Iz da Pope hip enough 2 txt u?

According to a British paper, the Pope, while on a visit to Australia, is sending daily text messages to pilgrims in Sydney. Today's papal communique read as follows: "The Holy Spirit gave the Apostles and gives u the power boldly 2 proclaim that Christ is risen! - BXVI."

Should the Pope be doing such a thing? I see humor here to appreciate, and I don't want to suggest that it's a bad thing for Christians to reach out to and connect with youth in ways that they can more easily understand. If you were raised Christian, no doubt you sat through countless Sunday school lessons tailored to the popular fads of the day, not to mention desperate attempts to recreate the whole of that popular culture in a more Christian manner, i.e. most "contemporary" Christian music. But these types of things can fall flat on their faces, as noted by Hanna Rosin in a commentary on Daniel Radosh's book Rapture Ready (hat tip to whoever spammed the DS11 panlist with the article).

Though I realize that they are not exactly fans of any type of Christianity, I think Rosin and Radosh are justified in some of their harsh critiques of the evangelical subculture:

At a Christian retail show Radosh attends, there are rip-off trinkets of every kind—a Christian version of My Little Pony and the mood ring and the boardwalk T-shirt ("Friends don't let friends go to hell"). There is Christian Harlequin and Christian chick lit and Bibleman, hero of spiritual warfare. There are Christian raves and Christian rappers and Christian techno, which is somehow more Christian even though there are no words. There are Christian comedians who put on a Christian version of Punk'd, called Prank 3:16. There are Christian sex-advice sites where you can read the biblical case for a strap-on dildo or bondage (liberation through submission). There's a Christian planetarium, telling you the true age of the universe, and my personal favorite—Christian professional wrestling, where, by the last round, "Outlaw" Todd Zane sees the beauty of salvation.

At some point, Radosh asks the obvious question: Didn't Jesus chase the money changers out of the temple? In other words, isn't there something wrong with so thoroughly commercializing all aspects of faith?

...What does commercializing do to the substance of belief, and what does an infusion of belief do to the product? When you make loving Christ sound just like loving your boyfriend, you can do damage to both your faith and your ballad. That's true when you create a sanitized version of bands like Nirvana or artists like Jay-Z, too: You shoehorn a message that's essentially about obeying authority into a genre that's rebellious and nihilistic, and the result can be ugly, fake, or just limp.

In general, I'd say the Catholic Church has done a much better job avoiding these pitfalls than Protestants and evangelicals, seeing as how the Catholics have a much better grasp on the role of tradition and authority than many other denominations (full disclosure: I've yet to commit myself to a denomination). Thus, I wouldn't accuse the Pope of intentionally encourging nihilism or rebellion, but does not text messaging in broken English constitute a step in the wrong direction?

Next thing you know, Benedict will start slipping in references to ceiling cat...