Ahead of the beatification of John Paul II on 1 May, the Vatican has announced that is to create an official profile of the late Polish pontiff on social networking site Facebook.

The decision by the Holy See to create the page comes after Pope Benedict XVI’s pilgrimage to the United Kingdom last year.

“After six months the profile page is still active, and we have 10-15,000 visits to the page a day,” Monsignor Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

The papal profile is to concentrate on the beatification ceremony on 1 May, as well as highlight the pontificate of John Paul II in general.

“We realised that Facebook is not just about the exchange of information, but also about the creation of communities,” Tighe explains. The Vatican so far has official accounts on micro-blogging site Twitter as well as the YouTube video service.

A number of websites dedicated to the life and teachings of John Paul II are already online, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily reports.

The most comprehensive service, karol-wojtyla.org, was created by the Vicariate of Rome, and provides information on the beatification process as well as facts and figures from the pontificate of the Polish pope.

Another page with information on the beatification ceremony has also been set up by the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the pilgrim centre of the Rome Diocese, which can be found at jpiibeatus.org. (jb)