Pope Leo XIV on social media: Instagram and X accounts up and growing

by CNS · May 17, 2025

A screen grab shows Pope Leo XIV’s first post on his @Pontifex account on the social media platform X May 16, 2025. (CNS photo/screen grab, X). A screen grab shows Pope Leo XIV’s @pontifex account on the social media platform Instagram May 16, 2025. (CNS photo/screen grab, Instagram)

By Cindy Wooden, CNS – While Pope Leo XIV has deleted the account he began as Father Robert F. Prevost on Twitter, now X, in 2011, the Vatican has launched new accounts for him on X and Instagram.

“The Holy Father Leo XIV has chosen to maintain an active social media presence through the official papal accounts on X and Instagram,” said the Dicastery for Communication.

The first post on the “Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex” account on X was released May 14 and was a quote from his inaugural greeting to the public May 8 when he was elected:

“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.”

His first papal Instagram post featured the same quotation — in seven languages — alongside a photo of him greeting the crowd May 8 from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The @Franciscus account on Instagram, which has been archived, had more than 10 million followers.

The new @pontifex Instagram account of Pope Leo XIV had more than 13 million followers by May 16.

The number of followers on the English language X account had reached 18.6 million by May 16.

The Dicastery for Communication, which runs the accounts for the pope, said May 13 that while the Instagram account was new, Pope Leo “inherited the @Pontifex accounts on X that were used by Pope Francis, and before that by Pope Benedict XVI.”

The nine X accounts – in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Arabic and Latin – have more than 52 million followers when combined.

The dicastery said the @Franciscus Instagram account would remain accessible online “as an ‘Ad Memoriam’ commemorative archive,” and the X tweets posted during the pontificate of Pope Francis will be available soon in an archive on the Vatican website.

Pope Benedict XVI launched the Twitter account in 2012, and the official Instagram account, @Franciscus, was added in 2016.

“Pope Francis’ presence on social media was significant. Around 50,000 posts were published across the @Pontifex and @Franciscus accounts, offering near-daily accompaniment throughout Pope Francis’ pontificate with short messages of an evangelical nature and exhortations in favour of peace, social justice and care for creation,” the dicastery said.

“The papal accounts stimulated widespread interaction, especially in difficult times,” the dicastery said. “In 2020, a year with exceptional data due to the pandemic, the late Pope’s messages were viewed 27 billion times.”