VENITE TRITTILEMUS

[Note: Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the consequent archiving of his Tweets, some links in this post have had to be reconfigured.]

The Pope left it very late in his pontificate to start tweeting, and he clearly did not leave himself enough time to get the proper hang of it. His tweets were all bland aphorisms in a number of languages including Latin. You can see the latin versions by clicking that language option in the link above.

However, even in this obscure linguistic cul de sac, the medium rose to the message as the papal tweet below and the response of one of the "faithful" show.

On Sunday, 27 January 2013, Holocaust Memorial Day, he tweeted:

Dominica tandem dies quid nobis importat? Propria quidem domi focique est dies. Atqui pertinet in primis ad Ipsum.

In effect:

What does Sunday, the day of the Lord, mean for us? It is a day for rest and for family, but first of all a day for Him.

Reply is quick, in (bog) Latin, from Brother Salvatore:

Benedicte Magnificentissime! Hodie memoranda est dies holocausti judaeorum, homosexalium antinazisticumque gentium. Tu taces?

In effect:

Benedict the Magnificent! Today is a day for remembering the the vicitims of the holocaust, Jews, homosexuals and anti-nazis. You are silent?

This is Brother Salvatore who describes himself as an illiterate Benedictine monk. [Since posting this, Br. Salvatore's Twitter account seems to have vanished.]

You can view the actual exchange in Twitter here. This is no longer possible due to the archiving of Benedict XVI's tweets, but you can view the Pope's tweet here and Brother Salvator's response here.

You really can't be too careful who you tangle with on Twitter.

Happy Tweeting.