Pope Benedict XVI texting out messages of encouragement

Don't act like you didn't know that Pope Benedict XVI was down with modern technology. As part of World Youth Day, the man himself will begin sending out texts of encouragement to pilgrims who have signed up through Telstra to receive them. A total of four gigantic "prayer walls" have been erected at the Sydney Opera House, the Domain, Darling Harbour and Randwick Racecourse in Australia, where folks will actually be able to send their own messages for all to presumably see. The first message sent out? "Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI." Hllujh, amn brtha.

[Thanks, zedster]

[ShadowKain @ Jul 16th 2008 8:04AM]

Prank text him back? "You ever see the movie Dogma dude? And whats up with you not letting Dan Brown film Angels and Demons ??? Kaaaaa mon man! I LOL dude, LOL...dinner at 8?"

[Rurik @ Jul 16th 2008 8:07AM]

All ur soul r blng 2 us

[Josh @ Jul 16th 2008 11:33AM]

hahaha! they could save some letters if they use: "Don't 4get 2 Pray 2day" or "C U @ Church 2day" ... this was announced a while back (May) and you can read more about it here: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=466&doc_id=153171&f_src=flffour

[nh @ Jul 16th 2008 8:11AM]

Why doesn't he just put his hands together and pray to them? Doesn't that work any more? Is the prayer infrastructure running out of bandwidth?

[inteller @ Jul 16th 2008 8:12AM]

now I'm really confused. Is the Pope now part of the cult, or is Apple now part of the cult?

[gareth @ Jul 16th 2008 8:14AM]

hes got the jesus phone

[Kevin @ Jul 16th 2008 8:20AM]

I guess the Papal infallibility isn't present in text messages ("u" & "Fathers").

[nanobis @ Jul 16th 2008 8:22AM]

next thing you know the pope will annouce he's "3li3t h4x0r".

i bet he's even got the celling cat bible,

the pope pwns

[nanobis @ Jul 16th 2008 8:24AM]

sorry thtas the lolcat bible, my bad.

[ShadowKain @ Jul 16th 2008 8:38AM]

Eliet ? You mean Elite? 3l13+ ...or 3lit3 ...learn to write leet, NOOB

[nanobis @ Jul 16th 2008 8:45AM]

@shadowkain

thank you for pointing out my spelling mistake, but i think you get the general jist of the comment, just one thing there is a little thing called dyslexia, it happens to be that i have it.

(there really should be a edit button on these comments.)

[borland502 (SDF Macross) @ Jul 16th 2008 9:02AM]

"just one thing there is a little thing called dyslexia"

dyslexia is teh suck. Seriously, I doubt anyone but grammar nazis would notice any letter transposition these days. They'll just assume you're hip.

[OneLove @ Jul 16th 2008 11:08AM]

@nanobis: what you got is assclownlexia

[Hung @ Jul 16th 2008 11:12AM]

This is the cancer that is killing Engadget.

Engadget readers should be allowed to vote for the deletion of a post, reply, or entire thread. This thread serves as a good example of its intended use.

[nanobis @ Jul 16th 2008 3:35PM]

indeed so, i call upon the dev team to do somthing about it.

come on engadget sort it out.

[Hung @ Jul 17th 2008 12:21PM]

Sorry nanobis, I was including your original post in that, too. It's not the spelling that puts me off, it's the appallingly high level of lame.

[collegekid13 @ Jul 16th 2008 8:26AM]

dear mr. pope,

god called. he says thanks for finally entering the 20th centurry

[Paul Dullford @ Jul 16th 2008 8:30AM]

21st century. Besides, text messaging will go away as IM becomes significantly more accessible. Then the Pope's staff will have to take care of the constant influx AOL IM and Google Talk and Jabber and Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger messages.
And the Pope still has no Twitter, Jaiku or FriendFeed accounts. Why not?

[telepheedian @ Jul 16th 2008 11:45AM]

That shouldn't be too much of a problem, just set him up with pidgin or digsby.

[Saad Rabia @ Jul 16th 2008 8:29AM]

The phone could've been a NOKIA or a Samsung, or maybe a Motorola, but Engadget decided it should be an iPhone. *sigh*

Yeah, Whatev's.

[fred @ Jul 16th 2008 8:43AM]

iPhone + Religion = 1000 post...MEGA FLAME THREAD!

All they needed to do was make the pope into an XBox avatar and then you will have an epic meltdown on your hands.

[Dude @ Jul 16th 2008 8:51AM]

Ain't that the truth.

[Dale Massey @ Jul 16th 2008 8:55AM]

Engadget didn't decide this, the Associated Press did.
Thats the actual photo on the side of the building/

[Saad Rabia @ Jul 16th 2008 9:51AM]

Source please, Dale.

[SGAg07 @ Jul 16th 2008 10:41AM]

read link = source...the picture is there

[insertAlias @ Jul 16th 2008 11:57AM]

Perhaps if you were to RTFA, you wouldn't need to ask for a source.

[Orinjz @ Jul 16th 2008 5:52PM]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24018671-5016672,00.html

That's the undoctored image that was projected on to one of the support columns of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

And is it just me or are the comment pages on Engadget getting increasingly more hostile lately?

[Saad Rabia @ Jul 16th 2008 8:11PM]

@ Orinjz: Thank you mate.

Dale Massey, SGAg07 and insertAlias, you guys are what is wrong in this world of media brainwash and brain damage, but thank you anyways.

[cheng @ Jul 17th 2008 2:14AM]

psst, they aren't laughing WITH you, they're laughing AT you!

[MattyG @ Jul 16th 2008 8:35AM]

“Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.”

[fred @ Jul 16th 2008 8:39AM]

OMG indeed.

[Carolyn @ Jul 16th 2008 9:55AM]

Coming full circle, apple to apple, ironic isn't it?

[ombraweb @ Jul 16th 2008 8:41AM]

LOL I love it. Apple has bought the church... Buy an iPhone and go straight to haven?

[Kespar @ Jul 16th 2008 10:27AM]

haven is a crappy caravan holiday park in England....why would you go there?

surely heaven would be a more logical choice

[Rick @ Jul 16th 2008 8:41AM]

They say he's a new pope. He's hardly new, is he?

(not my joke, mad props to Karl Pilkington)

[LondonConsultant @ Jul 16th 2008 8:42AM]

I thought the Popemobile was bulletproof.

[jeeppatriot84 @ Jul 16th 2008 8:57AM]

This is all just part of the church's way of getting in "touch" with the little boys and girls of the future. Dear Johnny meet me after school for some Necco wafers. -Pope

[AaronKalb @ Jul 16th 2008 11:38AM]

You're an idiot, which explains why you like Jeep Patriots.

[KilgoreTrout @ Jul 16th 2008 8:58AM]

I start to understand why on my new iPhone there is this new icon that looks like a cross with St.Peters keys. If you press it you just hear a celestial piper sound and the flashing words: " call directly"

[Brumbo @ Jul 16th 2008 9:01AM]

I want my iPope too

[Rufus White @ Jul 16th 2008 9:06AM]

I didn't see the Vatican on the list of countries receiving the iPhone - he must have got it jailbroken.

Maybe the Vatican will get penalised along with Britain in not getting so many white iPhone 3Gs.

[Rufus White @ Jul 16th 2008 9:07AM]

I didn't see the Vatican on the list of countries receiving the iPhone - he must have got it jailbroken.

Maybe the Vatican will get penalised along with Britain in not getting so many white iPhone 3Gs.

[zmjjmz @ Jul 16th 2008 9:12AM]

Wait, he has an iPhone 3G.
And Steve Jobs is atheist.

[zedster @ Jul 16th 2008 9:24AM]

So this leads to the question WWJC what would Jesus carry?

Iphone? N96? RZAR?

[Kizorblade @ Jul 16th 2008 10:17AM]

The jPhone.

Duuh.

[Eddie W @ Jul 16th 2008 10:24AM]

Jesus was a homeless peasant in an occupied territory (picture a working class person living in Iraq). If he were going to be sending text messages, they would probably be text flipped from a gmail account that he uses from a public computer somewhere. Or, he'd be using whatever phone was donated to him for the cause...

This probably makes the "what would Jesus drive?" question irrelevant too.

[zedster @ Jul 16th 2008 2:03PM]

Eddie you must be the life of the party when you go out

[Rubicant @ Jul 16th 2008 9:40AM]

Does it worry anyone that that pic of the Pope with the Iphone looks remarkably like one of the pics of the Ori prior from SG1?

"Hallowed are the Iphones..."

[Kizorblade @ Jul 16th 2008 10:13AM]

i hav respex 4 t pope nw

[John B. @ Jul 16th 2008 10:29AM]

So kids send a text message to a number and it is displayed on a giant 'prayer wall'? They are effectively enabling everyone on the planet to cover a holy monument with digital graffiti with complete anonymity?

This really won't end well.