Pope Francis joins Instagram and has 1.9million followers in just four days
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Pope Francis joins Instagram and has 1.9million followers in just four days

POPE Francis has joined hundreds of millions of Instagram users with his brand new profile.

Since joining one of the world’s most popular social networking sites last Saturday, Pope Francis has amassed 1.9million followers.

He announced the news to his 8.94million Twitter followers in a post that read:

“I am beginning a new journey, on Instagram, to walk with you along the path of mercy and the tenderness of God.”

Pope Francis’ very first post on his Instagram account – username Franciscus – was a photo of him praying, alongside the phrase ‘pray for me.’

Six other posts have been published within the last four days, including images of Pope Francis during prayers.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook – which owns Instagram – welcomed Pope Francis to the photo-sharing site through his Facebook page.

“Welcome to Instagram, Pope Francis! No matter what faith you practice, we can all be inspired by Pope Francis’s humility and compassion. I’m looking forward to following the Pope - and watching him continue sharing his message of mercy, equality and justice with the world.”

The account will be managed by the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications.

Dario Viganò, the Vatican’s prefect of the secretariat for communications, said that the Pope’s Instagram postings “will help recount the papacy through images, to enable all those who wish to accompany and know more about Pope Francis’s pontificate to encounter his gestures of tenderness and mercy.”