Prolific poster Leo XIV inherits papal media accounts

VATICAN CITY - His election may have been announced with white smoke, but Pope Leo XIV will communicate with the Catholic faithful on X and Instagram, the Vatican said Tuesday.

Robert Prevost was a regular user of X, formerly Twitter, before becoming the first ever US pope last Thursday, unafraid to tackle prickly political issues.

Now, as pontiff, he will inherit the official @Pontifex accounts on X used by his predecessor Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI before him.

Published in nine languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Arabic, and Latin -- they have a total of 52 million followers, the Vatican said.

On Instagram, the new pope's only official account is called @Pontifex – Pope Leo XIV.

"The Holy Father Leo XIV has chosen to maintain an active social media presence through the official papal accounts on X and Instagram," the Vatican said in a statement.

Through his personal @drprevost account on X over the years, Prevost amplified criticism of US President Donald Trump's immigration policies, pilloried Vice President JD Vance and called for racial justice.

If the content published by Pope Francis is any guide, Leo's papal posts are likely to be less controversial, comprising mostly excerpts of prayers and homilies.

Pope Benedict XVI, who led the world's Catholics between 2005 and 2013, was the first pontiff to have a then-Twitter account, launching @Pontifex on December 12, 2012.

The official Instagram account, @Franciscus, was added on March 19, 2016.

During the 12 years of the Francis papacy, the Vatican published around 50,000 posts across the @Pontifex and @Franciscus accounts.

In 2020, when interaction peaked due the coronavirus pandemic, the Argentine's messages were viewed 27 billion times, the Vatican said.

Content posted by Francis's accounts has now been archived. — Agence France-Presse