Catholic leader breaks the Internet, surpasses 22M Twitter followers

oge okonkwo

July 16, 2015 3:44 PM

Of the nine accounts in languages such as French and German, his Spanish language account is the most popular - with just over nine million followers -while the English account comes in second with around 6.5 million followers

Pope Francis was making his second visit to Latin America since becoming Pontiff in 2013

Pope Francis on Wednesday, July 16, surpassed 22 million Twitter followers on his multiple accounts. He joins the ranks of tech-savvy entertainers and world leaders who command tens of millions of followers on social media.

According to the site Il Sismografo, the pope pulled in 29,000 new followers each day during his recent eight-day trip to South America, versus his already impressive average of 20,000.

CBN reports that of the nine accounts in languages such as French and German, his Spanish language account is the most popular -- with just over nine million followers -- while the English account comes in second with around 6.5 million followers.

A Vatican office writes the tweets -- usually quotes from his speeches and homilies -- with the pope's approval.

Despite recent increase in followers, Francis still has a long way to go to catch up with other world leaders like US President Barack Obama, who has over 60 million followers.

The Pope is also well behind American singer Katy Perry, who has the world's most Twitter followers, with about 72.5 million.

oge okonkwo