The Vatican on YouTube

If you're a regular visitor to the About.com Catholicism Forum (and if you're not, you should be!), then you may already have seen the announcement by our forum moderator, Steven Hepburn, of the Vatican's new YouTube channel. Launched on January 23, it hit 750,000 visits in less than a week. Even by YouTube standards, that's an astounding number.

The videos on the Vatican's channel aren't Pope Benedict's home movies, but professional productions by Centro Televisivo Vaticano (CTV), the Vatican's television network. They include the Holy Father's weekly general audience, as well as well as other speeches and remarks by Pope Benedict that, in the words of the director of the channel, present "the Catholic Church's position regarding the principal issues of the world today." For instance, a recent playlist includes three videos of speeches that Pope Benedict has delivered on the Holocaust--obviously a hot topic in light of recent attacks on the Holy Father.

The YouTube page includes links to Vatican Radio, CTV, the Vatican's website, and the official website of Vatican City State. There's also a box with the latest news from Vatican Radio, the Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, and L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's newspaper.

If you have a YouTube (or Google) account, you can subscribe to the Vatican's YouTube channel and be notified whenever new videos are posted.