Pope Francissecular name Jorge Mario Bergoglio, He has died At 7: 35h this morning at age 88, after a long convalescence derived from pneumonia. Pontiff number 266 of the Catholic Church He stood out for his proximity and efforts to renew the religious institution Throughout his 12 years in office. Social networks played a relevant role in this adaptation to the new times, so we want to do a Review of Pope Francis's digital strategy.
Renewal and digitalization
Progress to the time of times implies Build a solid digital ecosystemthat favors communication with your audience in both directions. That is, it allows you to reach your audience with your messages and that, in turn, it facilitates that it access relevant information about you.
During Francisco's mandate, this aspect was especially reinforced Through the creation of profiles in networks, the presentation of multimedia content and even the launch of an app.
A close, reflective and hopeful social profile
Twitter @Pontifex account was the first social network of the Holy Seewhich premiered in December 2012, during the mandate of Benedict XVI with the message in English: «Dear friends, it is a pleasure to contact you through Twitter. Thanks for your generous reception. I bless you all from my heart ». Although this pontiff only used it for two more months, until its resignation on February 28, 2013.
After launching this profile, they soon arrived specific versions for certain countries and languages (as any large commercial brand would do). In the case of Spainit is used @Pontifex_es which currently adds 18.6 million followers and followers. Other official accounts are: @pontifex with 18.3 million followers and followers; @Pontifex_it with 5.2 million; @Pontifex_pt with 5 million; and @pontifex_ln, a specific account for Latin, with 1 million.
Pope Francis used Twitter as a tool to evangelize and share messages focused on Jesus as the center of Christian life and universal Christian values. Likewise, their tweets also invited reflection and dialogue, promoting conversation and engagement.
Regarding Your tone on the social networkthis resembled the language that he normally used being Of course, emotional, hopeful, significant and concise. That is, he knew how to maintain his personality, but while adapting to social space and the need to use short and direct messages.
I thank you very much for your prayers. I also pray for you and I ask you to entrust all those who suffer, especially those affected by war, poverty or natural disasters. #Angelus
– Pope Francis (@pontifex_es) April 13, 2025
But the thing did not stay on Twitter. Since, over the years, Pope Francis was expanding his presence on social platforms. In December 2015 He created YouTube channel “The Pope's video”in which every month a video is published in which the Pope makes a petition in his prayers dedicated to a specific cause (families in crisis, the right to education, who flee from their countries, etc.).
This channel is a global initiative of the Pope's World Prayer Network (Prayer Apostolate), an official Vatican institution, and has 49,300 followers and followers.
Months later of his arrival on YouTube, The Pontiff joined Instagram in March 2016. Since then, he has managed to build a firm community of 9.9 million followers and followers In the social network.
In this case, unlike Twitter, it has a single profile in which it centralizes all communication. In the text descriptions of their FEED publications Includes your message In various languageswhich are usually: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Polish and German.
Click To Pray, an app to pray in community
The ability to connect and establish links is one of the main advantages of digital tools, and this was taken advantage of by the Catholic Church to reinforce the feeling of unity and belonging of its faithful through the creation of Click to pray. This is a Mobile application launched in November 2014available for iOS and Android, which allows you to follow the requests of the prayers that the Pope proposes every month and share your intentions and prayers with the rest of the community.
Click to Pray This is another project of the Pope's World Prayer Network and is Available in 7 languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian, French, German and Chinese. Accumulates More than 100,000 downloads.
Documentary «Amen. The Pope responds »
During his term, Pope Francis paid special attention to Promote the connection between the Catholic Church and the young people. His concern about social problems and their close nature played in their favor in this aspect, and the Pontiff had no qualms about approaching people and being willing not only to dialogue, but to listen.
This was evident in the Documentary «Amen. The Pope responds »launched on April 5, 2023 in Disney+. A production of neighborhood productions and directed by Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez that offers a intimate and filter conversation between Pope Francis and a group of 10 young people between 20 and 25 years old.
Throughout the 80 minutes that production lasts, the encounter between the Pope and young people from different backgrounds and that accumulated diverse experiences, and Topics such as feminism, homosexuality, the role of women in the Church, the loss of faith, abuses in the Church, etc. were addressed, etc.
The documentary had a Notable impactbeing a relevant issue to comment on social networks, and served to enhance the affable image of the Pontiff. Which, by association, also served to give a cooler and more open image of the Catholic Church.
Photo: Depositphotos
