CNN) – On Monday, the Vatican revealed the new personal Twitter account for Pope Benedict XVI, @Pontifex. The pontiff officially join millions of people around the globe on Twitter.
The Pope will answer a question in his first tweet December 12. Officials said anyone can send in a question via the hashtag #askpontifex or #B16.
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The formal announcement came in press conference Monday morning at the Vatican with Catholic and Twitter officials.
A Vatican official told CNN the pope will be composing the tweets for the new account himself. For the first tweet from the account, the pope will also press the button to send the tweet himself, but after that others will send the tweets on his behalf.
In June 2011 the pope sent his first tweet from the Twitter account for the Vatican news site, @news_va_en, to launch the new site www.news.va. He wrote, “Dear friends, I just launched News.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI.”
That signature had led some to guess that @BenedictusPPXVI would have been the account name for the 85-year-old pope’s personal account, although @Pope would have fitting as well. (Benedictus PP XVI is the pontiff’s signature in Latin, with the “PP” standing for papa, the Latin word for pope.).
