Vatican City – Pope Leo XIII has taken control of the Vatican’s official social media account. In his inaugural Instagram post on Tuesday, he echoed his very first words to the public: “Look with you guys!”
The post from @pontifex featured a collection of images capturing the historical first day of the first American pope.
The Vatican has said that they archived a post from Pope Francis’ 12-year papacy.
Interestingly, the new accounts on X didn’t seem to show any activity on Tuesday.
The @pontifex handle was originally established in 2012 during Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy.
Currently, the account operates in nine languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Arabic, and Latin, boasting a follower count of 52 million.
It’s worth noting that previous Popes didn’t directly send out curated posts by the Vatican.
Former Cardinal Robert Prebust had occasionally posted to X from a 2011 account that had gone quiet since July 2023, only to be revived earlier this year to voice criticism against the Trump administration’s immigration policy and remarks made by Vice President JD Vance.
