The New York Times reports that Pope Benedict XVI sent his first Twitter message on Wednesday, saying: “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.”

Pope Benedict XVI will use the Twitter handle @Pontifex, which means "bridge builder" in Latin, to Tweet to his millions of followers in eight languages.

During the day, the pope will be responding via Twitter to questions that include the hashtag #Askpontifex, the Times storys ays.

What would you ask Pope Benedict XVI on Twitter? Have you already? Is the pope being on Twitter a good or bad thing?