Winning hearts through
amateur video

Hoping to convict the hearts of "the digital generation," the Vatican has launched its own YouTube channel.

Like respective channels for President Obama, The British Monarchy, and Queen Rania of Jordan, the Vatican YouTube channel features video and audio footage of its avatar's speeches, as well as news of the Holy See, initially in English, German, Spanish and Italian. The Vatican will maintain control of all content, but work in collaboration with YouTube parent company Google.

The content is not just for Catholics, officials said. The effort is targeted to casual web users, too.

In his first address to the people, the 81-year-old Pope stated: "You must find ways to spread — in a new manner — voices and pictures of hope, through the internet, which wraps all of our planet in an increasingly close-knitted way."

The venture into YouTube represents a big step into cyberspace for one of the world's oldest religions, the BBC reports.

In Stateside news, last month Congress launched two channels on YouTube — one for the House and one for the Senate. President Barack Obama also uses YouTube as a method of addressing the nation once weekly.

Two weeks before the current Pope was chosen and named in April 2005, a Florida-based technical writer registered the domain BenedictXVI.com, resulting in over 100 hits per minute. Some angry devouts claimed that squatting on a domain named for the Pope constituted a sin.