“Peace be with you!” Pope Leo XIV wrote in his first official social media post, shared on X and Instagram.
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Cleaning up social media accounts while job hunting took an all new meaning following the election of Pope Leo XIV, who wiped his personal accounts and made his first official post as pontiff this week.
Pope Leo XIV, who was elected on Thursday, May 8, made his first social media post on Tuesday, May 13. The post was made on the official pontiff Instagram and X accounts, shared in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Polish and German. The Instagram post featured several photos of the pope’s first few days.
“Peace be with you all!” Leo wrote in his post. “This is the first greeting spoken by the Risen Christ, the Good Shepherd. I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, and among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world.”
According to a news release from the Dicastery for Communication, the Holy See’s communication department, Pope Leo XIV has chosen to “maintain an active social media presence through the official pope accounts on X and Instagram.”
Pope Leo XIV deletes personal social media accounts
Not long after he was named pontiff, Pope Leo XIV’s old social media posts begin to surface, notably an X post from February that criticized Vice President JD Vance’s stance on immigration.
“JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” Leo wrote in the post, which has since been deleted.
As of May 14, Pope Leo XIV’s old social media accounts, which were under his pre-pontiff name, Robert Francis Prevost, were deleted.
Speaking to USA TODAY on May 8, Margaret Susan Thompson, a history professor at Syracuse University, expected the pontiff to switch his postings to the official pontiff accounts.
“Social media can be a minefield for divisive commentary, so I imagine he’ll use it sparingly, perhaps for simple, pastoral messages (and yes, delivered on the official pope account) like holiday greetings, but not for anything controversial,” Thompson said in an email.
As of May 14, the official pontiff Instagram account boasted 9.6 million followers and the X account had 10,800 followers.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.
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