Pope Francis Takes A Personal Audience With Instagram’s CEO

Pope Francis opened the Vatican to Instagram's CEO, Kevin Systrom, for a very cool reason: to discuss the power of images. The Facebook-owned corporation is on a mission to "unite people across borders, cultures, and generations," according to a statement released to Time before the meeting. The Pope doesn't have an Instagram account, but he does have a flock of supporters who may be invested in sharing powerful images. To prove this point, Systrom presented the Pope with a book of 10 curated Instagram images. Time reports that the book included photos from the Nepalese earthquake as well images from the protests in Baltimore. Systrom told Time that Instagram hired a team of curators to let people see "the world happening in real time." "And I think that’s true whether it’s Taylor Swift’s 1989 tour, which trends on Instagram all the time, or an important moment like a protest overseas, or a march like 'Je suis Charlie' in Paris," he said. "We want to make all of those, no matter how serious, no matter how playful, discoverable and accessible on Instagram." Whether or not this meeting persuades the Vatican to create an Instagram account for Pope Francis remains to be seen, but it would be a nice complement to his Twitter.