Pope Benedict XVI has officially joined the Twitter generation with his first ever tweet today – and on an iPad no less.

The Pope used his first 140 characters to announce the launch of a brand new online portal where visitors can find all the latest news from the Vatican.

“Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI,” he tweeted. more >>

Three more former Anglican priests have been ordained into the Roman Catholic Church at the weekend.

The latest priests to turn their backs on the Anglican Communion and join the specially established Catholic Ordinariate are Father David Elliott, of Reading, Berks, Father Jonathan Redvers Harris, of the Isle of Wight and Father Graham Smith, of Christchurch, Dorset.

Earlier this month The Christian Post reported how seven former Church of England clergy were ordained into the Ordinariate, as part of a series of ordinations taking place over Pentecost. more >>

Mercedes-Benz is currently designing a hybrid Popemobile for Pope Benedict XVI, according to a Germany newspaper.

The move to a greener vehicle is consistent with Benedict’s view on being a good steward of the earth. In 2008, Newsweek noted, “The new pontiff has made being green a central part of his teachings and policy-making. Just months after being elected pope, Benedict stated in his first homily as pontiff that ‘the earth's treasures have been made to serve the powers of exploitation and destruction’ and called on Catholics to be better stewards of God's creation.”

In recent years, the Vatican has installed solar panels on its roof in addition to a solar cooling unit in its main cafeteria. more >>

U.S. Catholic Bishops have revised their 2002 Charter in efforts to fight sexual abuse of minors by clerics, reports released Thursday have said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has revised its Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The charter was originally created in 2002 to fight against cases of sexual abuse in the Church.

A statement released by the clerics emphasized that child pornography was a crime against Church law. more >>

Vice President Joe Biden met with Pope Benedict XVI in an unannounced, closed-door meeting at the Vatican on Friday.

No details were given about what the two men discussed. But the White House released a photo of Biden speaking to the pope on Friday. Biden was in the country to celebrate Italy’s 150th anniversary.

Biden, a pro-abortion rights Roman Catholic, grew up in an Irish Catholic family and was educated at a Catholic prep school. The former six-term Democratic senator from Delaware even shared that he briefly considered joining the priesthood. more >>

An Episcopal church in Maryland will be the first in the nation to join the Roman Catholic Church, both church groups announced Monday.

Both the members and pastor of St. Luke's Episcopal parish in Bladensburg, Md., will be converting to Catholicism under a process set up by the Vatican to bring disaffected Episcopalians and Anglicans into its fold.

St. Luke's, a small congregation of about 100, will come under the care of the Archdiocese of Washington until an ordinate is established in the United States. more >>