Pope Benedict XVI begins tweeting, sends from iPad, TweetDeck

Pope Benedict XVI kicked off his own Twitter account Wednesday with style, sending his first tweet using an iPad and his next six using TweetDeck.

Tweeting from the Vatican, the 85-year-old leader of the Catholic church sat down at a table to tap away his 140-character tweet using the Twitter for iPad app.

“Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart,” Pope Benedict XVI tweeted from his @pontifex account.

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His first tweet -- especially notable because he didn’t use Twitter handlers as many celebrities and figureheads have -- has been retweeted more than 44,000 times and it’s been favorited nearly 15,000 times.

But one tweet wasn’t enough for Pope Benedict XVI. He’s stayed busy on Twitter, sending out six more tweets since his first one. More impressively, he’s sent those tweets using TweetDeck -- an app typically used by heavy Twitter users.

This isn’t the first time the Pope has tweeted. He sent his first tweet last year, followed earlier this year by one tweet a day for the 40 days of Lent, from a Vatican Twitter account.

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