‘Pope culture week’ on Facebook

Think you know a thing or two about Pope Benedict XVI? Then log onto Facebook next week and you could be a winner.

OK, maybe it’s not of a trip to the Vatican. But you could win a copy of a new book about Pope Benedict by taking part in Pope Culture Week, a competition on the Facebook page of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Every week day next week, the USCCB will ask its Facebook fans – of whom there were nearly 22,000 as of Wednesday – a question about the life and teachings of Pope Benedict XVI.

The first person to give the correct answer in the comment box beneath the question will win a copy of a book about the pontiff, with forewords by King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israeli President Shimon Peres.

It’s not clear if copies will be signed by the leader of the world’s billion Roman Catholics, or by either foreword contributor.

Though the Roman Catholic Church isn’t usually associated with social networks, next week’s competition will not be a first foray into the new-wave communication medium by the Church or individual clergy members.

The USCCB tweets live from its general assembly meetings, and an Australian nun tweets on behalf of saint-in-waiting Mary MacKillop, whom Benedict put on course to become Australia’s first saint.

There’s even a pope app on Facebook, called Pope2You, which allows users to receive messages from the pontiff.

And the Pope himself has urged priests to go forth and tweet, blog and post on Facebook.

“Priests are... challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites),” the octogenarian pontiff said in a message in May to mark World Communications Day.