Pope Benedict XVI was recently given an iPod Nano as a gift from staff at Vatican Radio, according to the Catholic News Service.

This news reminded us of our earlier posts on the furore that erupted over the Pope’s website and email address when he was elected last April.

Today, we decided to follow up on one Benedict-email enthusiast, known as the Irish chancer, who had bought the email address popebenedictxvi@hotmail.it on eBay. It appears that the blog he launched, Cyber-Pope in response to his “misadventures on eBay that led him to form a new religion - Confusionism”, has petered out. (A new website is supposedly in the works.)

With so many other Pope blogs and fan club webpages controlled by his followers, we would like to suggest that perhaps Pope Benedict would like take the Cyber-Pope blog over himself. Instead of simply having his speeches posted on the official Vatican website, blogging would give him a chance to candidly communicate with the computer-savvy masses.

But why stop there?

Apparently, when he received the iPod, his holiness said: “Computer technology is the future.”

If he is so accepting and comfortable with the high-tech world, perhaps the Pope should try podcasting. And while he’s at it, maybe start texting an inspriational message of the day to mobile phones. (Though we admit texting is nothing new to the Vatican, who used messaging and e-mail to update the press on the medical condition of Pope John Paul II, we reported last year.)