Pope Francis hit over 500,000 Instagram followers within four hours of launching his account on Saturday, declaring “I want to walk with you along the way of God’s mercy and tenderness.”
The pontiff’s first post – using the handle Franciscus – is a photo of himself praying while kneeling with the “pray for me” in nine different languages.
The date for the pontiff’s debut on the celebrity-dominated social medium was chosen by the 79-year-old himself as it marks the third anniversary of his inauguration as the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
The move represents the latest plank of a Vatican social media strategy designed to ensure Francis’s message reaches a maximum number of believers and non-believers across the world with particular focus on the younger generation.
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
Francis is already a major player on Twitter. Under the @Pontifex handle he tweets in nine languages, including Latin, with the English account followed by nearly nine million people and the Spanish one by more than 11 million.
The move to join Instagram has been anticipated for some time as it is now bigger and faster-growing than Twitter with some 400 million users worldwide.
Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s CEO and co-founder, met the pontiff at the Vatican last month, later revealing they had discussed “the power of images to unite people across different cultures and languages.”
In a post on his own Instagram account, Systrom also said: “It was by far one of the most memorable experiences of my life!”
Systrom was on hand when the Pope’s first Instagram photo went live.
The CEO also commemorated the moment with a photo of him shaking hands with the Pope.
He included this message: “Watching Pope Francis post his first photo to Instagram today was an incredible moment. @franciscus, welcome to the Instagram community! Your messages of humility, compassion and mercy will leave a lasting mark.”
Francis’ time as Pope has been marked by an embrace of social media as a way to communicate with Catholic followers around the world.
Francis joined the Twittersphere four days after his March 2013 election with what has become his trademark appeal to believers to “pray for me.”
The central importance of prayer has been a recurring theme of the tweets that have followed, at a rate of a little under one a day.
Some have been barely comprehensible to non-Catholics such as: “The Sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist, are privileged places of encountering Christ.”
But it has not all been theology. He has also used the medium to react to global events like Typhoon Hiayan/Yolanda, or voice his views on the social issues of the day.
Francis has also demonstrated a nice line in homespun tips for living, such as: “I cannot imagine a Christian who does not know how to smile.”
