Cardinal Schönborn is the first German-speaking Bluesky bishop

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna is probably the first bishop from a German-speaking country to use the social media service Bluesky. With the account name @kardinalschoenborn.bsky.social he has been posting there since Thursday. With his appearances on X, Facebook and Instagram, Schönborn is already one of the German-speaking churchmen with the widest reach. When asked, a spokesperson for the archdiocese told katholisch.de on Friday that the general movement away from X and towards Bluesky was the decisive factor for the new account. However, it is not yet clear whether the previous X account will be abandoned.

The short message service Bluesky has significantly increased its user numbers in recent weeks as an alternative to X, the former Twitter. Several dioceses have announced that they will leave the X platform due to what is perceived as an increasingly toxic climate. X platform or have already done so. Most recently, the diocese of Würzburg deleted its X account in favour of a in favour of a presence on the decentralised and open network Mastodon.

HTML-Elemente (z.B. Videos) sind ausgeblendet. Zum Einblenden der Elemente aktivieren Sie hier die entsprechenden Cookies.

With currently 366 followers on Bluesky, Schönborn still has a much smaller reach than on X, where he has amassed almost 21,000 followers since November 2011. In September, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Vienna told katholisch.de that the social media strategy was currently being discussed intensively in Vienna. The use of X was also a central topic. According to the spokesperson, Schönborn himself is only involved in organising the content. His team is therefore responsible for the social media presence and channel selection.

German bishops not yet active on Bluesky

The cardinal, who has been in office since 1995, will turn 80 in January and thus lose his right to vote in the conclave. It is expected that Pope Francis will accept his resignation in January. The date of the farewell ceremony has already been set. According to the spokesperson, the new Bluesky account was deliberately labelled with Schönborn's name and not "kardinalwien" like the other accounts, with a view to the fact that it is Schönborn's account. It remains to be seen how the cardinal will organise his social media activities after his retirement.

German bishops have not yet been personally active on Bluesky. Only the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising currently has an active diocesan account. Archdiocese of Munich and Freising has created one. In addition to Bluesky, the most popular Mastodon as an alternative to X as an alternative to X. Since this year, Bavaria's Catholic data protection authority has been operating its own Mastodon server catholic.social for church institutions and individuals. Katholisch.de has been on Bluesky and since 2022 on Mastodon active. (fxn)