In its latest attempt to keep up with the times the Vatican has married one of its oldest traditions to the world of social media by offering "indulgences" to followers of Pope Francis' tweets.
The church's granted indulgences reduce the time Catholics believe they will have to spend in purgatory after they have confessed and been absolved of their sins.
The remissions got a bad name in the Middle Ages because unscrupulous churchmen sold them for large sums of money. But now indulgences are being applied to the 21st century.
But a senior Vatican official warned web-surfing Catholics that indulgences still required a dose of old-fashioned faith, and that paradise was not just a few mouse clicks away.
Read the whole story here.
The nexus to Ultrarunning? Now, if instead of time off Purgatory, if we could get time off the interminable middle part of some of our long runs, now that would be a breakthrough I could endorse. Might be enough for me to reactivate my dormant Facebook account.
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