Pope tweets for first time to his one million followers

Pope Benedict XVI has finally broken his Twitter silence on his @Pontifex account, and has sent out his first tweet to the masses:

He sent out the same message across each of his seven other accounts, set up to bridge language barriers with his followers. The Pope has over one million followers across his English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Italian, French and Arabic accounts.

[ Related: Toronto designer wins international award for Popemobile redesign ]

Since sending that first tweet at 2:28 AM, the Pope has sent out more messages to his followers, posing questions about religion and sharing his thoughts on faith.

While Pope Benedict XVI's Twitter message was what many would have expected, he's a little late to the Twitter game compared to some of his fellow world religious leaders.

When the Dalai Lama joined Twitter, he used the platform as a sort of venue for a press release:

In a similar fashion, the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury posted a video he had created for World AIDS Day back in 2009:

Since the Archbishop's first tweet, he's stayed on top of social media, using Twitter to share his feelings about the decision not to ordain women as bishops, to plans to live-tweet his sermon on Christmas Eve.

[ Holiday tech gift guide: 10 Unlikely and Surprising Kickstarter Successes of 2012 ]

Lord Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation of the British Commonwealth, has been an active Twitter user since he joined, sharing photos like this one from events he has attended:

Perhaps Pope Benedict XVI will take a cue from some of these men, and we can look forward to 'Behind the Vatican' photos and videos of the Pope at work?

Need to know what's hot in tech? Follow @yrightclick on Twitter!