The name will obviously be in Latin, Pope Leo XIVand like his last two predecessors, even Prevost has chosen to maintain his presence on social media through the official papal accounts on X And Instagram inheriting the account on both platforms @Pontifex which had already been used by Pope Francis and even before from Benedict XVI And that, publishing in nine languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Arabic and Latin), reach a total of 52 million followers.
“The contents published by Pope Francis”, reads a note from the Vatican Dicastery for communication, “will soon be stored on a special section of the institutional website of the Holy See Vatican.va”. On Instagram the account is called @Pontifex – Pope Leo XIV, The only official account of the Holy Father on the platform, in continuity with the account of Pope Francis @Franciscus. The contents published on the @Franciscus account will remain accessible as a commemorative archive “ad memoriam” ».
On the official Instagram account, followed by thousands of followers, the first post with the Pope’s image was published on the loggia of the Basilica of San Pietro immediately after the election and the initial greeting aimed at the faithful in various languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Polish and German)). The presence of the popes on social media began on 12 December 2012 when Benedict XVI launched the @pontifex account on Twitter, inherited a few months later by Pope Francis.
To this channel the March 19, 2016 also the official account on Instagram, called @franciscus. “That of Pope Francis on social media”, explains the dicastery, “was a significant presence: about 50 thousand posts, published overall on the nine accounts of @pontifex and on @Franciscus, accompanied us almost every day of the pontificate of Francis with short messages of an evangelical character or exhortations in favor of peace, of social justice, the care of creation, reaching a great interaction especially in difficult times. In 2020, year from exceptional data due to pandemic, his messages were viewed 27 billion times ».
