Pope to share dogma-free 'pearls of wisdom' on Twitter The Pope is not the kind of person who, when they are in a meeting or at lunch, looks at his Blackberry to see if there are new messages. He's not walking around with an iPad," said Greg Burke, the Vatican's media consultant. Benedict is unlikely to follow other Twitter users and will not be engaging in debate with people who send him messages. His tweets will be confined to matters of faith and Christian theology. "You could ask what the Pope thinks about a proposal to have a new stand for Roma but you probably won't get an answer," said Mr Burke, a former Fox News correspondent in Rome who was hired to improve the Vatican's media strategy earlier this year. Twitter is a new market of ideas and the Church needs to be there. It's cost effective, it's not very labour intensive and it connects with young people. The Pope will start Tweeting in earnest on Dec 12 in English and seven other languages, including Arabic. The initiative by the Vatican was in part to supplant the many fake Twitter accounts that purport to be written by the Pope. There are several in Italian alone, including one in which he is portrayed as a fervent supporter of Lazio, the Rome-based football club, and another in which he tweets in Romanesco, an earthy dialect spoken by people in the Italian capital. By establishing a bona fide account, the Vatican hopes that many of the bogus Twitter pages will simply fade away. "Some people do it as a clear parody, to make fun, and they will probably continue to do that," said Monsignor Paul Tighe, an Irish priest and the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. "But I think most people realise that if they see the Pope calling for Man United to win their next game or whatever, it's not really him," Benedict will not type his tweets himself - that will be done by a communications team - but every message will have his approval. Every tweet will have been personally seen and approved by the Pope. They will be pearls of wisdom coming from the heart of the Pope's teaching," said Msgr Tighe. Papal tweets should not be regarded as infallible teachings of the Church, said Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication. "They are not dogma, it's more like the Pope having a conversation," he said. Twitter has around 140 million users, of whom 40 per cent were aged 18 - 34, and the Pope has a "strong desire" to connect with those young people, Archbishop Celli said. The Vatican also announced that a free app dedicated to the Pope will be launched for iPhones and iPads next week, and for Androids in January. To be called "The Pope App - Follow the Pope Live," it will enable users to watch the Pope's public appearances on their mobile phones and will link to webcams in St Peter's Square and Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence outside Rome.