Click to Pray: Pope launches prayer app Published duration 21 January 2019

image copyright AFP/Getty Images image caption Pope Francis spoke to tens of thousands of pilgrims

Pope Francis has launched an app to encourage Catholics around the world to pray with him.

Click to Pray tells the user what the pontiff is praying for, such as a country hit by a natural disaster or conflict, so they can join him.

Thousands watched in St Peter's Square as the Pope, who once said he was a "disaster" with technology, showed it on a tablet held by an aide.

After swiping on the tablet, he turned to his aide and asked "Did I do it?"

From the upstairs window of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis said: "Today, I have two pains in my heart. Colombia and the Mediterranean."

He was referring to a car bomb in Colombia that killed 20 police cadets and the death of 170 migrants in shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea.

Pope Francis said the internet was a way "to stay in touch with others, to share values and projects and to express the desire to form a community."