The Vatican, facing numerous problems related to communication with the
public, launched a news portal, on Wednesday, June 29, in order to
improve communication between the pope and the world.
The portal can be accessed at www.news.va
and, according to Vatican officials, it was launched by Pope
Benedict XVI, through a simple click.
Also, on Wednesday, the 60th
anniversary of the ordination of Pope Benedict XVI was celebrated.
The portal will group all sources of information from Vatican:
newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Radio Vatican, Vatican Information
Service (VIS), Center for Television in the Vatican, the Holy See Press
Office and Fides Agency, the information service of the Pontifical
Mission Societies.
The new website will be available at the beginning in English and
Italian.
Starting in autumn, versions in Spanish, French, German and
Portuguese will be launched.
One of the features of the new portal is
its interaction with social network Facebook and microblogging platform
Twitter.
Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, head of communications at the Vatican, will handle development and maintenance of the portal.
Representatives from the Vatican said that the new portal will serve
the pope’s wish to broadcast messages to a much larger audience, via the
internet.
Pope’s messages will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube.
In the six years of papacy, Pope Benedict XVI has consistently
campaigned for improving communication, often affected by Vatican’s
internal bureaucracy.
Claudio Maria Celli said that the new portal was also created to
provide information from the outside world to the Pope and the Vatican
hopes that the new site will improve communication between departments
of the Holy See.