Pope gets YouTube slot

The Vatican announced its own YouTube channel today in an attempt to reach the digital generation and better control the pope’s online image.

Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, who heads the Vatican’s social communications office, said the pope explicitly approved of the online channel. He said he was “a man of dialogue” who wanted to engage with people wherever they were.

Mgr Celli said the Vatican was launching the channel in part to have some control over the pontiff’s image, which he said was already being used on sites, some respectful of the papacy and some not.

The Vatican plans to update the site daily, with its messages available in Italian, German, English and Spanish.