Pope to join tweeting masses with personal Twitter handle, details to come

VATICAN CITY – Celebrities do it. Presidents do it. Now even the pope will do it.

The Vatican spokesman said Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI will start tweeting from a personal Twitter account, perhaps before the end of the year.

The 85-year-old Benedict sent his first tweet from a Vatican account last year when he launched the Vatican’s news information portal. The new Twitter account will be his own, though it’s doubtful Benedict himself will wrestle down his encyclicals, apostolic exhortations and other papal pronouncements into 140-character bites.

Benedict, who writes longhand and doesn’t normally use a computer, will more likely sign off on tweets written in his name.

Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi says details about Benedict’s handle and other information will come when the Vatican officially launches the account.