Pope Leo makes first Instagram post May 13, 2025

Pope Leo makes first Instagram post

Pope Leo XIV made his first social media post today on Instagram. Using the handle pontifex, Pope Leo had this to say.

Peace be with you all! This is the first greeting spoken by the Risen Christ, the Good Shepherd. I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, and among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world.

The post was shared in a number of languages. In addition to English, the post was made in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German and Polish. The post also featured numerous photos from Pope Leo’s first days as pope.

Pope Francis social media posts on X (formerly Twitter) under the handle franciscus will remain available as an archive account. This account will be available also in a special section of Pope Francis official pages on the Vatican Website.

The pope’s twitter account on X, pontifex, has 52 million followers. The account has over 50,000 tweets which were viewed over 27 billion times in 2020.

Pope Benedict XVI was the first pope to have a social media account. On December 12, 2012, Pope Benedict tweeted, “”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.”

Pope Francis inherited this account, tweeting upon his election as pope, “Dear friends, I thank you from my heart and ask you to continue to pray for me.” The first Instagram account opened by the Vatican was that of Pope Francis called franciscus.

Obviously in this day and age, social media can be an important tool of proclaiming the gospel. Within the first hour of the creation of Pope Leo’s instagram account, he had 156,000 followers.

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