Pope Francis' Twitter account manager coming to Manila

The person behind Pope Francis' presence on the Twitterverse is coming to Manila to talk about social media evangelization, a Catholic news site reported Thursday.

 

Msgr. Paul Tighe will keynote the second Catholic Social Media Summit at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila in November, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines said.

 

An article on the CBCP news site said Tighe, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications who manages the Twitter account @Pontifex, will "echo Vatican’s call to bring Christ in the digital world."

 

The summit is scheduled November 23 to 24.

 

According to the CBCP news site, Tighe was behind the creation of @Pontifex during the pontificate of Francis' predecessor Benedict XVI.

 

Benedict XVI, who had resigned, posted his first tweet on the popular microblogging site last December 12.

 

The account was inactive after Benedict resigne and then reactivated when Francis took over last March.

 

The CBCP noted Papal tweets are translated in nine languages, including Latin.

 

As of September 26, Francis' Twitter account has at least 3.026 million followers.

 

The CBCP also said Tighe played a key role in the annual plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications last September 19 to 21.

 

In the assembly, Pope Francis was quoted as saying that the Church must work “with discernment, to use modern technologies and social networks in such a way as to reveal a presence that listens, converses and encourages.” — ELR, GMA News