( CNN ) -- The wait is over for Pope Benedict XVI 's many Twitter followers , and they have been quick to respond to the much anticipated first tweet from his personal account Wednesday morning . Using the handle @ Pontifex -- meaning `` bridge builder '' in Latin -- he posted : `` Dear friends , I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter . Thank you for your generous response . I bless all of you from my heart . '' A flood of tweets expressing joy , admiration , antagonism and skepticism followed from the Twitterverse , not to mention a fair few jokes . `` Wow ! Is this true ? ! Pope Benedict XVI has started tweeting ! Welcome Your Holliness ! I 'm grateful for your blessing ! Follow him ! '' tweeted @ Joyful_Minoz . `` Our Pope Benedict XVI has a twitter account ! Coolest Pope in history ! '' wrote @ alexaSaclao . `` @ pontifex welcome on twitter . Glad you are now reachable to openly discuss gay marriage , birth control and gender equality ! '' said ‏ @ wimremes . Some are more skeptical about the pontiff 's personal involvement . Why the Pope and Obama turn to Twitter . `` For the first time in history , a man can communicate directly with some low-level press officer in Vatican , '' tweeted @ EsaMakinen . A Vatican official told CNN last week that the pope would compose the tweets for the new account himself . But while the pontiff pressed the button to send his very first tweet , others are expected to send future tweets on his behalf . The pope followed up his first message with two more tweets within minutes . `` How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives ? '' asked one . The answer : `` By speaking with Jesus in prayer , listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need . '' This prompted comment that the pontiff had missed the point about social media being interactive . `` @ Pontifex is answering his own tweets now . That 's not really how it works , Your Holiness , '' said ‏ @ exitthelemming . The pope 's venture into social media has also sparked a flurry of jokes . Comedy writer Colm Tobin tweeted : `` RT @ Pontifex Thou shalt not covet your neighbour 's Twitter followers . '' `` I hear he 's changing it to 'thou shall not covet thy neighbour 's wifi , ' `` was another tweeter 's humorous take . An hour after his first tweet , the pope had around 700,000 followers on his English-language account . He is also tweeting in seven other languages , including Spanish , Portuguese and Arabic . This prompted admiration from some fellow tweeters . `` Brilliant that @ Pontifex tweets in 8 languages simultaneously incl . Arabic ... : Truly pioneering , '' said @ gsurya . `` Not even I could manage 8 Twitter accounts . I suppose @ Pontifex has God on his side , '' remarked @ BizPaul . However , not everyone was impressed . `` So disappointed that @ Pontifex did not write his first tweet in Latin , '' said @ laiabalcells . The secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications , Monsignor Paul Tighe , told Vatican Radio that the sending of the first tweet was `` an extraordinary moment . '' The attention it sparked within the `` Twitterverse '' was quite impressive , he said , with more than 2,000 retweets in under two minutes . Vatican officials said last week that anyone could send in a question to the pope 's personal account via the hashtag # askpontifex or # B16 . Pope Benedict has some previous experience at tweeting , having launched the official Vatican news site on Twitter , @ news_va_en , in June of last year . Other religious leaders have found great success with Twitter . The 140-character limit for tweets allows for short messages , perfect for small verses of scripture or inspiration . The Dalai Lama ( @ DalaiLama ) , Rick Warren ( @ RickWarren ) , Joel Osteen ( @ JoelOsteen ) and scores of other religious leaders spread their messages via the site . A commentary written by Vatican spokesman the Rev . Federico Lombardi for Vatican Radio last week said : `` 140 characters -- the number contained in a tweet -- are quite a few . Most of the verses of the Gospel have less ; the beatitudes are much shorter . A little concision is n't bad . '' He added that while short messages on Twitter could not carry the whole teachings of the Catholic Church , they would help spread the word to those who wanted to hear . `` Of course the world will not be saved by tweets but among a billion baptised Catholics and among the seven billion people of the world ; several million people will be able to feel the Pope is closer in this way too , hearing him say a word for them , a spark of wisdom to bear in their minds and hearts and to share with their twitter friends , '' he wrote . `` A new service of the Gospel . '' While Benedict is the first Catholic pope to take to Twitter , he is n't the first twitterized pope . That honor goes to His Holiness Pope Tawadros II , the 118th pope of the Coptic Church of Egypt . But Pope Tawadros has around 6,300 Twitter followers ; Benedict had tens of thousands on his first day out . John Paul II , who preceded Benedict , was the first pontiff to use the Internet , and the 20th century saw a string of other milestones for popes using technology to reach the masses . Pope Pius XI made the first papal radio broadcast in 1931 . His successor , Pope Pius XII , made the first papal television appearance in 1946 . CNN 's Marilia Brocchetto , Eric Marrapodi and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report .
NEW : Pope Benedict 's first tweet prompts a range of reactions in the Twitterverse . NEW : `` Coolest Pope in history ! '' tweets one excited follower . The pontiff had around 700,000 followers on his English account within an hour of his first tweet . `` I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter , '' Pope Benedict says .