A visiting Vatican official in
the Philippines said a large part of the 10 million Twitter followers
of Pope Francis are Filipinos working abroad, especially in the Middle
East, reports Ucanews.
'When the pope went on Twitter … we were surprised to see that in the
Middle Eastern countries and Gulf states, there was a huge following.
Then we realised that those were the Filipinos,' Monsignor Paul Tighe,
secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications,
told reporters in Manila on Thursday.
He said Twitter has been an important tool for Filipino workers to
exercise their faith despite being in places where religious freedom is
limited.
'These Filipinos are in a situation that is not easy for Catholics,
but Twitter is something that allowed them some connection to the
Church,' said Msg. Tighe, who is part of the team that manages the Pope
Francis Twitter account @Pontifex.
'What I want to tell Filipinos around the world is: make sure you see
in social media the potential to build good relationships among
yourselves, to build up your faith and sense of belongingness to the
church and closeness to Christ,' he said.
Msgr Tighe said the pope usually composes his tweets in Spanish or
Italian and a team translates the messages to seven other languages.
The
church official also discussed the Vatican's acquisition of the
.catholic domain from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers.