Leo XIV, the first Pope with a social media background

Habemus papam. American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost Martínez was elected yesterday, May 8, as the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church. The traditional white smoke signaled the news at 6:07 PM and, an hour later, Prevost appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as Leo XIV, thus becoming the first American Pope and also the first with a Twitter background.

How Robert Prevost communicated on social media

While Francis I knew how to adapt to modern communication and use social media to connect with his followers, he didn’t have a personal digital background before being named Pope. This is different in the case of Leo XIV, as the newly appointed pontiff does have a digital footprint on platforms like Twitter as Robert Prevost.

Prevost joined Twitter in 2011, his username is @drprevost, and he currently has 378,032 followers. Upon examining his profile, we find that most of his activity consists of retweeting posts from media outlets or religious institutions.

Likewise, when Prevost did post original content, it usually included links to news articles and the accompanying text was often the headline of the article. His last original post was on February 13, 2025, where he shared an article from the Jesuit outlet America Magazine discussing Pope Francis I’s criticism of Trump’s immigration policy.

Pope Francis’ letter, JD Vance’s ‘ordo amoris’ and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration https://t.co/Ikk8gqOMzn

— Robert Prevost (@drprevost) February 13, 2025

This and other tweets (and retweets) give us a glimpse into his position aligned with that of Francis I.

Video highlights of Pope Francis’ encounter with young Hungarians in Budapest, during which he recalled that Christians only become great when we stoop down to serve others.#PopeInHungaryhttps://t.co/pl8YGAym0n pic.twitter.com/sKbuUSOaGi

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) April 29, 2023

Another interesting fact about Robert Prevost’s Twitter profile is that he resumed his activity on the platform quite recently, on February 3, 2025, after not posting since July 20, 2023.

Before this break, Prevost was fairly active on Twitter, sharing content several times a month. Upon his return, he did not maintain such a steady pace. Although he posted four times in February, he didn’t tweet again until April 15 — his last post (actually a retweet).

As Trump & Bukele use Oval to 🤣 Feds’ illicit deportation of a US resident (https://t.co/t80iDMbBKf), once an undoc-ed Salvadorean himself, now-DC Aux +Evelio asks, “Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?” https://t.co/jTradMfr0v

— Rocco Palmo (@roccopalmo) April 14, 2025

Regarding his presence on other social media platforms, we did not find any Instagram or Facebook accounts belonging to Prevost. A search on those platforms shows several users with his name and photo, but these are either “fan accounts,” unofficial news accounts about the new Pope, or simply fake profiles.

• Other papal candidates also had social media: how the papabili of the 2025 conclave communicate online

Leo XIV will inherit the Holy See’s social media accounts

It is expected that in his new role as head of the Catholic Church, Leo XIV will take over the Holy See’s official Twitter accounts. These include several profiles tailored to different countries and languages (@Pontifex_es for Spain, @Pontifex_it for Italy, @Pontifex_pt for Portugal, @Pontifex in English, and @Pontifex_ln in Latin).

For now, these accounts still display the username “Apostolica Sedes Vacans”, which they adopted after the death of Francis I to reflect the vacant papal seat. Most likely, the first official tweet from Leo XIV will be posted from these accounts in the coming hours.

In addition, it’s likely that Leo XIV will get an Instagram account similar to the one Francis I had, or that this existing one will be renamed. This would make sense, as it would avoid having to build a new community from scratch and would allow for preserving the good follower and engagement metrics already in place.

As for the YouTube channel “The Pope Video”, it will most likely begin featuring Leo XIV’s prayer intention videos.

And who knows? Perhaps the Holy See will soon venture into TikTok. In that case, Leo XIV would add another milestone to his list — becoming the first TikTok Pope.

Image: Vatican News