a ‘vicar’ other than the Holy Spirit...
I can easily see why some would react the way they do on twitter...
Oh my, how sad. You are missing out on SO MUCH HISTORY.
Try reading.
Somehow I doubt he’s the one actually maintaining the account. Of course, I could be wrong. I’m sure he’s aware of the evil hostility to the Church, though.
Yep
That’s right! The unicorns pee Arizona Tea, too ! :-)
Those 3rd world guys also pay premiums to prostitutes for ‘dry sex’, i.e. no condoms and no foreplay, because they like the friction. Sorry for the gross post, but now we can see why Africa has so many devastating STD’S.
Only some of the people you easily understand posting profane and hateful tweets agree with your specific issue against the Pope.
The vast majority of them would be tweeting the same profane and hateful tweets against you for being a Christian(?).
Bump!
You don’t save souls preaching to the choir.
When you go out to minister, you go to where the sinners are.
May God bless him for trying to reach out to some of the people who need it the most: those who fill the holes in their souls with technology and social media and politics.
He will cast his bread upon the water and see what happens.
Yep, you got it right:
Way down in Missouri where I heard this melody,
When I was a Pickaninny on ma Mammy’s knee;
It would be a rare Tweeter who is even aware of theological disputes at THAT level.
These aren’t browned-off, educated Protestants. These are ignoramuses who could hardly care about Jesus in any manner.
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