Pope Benedict to send text message support during Lent

Are you doing lent?

Need a bit of moral support from the Pope, by any chance? Well, you can have it, courtesy of regular texts direct from the Vatican.

Link: AFP: Pope Benedict XVI provides moral support via SMS during Lent

Pope Benedict XVI is providing moral support to Austrian Catholics during Lent with an encouraging SMS on their mobile phones.

Faithful who sign up for the new SMS service, launched Wednesday by the Roman Catholic Church in Austria, will receive daily quotes from the Church leader during the 40 days of Lent to help them survive the traditional fasting period leading up to Easter.

It’s an Austrian based service, so I imagine it may well be restricted to those on Austrian operators. And, come to think of it, the quotes will probably be in German too. Still, if you’re doing lent and you read German…

Those interested can sign up to the service for free by sending an SMS with the word “Papst,” the German word for Pope, to the Austrian mobile number 0664 660 6651.