Pope Posts His First Tweet; Gets Over 1 Million Followers

Pope Benedict XVI posted his first tweet on social networking site Twitter today (Dec. 12) under his confirmed handle @Pontifex, as he hit the 1 million Twitter follower mark.

The 85-year-old inaugural tweet read: Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.

The Vatican had opened eight Twitter accounts in the pope's name, in eight languages: English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Italian, French and Arabic.