Pope gets his own you tube channel

The Vatican will confirm today that it has done a deal with Google, which owns the video sharing site, to put the pontiff on the net.

It is expected that video of Pope Benedict XVI's speeches and news from the Vatican will be posted on to the channel.

The move represents the latest attempt by Vatican officials to use new media to reach the more than one billion Roman Catholics around the world.

They also hope to attract non-Catholics to the channel.

Details of the tie-up will be revealed by the Vatican's head of social communications and Google's media solutions chief.

A Vatican source said: "The faithful will be able to see the Pope and church events but we hope that those who are curious will also look."

The material for the channel will come from the Vatican's existing radio and television services.

It is the Vatican's most significant move into new media since it launched its own website in 1995.

Powered by three computers, named Michael, Gabriel and Raphael after the archangels, the website took life to publish the teachings and pronouncements of the late Pope John Paul II.

Another website, dedicated to the Vatican City State, has a webcam permanently trained on the tomb of the last Pope.

The tie-up comes a week after a Jesuit magazine warned of the dangers of social networking sites.

Civita Cattolica told readers that sites like Facebook were no substitute for human contact.

YouTube is also hoping to offer a version of its video sharing service to Wii and PlayStation3 gamers.

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