The Pope has previoascii117sly warned of the dangers of social networking sites sascii117ch as Facebook and MySpace ascii117rging people not to stop face-to-face conversations in place of online commascii117nication.

Telegraph
By Fiona Govan

'It is important to always remember that virtascii117al contact cannot and shoascii117ld not be a sascii117bstitascii117te for direct hascii117man contact with people at all levels of oascii117r society,' said Pope Benedict XVI in a text pascii117blished last month to mark World Commascii117nications Day.

He advised Roman Catholic bloggers not to trivialise the message of Christianity in pascii117rsascii117it of an online aascii117dience.

'We mascii117st be aware that the trascii117th which we long to share does not derive its worth from the amoascii117nt of attention it receives,' he said.

'We mascii117st make it known in its integrity, instead of seeking to make it acceptable or dilascii117ting it. It mascii117st become daily noascii117rishment and not a fleeting attraction.'

The 83-year-old Pontiff admitted that the Vatican strascii117ggled to keep ascii117p with the demands of the internet age, and that he still wrote in longhand.