An old iPad, once owned by Internet-lover Pope Francis, has fetched a sizable sum at a local charity auction.
Reuters reports that the iPad was sold for $30,500 on Tuesday. All the proceeds will go to a school for the disadvantaged in Uruguay. The iPad is engraved with the words “His Holiness Francisco. Servizio Internet Vatican, March 2013” and comes with a certificate of authenticity from The Vatican.
Apparently, Pope Francis turned the iPad over to a Uruguayan priest with the directive “do something good with it.” So the priest donated it to a local school, a couple hundred miles north of Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo.
The iPad was eventually sold through a small, local auction house called Castells – but only after failed attempts to sell it through larger auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
Pope Francis has embraced technology and the internet during his tenure as leader of the Catholic Church. He has called the internet a “gift from God” and urged us all to become “citizens of the digital world.”
“In a world like this, media can help us to feel closer to one another, creating a sense of the unity of the human family which can in turn inspire solidarity and serious efforts to ensure a more dignified life for all. Good communication helps us to grow closer, to know one another better, and ultimately, to grow in unity. The walls which divide us can be broken down only if we are prepared to listen and learn from one another. We need to resolve our differences through forms of dialogue which help us grow in understanding and mutual respect. A culture of encounter demands that we be ready not only to give, but also to receive. Media can help us greatly in this, especially nowadays, when the networks of human communication have made unprecedented advances,” said Francis.
Just not Facebook. Facebook is mean.
Images via Castells, Wikimedia Commons
