VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI has officially joined Twitter.

The Vatican spokesperson says the Pope will launch his Twitter account on December 12th using the handle @Pontifex.

The first tweets sent out will be part of a question and answer session.

And this isn't Benedict's first experience with Twitter; last June the pope sent out one Tweet from the Vatican news site's Twitter account.

The new account will be his own personal account, but will most likely be signing off on tweets written in his name.

If you want to send the Pope a question, just Tweet #askpontifex or #B16.