By Dina Fine Maron

Trying to bring the Roman Catholic Church to the kids, the Vatican launched its own YouTube channel today, following the lead of other global figures such as Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II who have successfully employed the video sharing technology to get their message out on the cheap (actually, free of charge.) Pope Benedict XVI’s page highlights the Church’s effort to tap into their youth base with footage and audio of the Holy Father. The Pope explained in one of his first YouTube videos that launching the site was an effort to be available in “those spaces where numerous young people search for answers and meaning in their lives”

The Pope made a first foray into the youth digital sphere when he (or his office, anyway) texted thousands of young Catholics on their mobile phones during World Youth Day events in Sydney this past summer.

Bu the Church started making official YouTube appearances in 2007, when Cardinal Justin Rigali, the Archbishop of Philadelphia, made a video offering gospel reflections for Lent. There was so much traffic to his video that within a week his first video was rated #5  in one of YouTube’s subcategories. The success with that video inspired the Philadelphia Archdiocese to inaugurate its own channel which is now sporadically updated with video content.

Signaling change in how the Vatican thinks it can reach the public, the new interactive Vatican Channel will update daily with content from the Vatican’s television and radio channels. It offers news in four languages, and allows users to comment, share videos with friends, and even directly contact the Pope’s office (though there is no promise on what the response rate might be.). In March the Archbishop of Washington, D.C. plans to post his own YouTube video, inviting youth to come back to the Church for lent, and depending on the traffic, might opt to create its own channel as well.