Vatican launches pope-endorsed YouTube channel

Pope Benedict XVI joined the ranks of foul-mouthed little kids and baby animals with the launch of the Vatican’s official YouTube channel last week.

Situated, if you dare, at YouTube.com/Vatican, the new channel features videos of papal messages filtered through the Vatican’s radio and television unit. If at first it evokes the eerie sensation of people over 40 on Facebook, the channel mostly provides an aggregation of news coverage of Benedict XVI’s activities and speeches, helpful to those who seek such things and harmless to those who don’t.

The fact of its existence is more significant as a spiritual endorsement of the technology. The pope has called the web a “gift to humanity," and the Vatican has been online since the mid-’90s.

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