Pope Francis won't join Facebook because of profane comments
Franco Origlia/Getty Images


Pope Francis is known for keeping an active Twitter presence, but don't expect his love of social media to extend to Facebook.
Quartz reports that Facebook employees visited the Vatican to convince the pope to join their network, but the pontiff doesn't plan to take them up on the offer. Claudio Maria Celli, the archbishop in charge of the church's social media accounts (his official title is "president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication"), says that managing profane replies on Facebook isn't worth the effort. Celli says that profane Twitter replies are easy to ignore, but maintaining Facebook comments is a more consuming endeavor.
Pope Francis has previously called the internet "a gift from God," and his social media team tweets daily in nine languages.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
-
Delivery drivers face continuing heat danger with Trump's OSHA pick
The Explainer David Keeling is the former head of UPS and also worked at Amazon
-
Is that the buzzing sound of climate change worsening sleep apnea?
Under the radar Catching diseases, not those ever-essential Zzs
-
Crossword: July 3, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
-
Southern Baptists endorse gay marriage ban
Speed Read The largest US Protestant denomination voted to ban same-sex marriage and pornography at their national meeting
-
Prevost elected first US pope, becomes Leo XIV
speed read Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is a Chicago native who spent decades living in Peru
-
Pope Francis dies at 88
Speed Read 'How much contempt is stirred up at times toward the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants,' Pope Francis wrote in his final living message
-
Pope returns to Vatican after long hospital stay
Speed Read Pope Francis entered the hospital on Feb. 14 and battled double pneumonia
-
Texas megachurch founder charged with sex crimes
Speed Read Robert Morris, former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, is accused of sexually abusing a child
-
Pope Francis suffers setback with respiratory episodes
Speed Read The 88-year-old pope continues to battle pneumonia
-
US Christianity's long decline has halted, Pew finds
Speed Read 62% of Americans call themselves Christian, a population that has been 'relatively stable' for the past five years
-
Pope Francis hospitalized with 'complex' illness
Speed Read The Vatican says their leader has a respiratory infection, raising new concerns about his health