Pope Benedict inaugurated the Vatican's online news portal with a click, and then announced the launch with the first-ever papal tweet.

"Dear Friends, I just launched News.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ!

With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI," the pope said in his message on the news site's Twitter account.

Within 24 hours twitter.com/news_va_en had more than 35,000 followers.

The pope tapped an iPad June 28 and officially launched www.news.va, which aggregates news content from the Vatican's newspaper, radio, television and online outlets.