VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis’ @Pontifex Twitter accounts reached more than 40 million followers just a few months before the fifth anniversary of when Pope Benedict XVI launched the initiative.

The papal Twitter accounts, in nine different languages, have grown by over nine million followers in the past 12 months, representing the interest and attention of “the people – ordinary people, Christians and non-Christians, political leaders – for the Holy Father’s tweets,” the Vatican Secretariat for Communication said.

The accounts, it said, are a way for Pope Francis to personally connect with people around the world.

“Every day, through his tweets, Pope Francis makes himself available to men and women through social media, at times offering a spiritual thought,” it said, “other times sharing with his followers a reflection on events of great significance for the international community.”

The secretariat’s prefect, Msgr. Dario Vigano, told Vatican Radio that “the pope takes great care of his social profiles, to such an extent that he closely and carefully checks all the tweets, which are then published.”