Pope Leo XIV’s official Instagram account, @Pontifex, has quickly amassed millions of followers, continuing the Church’s digital outreach.
Newsroom, 27 May 2025, Gaudium Press – On Tuesday, 13 May 2025, the Vatican launched an official Instagram profile for Pope Leo XIV, marking a significant step in the Holy Father’s engagement with social media. The account, @Pontifex – Pope Leo XIV, has already garnered over one million followers. It follows 33 other Vatican and Catholic Church-related pages. The bio reads, “Peace be with you all!” and includes a link to the Holy See’s official page containing a brief biography of Pope Leo XIV.
According to Vatican News, Pope Leo XIV will soon have a presence on X (formerly Twitter), inheriting the ‘@Pontifex’ account used by his predecessors, Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI. This account operates in nine languages—English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Arabic, and Latin—and has a combined following of 52 million. Content previously posted by Pope Francis will be archived in a special section on the Holy See’s official website.
The Vatican’s foray into social media began on 12 December 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI created the ‘@Pontifex’ Twitter account, later taken over by Pope Francis. In March 2016, Pope Francis expanded the Church’s digital presence by launching the ‘@Franciscus’ Instagram account. Collectively, these accounts have published over 50,000 posts across nine ‘@Pontifex’ accounts and ‘@Franciscus’.
Compiled by Adele Wong.
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