Follow the Pope on YouTube

The pope is trying to broaden his audience by joining the crowds on YouTube. In his first YouTube appearance, Pope Benedict XVI welcomed viewers to this "great family that knows no borders" and said he hoped they would "feel involved in this great dialogue of truth."

"Today is a day that writes a new page in history for the Holy See," Vatican Radio said in describing the launch of the site, http://www.youtube.com/vatican

The Vatican said that with the YouTube channel, it hoped to broaden and unite the pontiff's audience — an estimated 1.4 billion people are online worldwide — while giving the Holy See better control over the pope's Internet image.