Salvation – or at least a shorter stay in Purgatory – might now be only a tweet away with news that Pope Francis is to offer “indulgences” – remissions for temporary punishment – to the faithful who follow him on the social media site.
Around 1.5 million are expected to flock to Rio de Janeiro
to celebrate World Youth Day with the Argentine pontiff later this
month.
But for those who can’t make it to Brazil, forgiveness may be
available to contrite sinners who follow Francis’s progress via their TV
screen or social networks.
The Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary, the
Vatican court that rules on the forgiveness of sins, has said that
indulgences may be given to those who follow the “rites and pious
exercises” of the event on television, radio and through social media.
The
Penitentiary said that Pope Francis' Twitter account, which has already
gathered seven million followers, would be one such medium.
Vatican
officials, noted however, that to obtain indulgences over the internet
or otherwise, believers would first have to confess their sins, offer
prayers and attend Mass.
“You can't obtain indulgences like
getting a coffee from a vending machine,” Archbishop Claudio Maria
Celli, head of the pontifical council for social communication, told the
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Pope Francis is forgoing his bulletproof popemobile for his upcoming trip to Brazil for the Catholic Church's youth festival.
The
Argentine pontiff will instead use the same open-topped car he uses for
travelling around St Peter's Square when he arrives in Rio de Janeiro
on July 22.
In recent times, popes have always used the protected
popemobile for trips outside Rome, but Francis ended the tradition when
he used an open-topped Fiat during his recent visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa.