A view of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery inside the Vatican State where Pope Benedict XVI is expected to live after he resigns, on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. For months, construction crews have been renovating a four-story building attached to a monastery on the northern edge of the Vatican gardens where nuns would live for a few years at a time in cloister. Only a handful of Vatican officials knew it would one day be Pope Benedict XVI's retirement home. On Tuesday, construction materials littered the front lawn of the house and plastic tubing snaked down from the top floor to a dump truck as the restoration deadline became ever more critical following Benedict's stunning announcement that he would resign Feb. 28 and live his remaining days in prayer. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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A view of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery inside the Vatican State where Pope Benedict XVI is expected to live after he resigns, on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. For months, construction crews have been renovating a four-story building attached to a monastery on the northern edge of the Vatican gardens where nuns would live for a few years at a time in cloister. Only a handful of Vatican officials knew it would one day be Pope Benedict XVI's retirement home. On Tuesday, construction materials littered the front lawn of the house and plastic tubing snaked down from the top floor to a dump truck as the restoration deadline became ever more critical following Benedict's stunning announcement that he would resign Feb. 28 and live his remaining days in prayer. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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A view of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, right, next to the Tower of San Giovanni, inside the Vatican State where Pope Benedict XVI is expected to live after he resigns, on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. For months, construction crews have been renovating a four-story building attached to a monastery on the northern edge of the Vatican gardens where nuns would live for a few years at a time in cloister. Only a handful of Vatican officials knew it would one day be Pope Benedict XVI's retirement home. On Tuesday, construction materials littered the front lawn of the house and plastic tubing snaked down from the top floor to a dump truck as the restoration deadline became ever more critical following Benedict's stunning announcement that he would resign Feb. 28 and live his remaining days in prayer. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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The lights are on in Pope Benedict XVI's apartment overlooking St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, early Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope has done in more than half a millennium, stunning the world by announcing his resignation Monday and leaving the already troubled Catholic Church to replace the leader of its 1 billion followers by Easter. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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Seagulls fly in front of St. Peter's Basilca's central lodge, where newly elected popes make their first appearance, at The Vatican, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope has done in more than half a millennium, stunning the world by announcing his resignation Monday and leaving the already troubled Catholic Church to replace the leader of its 1 billion followers by Easter. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
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Nuns pray inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope has done in more than half a millennium, stunning the world by announcing his resignation Monday and leaving the already troubled Catholic Church to replace the leader of its 1 billion followers by Easter. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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A man stands in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, early Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. Declaring that he lacks the strength to do his job, Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 he will resign Feb. 28, becoming the first pontiff to step down in 600 years. His decision sets the stage for a mid-March conclave to elect a new leader for a Roman Catholic Church in deep turmoil. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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Clouds and tree branches are seen over St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Tuesday, Feb.12, 2013. With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope has done in more than half a millennium, stunning the world by announcing his resignation Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, and leaving the already troubled Catholic Church to replace the leader of its 1 billion followers by Easter. (AP Photo/Angelo Carconi)
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Nuns pray in St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope has done in more than half a millennium, stunning the world by announcing his resignation Monday and leaving the already troubled Catholic Church to replace the leader of its 1 billion followers by Easter. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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Media gather in front of St. Peter's Basilica, at The Vatican, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope has done in more than half a millennium, stunning the world by announcing his resignation Monday and leaving the already troubled Catholic Church to replace the leader of its 1 billion followers by Easter. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
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Pope Benedict XVI pushes a button on a tablet at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. In perhaps the most drawn out Twitter launch ever, Pope Benedict XVI pushed the button on a tablet brought to him at the end of his general audience Wednesday. It read: "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart."Later in the day he was to respond to a few messages sent to him from around the world.As the countdown to his first tweet from his Twitter handle (at)Pontifex neared, the pope had garnered nearly 1 million followers in the eight languages of his account. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Vatican's communications site runs Batman story
VATICAN CITY (
AP) — One of the Vatican's main
Twitter accounts and the website of its communications office were running stories about Batman on Thursday with the headline "Holy Switcheroo!" — raising concerns they might have been hacked.
But two Vatican officials said the site hadn't been hacked, and that the reason for the unusual posting was an "internal system failure" due to a non-native English speaker posting the story on the website.
The story was from the Catholic News Service. It has as its headline: "Holy Switcheroo! Batman has grown bitter, more vengeful with the years" and details the evolution of the Batman comic franchise.
"Admittedly some people might have been thrown off by the headline," said Greg Burke, a Vatican communications adviser.
Monsignor Paul Tighe, the No. 2 in the Vatican's social communications office, said the office's website, www.pccs.va runs stories about communications issues and regularly takes copy from Catholic News Service, the news agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Once a story is posted, he explained, it generates an automatic tweet on the office's Twitter handle (at)pccs_va.
"I thought we had been hacked to be honest," he said. But further investigation yielded a simpler explanation. The story was later lowered down from the lead story on the site.
The other stories on the website are much more church-oriented in nature. On Thursday, they included Pope Francis' explanation of how he decided on calling himself Francis, the address to the media by the head of the social communications office about coverage of the papal conclave, and a story about registration being open for a congress on the role of the media in promoting peace.
Earlier this week, the Twitter account of a senior Vatican official was hacked.
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