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Papal App-eal: Pope Francis to Use WhatsApp for Sermons

© REUTERS / Tony GentilePope Francis gestures during a special audience to celebrate a Jubilee day for the mystic saint Padre Pio in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican February 6, 2016.
Pope Francis gestures during a special audience to celebrate a Jubilee day for the mystic saint Padre Pio in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican February 6, 2016. - Sputnik International
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Pope Francis is committed to keeping up with the current times, he has signed off on a project to broadcast his sermons to the faithful via a new format: through social networks, primarily WhatsApp Messenger.

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The Roman Catholic Church will also send the pontiff's global congregation messages via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The organizers said that the users, who have connected via WhatsApp, have been very active and have promised to continue to spread the message.

However, people who connected via WhatsApp showed active participation in spreading not only the message of Pope Francis, but also other ministers of the Roman Catholic Church. A post featuring the reflections of Bishop Claudio Maniago scored more than 10,000 views in just 12 hours.

“This is a new sermon format that will suit an adult who belongs to the ‘always busy generation’ and besides, he is always mobile,” explained the project coordinator, priest Marco Sanavio. “It would be nice if people who receive these sermons shared them with friends in social networks via mechanisms that are typical for communication in social networks, the same way as with any other posts.”

The website became operative on February 11 during a general audience with the Pope. The project was launched on the site www.unattimodipace.it (moment of rest) by the pontiff himself using a tablet PC.

This project is one of the initiatives of the Catholic Church dedicated to the year-long Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

In addition to preaching on social networks, the Vatican also plans to launch a number of Emoji (animated images) with religious themes. The first two 'popemoji', created by Valentino Villanova, are dedicated to Pope Francis himself and the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy; they are ready and available for download on the website www.unattimodipace.it

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