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Pope Francis’s Instagram account Franciscus
The pope’s Instagram account, Franciscus, is believed to be aimed at younger people. Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
The pope’s Instagram account, Franciscus, is believed to be aimed at younger people. Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis launches Franciscus Instagram account

This article is more than 8 years old

To mark his third anniversary as pope, Francis extends social media reach on Instagram with caption ‘pray for me’

Despite once claiming to be a technological dinosaur, Pope Francis has expanded his social media presence by joining Instagram, launching the new account with a picture of himself knelt in worship alongside the caption “pray for me”.

Using the moniker Franciscus, the pope has joined the photo-sharing app to mark the third anniversary of his inauguration as the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. He is already a well-established social media user, tweeting regularly under the handle @Pontifex to more than 27 million followers across several accounts in different languages.

The pope tweeted news of his Instagram debut:

I am beginning a new journey, on Instagram, to walk with you along the path of mercy and the tenderness of God.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 19, 2016

Short religious messages, often expressing the value of prayer, are most commonly sent from the account, such as one on Friday that read:

The greater the sin, the greater the love that must be shown by the Church to those who repent.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 18, 2016

Up to now only two pictures have been posted on the pope’s Twitter page, suggesting Francis may need to become more accustomed to the selfie if he is to prosper on Instagram.

“Instagram will help recount the papacy through images, to enable all those who wish to accompany and know more about Pope Francis’s pontificate to encounter his gestures of tenderness and mercy,” said Dario Viganò, the Vatican’s prefect of the secretariat for communications.

“We will choose photographs from the photographic service of L’Osservatore Romano ... In this way we can show those aspects of closeness and inclusion that Pope Francis lives every day.”

The Instagram launch is thought to be part of a Vatican social media strategy to engage with younger people around the world. Franciscus has racked up thousands of followers since its first post, but the account has some way to go to catch up to the site’s most popular users – the pop stars Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift currently stand at about 70 million followers each.

Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s chief executive and co-founder, met Francis at the Vatican last month, and said they had discussed “the power of images to unite people across different cultures and languages”.

In a post on his Instagram account, Systrom said:

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Francis has previously described the internet as a “gift from God” and hosted his own Google Hangouts from the Vatican. The pope has also met the former Google chief executive, Eric Schmidt, and the head of Apple, Tim Cook, at the Vatican.

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