Pope has 40 million followers on Twitter

Vatican City: Pope Francis now has 40 million followers on his nine-language @pontifex account, Vatican Radio reported on Wednesday.

"Forty million followers means 40 million people, 40 million hearts, minds, and passions," Dario Edoardo Vigano, the Vatican official tasked with coordinating the Pope's Twitter and Instagram accounts, told Vatican Radio.

"It is a world, a relationship, a community: this figure emphasizes that so many people continue to follow, day after day, even by way of (140-character bursts), the Pope's teaching authority, which reaches people in very different ways," said Vigano.

Such is the importance the pontiff attaches to his Twitter account, "he closely and carefully checks all the tweets" before they go out, Vigano said.

Until July, Francis was the most followed world leader on Twitter but has now been overtaken by US President Donald Trump who has 40.3 million followers.