--- description: The pontiff title: Pope Francis asks his followers to "please pray for me" on Twitter image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Vatican](/tag/vatican/) ## Vatican Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Pope Asks Twitter Flock To Pray For Him by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 13, 2014 12:41 PM CUT by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 13, 2014 12:41 PM CUT As Pope Francis wraps up his first year as head of the Catholic Church, the social media-savvy pontiff tweeted out to his 3.7 million followers for religious support: > [](https://twitter.com/pontifex/status/444050455593639936) The Pope, named [TIME’s Person of the Year](http://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/person-of-the-year-pope-francis-the-peoples-pope/ "undefined"), is celebrating his first anniversary on the job by spending the day in a [prayer retreat outside Rome to mark Lent.](http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2014/03/13/pope-francis-spending-first-anniversary-on-retreat/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/23145/pope-asks-twitter-flock-to-pray-for-him/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/23145/pope-asks-twitter-flock-to-pray-for-him/"},"headline":"Pope Asks Twitter Flock To Pray For Him","datePublished":"2014-03-13T12:41:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:45:01.829Z","description":"The pontiff","url":"https://time.com/23145/pope-asks-twitter-flock-to-pray-for-him/","keywords":["Vatican","Pope Francis topic","twitter","Tweets"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/vatican/","name":"Vatican"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/23145/pope-asks-twitter-flock-to-pray-for-him/","name":"Pope Asks Twitter Flock To Pray For Him"}}]}] ```