WHEN POPE FRANCIS died, the Vatican faced the dilemma of what to do with the late pontiff’s social media accounts.
Pope Benedict XIV was the first pontiff to have a social media presence when the papal office opened an account on X, formerly Twitter, on December 12, 2012.
But he resigned just over two months later, on 28 February 2013, and Francis inherited the account and turned it into a network with over 52 million followers across accounts publishing posts in nine languages.
Francis also got his own Instagram account in 2016, which gained more than 10 million followers.
People online picked up on something curious about the account on X.
Very shortly after Francis’s death on 21 April, the handle on his X accounts read “Apostolica Sedes Vacans” – Latin for “the Apostolic See is vacant”.
The profile photo was also changed to the papal coat of arms used during this sede vacante period where there is no pope of the Catholic Church.
But while the X account was quick to adapt to the sede vacante period, it was somewhat slow to react to the new pope.
Pope Leo XIV became pontiff on Thursday, 8 May but three days later the account was still in sede vacante mode.
“The Dicastery for Communication has an annual budget of €38 million and they haven’t updated the official Pope Twitter account yet,” complained one priest on X.
Others opined that the Dicastery were taking their time to decide how best to proceed.
When the X accounts were updated just over three days after the election of the new pope, they had been turned into an archive.
Rumours then began that Leo XIV, who himself had a personal account on X which has now been deactivated, would decide not to use social media.
In February, Leo XIV – then Cardinal Robert Prevost – shared a news article on his personal X account which read: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
But such rumours were short lived as on Tuesday, 13 May the Dicastery for Communication announced that Leo XIV would indeed maintain an “active social media presence through the official papal accounts on X and Instagram”.
Leo XIV inherited the @Pontifex accounts on X that were used by Pope Francis, and before that by Benedict XVI.
Meanwhile, Francis’s posts on X have been moved to an archive account on the site.
And on Instagram, Francis’s @Franciscus account will remain accessible as an “Ad Memoriam” commemorative archive.
The new pope meanwhile takes on an Instagram account called @Pontifex.
In under 24 hours, Leo XIV’s Instagram account gained over 4 million followers – it now stands at 13.4 million, surpassing Francis’s 10.5 million followers.
And on X, the new pope subsumed Francis’s followers and the English language account has 18.6 million followers.
Vatican media budget concerns
Meanwhile, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication could be in line for budget cuts.
It oversees all the media and communication offices of the Vatican and in 2022, had a budget of €40 million – larger than any other department.
But last year, Francis warned the Vatican’s media wing to expect budget cuts and told employees to “exercise a bit more discipline with money”.
“You need to find ways to save more and seek other funds, as the Holy See cannot continue to support you as it does now,” Francis added.
In 2021, Francis queried how many people actually consume the content provided by the various arms of the Vatican’s media output.
“There are a lot of reasons to be worried about [Vatican] Radio, L’Osservatore, but one that touches my heart: how many people listen to [Vatican] Radio? How many people read L’Osservatore Romano?” Francis asked.
L’Osservatore Romano is the daily newspaper of Vatican City.
While he praised them for their work, he warned there was a “danger” that it doesn’t arrive where it is supposed to.
It comes amid grave concern for the Vatican’s finances, with the Vatican Museum being used to plug deficits.
The Vatican has over 4,000 staff and there are severe concerns around the Vatican’s ability to pay the pensions of lay and clerical employees.
The shortfall in the Vatican’s pension fund was estimated to total some €631 million in 2022.
Earlier this year, Francis had created a Vatican taskforce to encourage donations from lay Catholics “and other potential benefactors” to aid the asset-rich but cash-poor Vatican.
And last year, Francis ordered the third reduction in three years for the pay packages of the cardinals who lead Vatican departments.
Elsewhere, the Church is also still reeling from the disastrous Sloane Avenue property deal in London.
60 Sloane Avenue is a former Harrods warehouse and the Vatican is estimated to have lost around €140 million on the deal.
In February, the High Court in England ruled that the Vatican’s Secretariat of State was deceived by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione in the purchase of the building.
And in the Vatican Courts, Cardinal Angelo Becciu was also sentenced to five and a half years in prison for embezzlement of public funds.
He was stripped of his Cardinal privileges by the late Francis as a result and was therefore not able to take part in the recent conclave, despite his last minute appeals.