Pope music: Benedict XVI at the Vatican in November 2005. Photograph: Plinio Lepri/AP
The Pope has joined the Queen, George Bush and millions of others by getting himself an iPod.
Pope Benedict XVI was given a white, 2GB iPod nano by a group of Vatican Radio employees on Friday at an event to celebrate the station's 75th anniversary.
They had pre-loaded it with some of the station's programmes in English, his native German and Italian, and some tunes. Staff are presumably hoping that the Pope will be able to use his new gadget to keep up to date with Vatican Radio's podcast for all the latest Vatican news and gossip.
To reduce the risk of mix-ups between the Pope's MP3 player and those of iPod-toting priests, his machine has been personalised, engraved on the back in Italian with the words: "To His Holiness, Benedict XVI". The pontiff responded to receiving the gift by saying: "Computer technology is the future ... I can't wait to check out the Arctic Monkeys."
OK, I confess: I made the last part of that quotation up. But the music player definitely brings the head of the Catholic Church closer to being "down with the kids".
These days, though, many celebrities are not content to have just one iPod. Taking things to extremes, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld reportedly has around 70 iPods and employs someone to keep them all updated. The Pope may feel having 70 iPods is a bit materialistic - though he has been seen wearing a £2,000 Cartier watch.
The music pre-loaded on to the Pope's iPod includes Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. The pontiff plays the piano, so classical music is a good choice. And it is a fair bet that there is going to be at least one version of Ave Maria on there.
But what other tunes or podcasts do you think he should check out?
