After weeks of anticipation, and with a tap of the screen, Pope Benedict sent out his first tweet on Twitter.

His handle? @Pontifex .

The famously verbose pontiff kept it brief --- adhering to the social networking site's 140 character limit.

His message: "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."

His tweet was distributed to his more than one million followers.

Outside the Vatican, tourists offered suggestions for upcoming tweets

SOUNDBITE: Lidia Buffalino, Lidia Buffalino, an Australian tourist of Italian descent saying:

"It'll be interesting to understand what his views are on abortion and I don't know, other issues that the Catholic Church seems to be a bit more vague about."

SOUNDBITE: Israeli tourist Elan Ben Gigi said.

"Well, I will advise him to visit Israel again, I'm from Israel. So, I will advise him to help us to get peace with the Palestinians. That's all."

Since his debut tweet, the pople has already answered three questions --- most of them having to do with faith.