Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, is known for his humility, simplicity, more liberal views, and his efforts on climate change.
On the lighter side though, Catholics and non-Catholics are fond of him because of his use of social media; he has Twitter accounts in various languages. His Spanish account alone has more than 11 million followers, while his English account has 8 million. It is a good way to reach the more than 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide.
And it looks like he plans on extending that reach even further, this time by officially joining another social media platform, Instagram, on Saturday! He announced this new development by posting on all his Twitter accounts. On his English account, he said: “I am beginning a new journey, on Instagram, to walk with you along the path of mercy and the tenderness of God.”
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
It was inevitable; after all, this is the Pope, who is fond of taking selfies with the people he encounters. But for his first post, the Bishop of Rome instead chose an official photograph showing him in prayer.
He captioned it with the words ‘Pray For Me’ in nine languages.
Within an hour, the Pontiff accumulated more than 100,000 followers. He currently has 1.3 million, a figure that will surely grow.
His latest post is a close-up of his hands clutching intertwined palms leaves, which is in line with the celebration of Palm Sunday, an important date among Catholics.
In the mass. which he celebrated in line for the event, the Pope chose to speak out during his homily to appeal to nations not to turn their back on refugees.
He is referring to the immigrant crisis that has engulfed Europe – 1.1 million refugees have fled to the continent in the past year trying to escape conflict in the Middle East, particularly Syria. The influx is growing and European Union members are hoping to stem the tide.
Pope Francis is hoping to appeal to the compassion of leaders, after mentioning the gospel of how Jesus was denied justice during his homily, he added, “I am thinking of so many other people, so many marginalized people, so many asylum seekers, so many refugees. There are so many who don’t want to take responsibility for their destiny.”
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