The Pope pushed the site live and tweeted about it using an iPad. The site itself is the first time the Vatican has provided a single place for all the news and opinion surrounding the Church, the Vatican state and the Pope.

The tweet read:

"Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI"

The Twitter account is clearly not the 84-year-old pontiff's. It belongs to the Vatican's news department. Although it would be something to watch Benedict go nuts tweeting troubles with his alb and joy at his caprese, it seems unlikely.

The site, News.va, aggregates not just the press releases, messages and internal reporting, including newspaper and radio, in the city-state, but also the various social media accounts run by the Vatican. In addition to Twitter, these include Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

The New York Times reports:

"Benedict has been bedeviled by communications woes during much of his six-year papacy, much of it the fault of a large Vatican bureaucracy that doesn't always communicate well internally. Officials hope the new portal, while mostly designed to provide Vatican news in an easy-to-use setting to the outside world, might also improve the Vatican's own internal communications by sharing information."

It is already several generations ahead of, say, the Vatican Information Service website, in readability and functionality. With the Pope's endorsement, News.va may prove to be an inspiration for the rest of the Holy See's electronic communications.

None of these apps look to be groundbreaking in either design or functionality. The iPhone/iPod touch app, once approved, will give users the ability to watch videos and hear speeches by Pope Benedict XVI, as well as other content from Catholic events worldwide.

Facebook App: Boring

The Facebook app, which is currently loading very slowly, is also not exactly the most groundbreaking app either. Facebook users will be able to send and receive 20 different virtual postcards of the Pope, with texts available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish (with Latin being conspicuously absent here). According to the app's description, installing it will allow you to "Spread friendship with the Pope and become a witness of Christ in the world through the web."

In January this year, the Vatican also launched its YouTube channel, though so far, none of the videos posted there have gone viral yet.

Disappointment: Can't Poke the Pope

For now, however, users who were hoping to get a chance to poke the Pope or even just friend him on Facebook are out of luck, as the Pope does not have an official Facebook profile, yet.