Church leaders ask faithful to Twitter

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has called on the faithful to use Twitter, the micro-blogging service, to post a prayer every day.

Cardinal Sean Brady said that Twitter, which lets people post messages of up to 140 characters long, is a fine way to spread the gift of prayer.

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Speaking at a mass in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, the Cardinal urged the congregation to embrace 21st Century technology to send their prayers.

"Make someone the gift of a prayer through text, Twitter or email every day," he said.

"I ask young people in particular to think of sending their friends and family an occasional Twitter or text to say that you have prayed for them," Cardinal Brady continued.

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Cardinal Brady was speaking at a centenary celebration mass for Father Patrick Peyton who was known as "the Rosary priest".

He said that Fr Peyton would have been sure to embrace "texting and Twittering" if it were available in his day.

Earlier this year, during the season of Lent, Italian bishops asked people to ditch their iPhones and refrain from using Facebookin an effort to rediscover the art of communicating without technology.