A community that exceeds 4 million users on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. This is the latest result of the reorganization of the social media channels of the Vatican Secretariat for Communication, unified under the recently presented Vatican News logo.
The launch of a Global Page on Facebook, in particular, brought together over 3 million followers,
who can now consult the pages of the six languages currently available (English, Italian, French,
German, Spanish and Portuguese).
On Twitter, previous fragmentation has been corrected by rendering all six language accounts
@vaticannews immediately recognizable. Added to this is the new @radiovaticanaitalia account
which promotes and provides information on the activity of Radio Vaticana Italia, and the unique
multilingual Vatican News channel on Instagram. The three social media platforms include the
YouTube channel (in 6 languages), which is also under the Vatican News brand and which offers
users live and on-demand videos of the Pope’s activities.
Vatican News social media is coordinated by the Editorial Department and the Theological-Pastoral
Department of the Communication Secretariat. The Pope’s social media accounts are entrusted to a
team of the Secretariat for Communication working in synergy with the Vatican Secretariat of State.
These accounts are: @Pontifex on Twitter (over 44 million followers in 9 languages) and
@Franciscus on Instagram (over 5 million followers on the single multilingual channel).
According to the Prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for Communication, Msgr. Dario Edoardo
Viganò, «The strengthening of our presence on social networks is one of the effects of the great
process of reform of the Vatican media currently under completion. And it is certainly a positive
result, achieved thanks to the great commitment of our journalists and technical staff. As
communications professionals, according to the logic of a Church that looks outwards, we are all
called to be among the people. Today this means being present on social networks and the internet
with conviction and responsibility. So our perspective must be very clear: one that requires us to
focus on the human person, on relationships, the culture of encounter and, only in the last instance,
on technology «.
