Pope the latest convert to Facebook and iPhones

Web surfers can now send virtual postcards of Pope Benedict XVI to their Facebook friends or follow the pontiff’s travels on their iPhones.

Under a papacy that has suffered communication woes, the Vatican is taking technologically savvy steps to bring its message to social networking sites and smart phones.

In its first day of operation Thursday, the Pope2You website gathered some 45,000 contacts and 500,000 page views, while a Facebook application that sends postcards with photos of Benedict and excerpts from his messages was used about 10,000 times, the head of the project said.

Also available on the website is an application for iPhone and iPod Touch that gives surfers video and audio news on the pope’s trips and speeches, as well as on Catholic events worldwide.

The new website is the latest update in the Vatican’s efforts to broaden the pope’s audience and reach out to young people. In January, Benedict got his own YouTube channel, which is now linked to the portal.

Earlier this year, the Internet figured in one of Benedict’s most criticized moves: lifting the excommunication of a renegade bishop who had denied the Holocaust.

Benedict sparked outrage by reaching out to the excommunicated, ultraconservative Richard Williamson, whose denial of the Jewish massacre during an interview with Swedish TV shot around the world on the Internet.

In a rare public acknowledgment of Vatican mistakes, Benedict released a letter saying that officials should have searched the Web for information about Williamson, and he said the Holy See needed to make greater use of the Internet.

While warning against the potential use of new media to spread violent messages and pornography, the 82-year-old Benedict also has encouraged young Catholics to use the Internet responsibly.

On Wednesday he told pilgrims at his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square in Rome that young people should use the Internet to build a better world through bonds of friendship and solidarity.