Vatican Welcomes Online Evangelists, or "Vatican Adopts Digital Evangelists"
Vatican Embraces Digital Missionaries to Revitalize Faith
In a bid to connect with the digital generation, the Vatican has been actively engaging Catholic influencers as part of its contemporary evangelization strategy. These digital missionaries, including Sister Albertine and Father Fusari, are using social media platforms to spread the Gospel and build a culture of encounter online.
This week, the Vatican organized a social media summit for these digital missionaries, with Sister Albertine, a French Catholic nun, and Francesca Parisi, a 31-year-old Italian teacher, among the attendees. Parisi, who has 20,000 followers on TikTok, joined the Catholic Church later in life and aims to lure people back to the church through their smartphones.
The Vatican sees social media as a vital tool to spread the faith amid dwindling church attendance. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, one of the few Vatican officials active on social media, told attendees that they are not only influencers, but missionaries. He emphasized the importance of being anchored in prayer, sacraments, and Scripture, stressing that Jesus is not a voice generated by a digital programme.
The role of these digital missionaries is to serve as witnesses who build bridges of faith in the digital world. They offer spiritual presence and hope amid misinformation and polarization. Sister Albertine shares a mix of prayers and episodes from daily religious life on her social media platforms, while Father Fusari, who wears tight shirts exposing his arm tattoos and has 63,000 followers on Instagram, uses social media to reach people, posting about Italian church architecture and preaching.
The Vatican supports these digital missionaries through events like the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, offering prayer, workshops, and talks to deepen their spiritual grounding and prepare them to evangelize more effectively online. Pope Leo XIV led a mass dedicated to these digital missionaries at St. Peter's Basilica.
The Vatican's approach is not just about creating content but about engaging modern audiences with new approaches. It increasingly endorses creative methods, including featuring charismatic and popular figures like Sister Albertine on platforms like Instagram and TikTok to appeal to younger generations and increase faith engagement through relatable and attractive digital presences.
In summary, these digital missionaries are integral to the Vatican’s contemporary evangelization strategy. They act as trained, faith-rooted witnesses who creatively use social media platforms to spread the Gospel and build a culture of encounter online. As Cardinal Pietro Parolin emphasized, they are called to be witnesses anchoring their work in prayer, sacraments, and Scripture, thus strengthening their authenticity and ecclesial communion while engaging diverse online audiences.
[1] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2021-03/vatican-social-media-summit-catholic-influencers.html [2] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248500/vatican-social-media-summit-emphasizes-digital-witness-and-bridge-building [3] https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/03/23/vatican-takes-social-media-seriously-and-so-should-we/ [4] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248504/vatican-social-media-summit-emphasizes-the-importance-of-creating-encounters-between-hearts [5] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248505/vatican-social-media-summit-highlights-the-role-of-catholic-influencers-in-evangelization
- Encouraged by the Vatican's digital missionaries' success in spreading the Gospel, the approach is increasingly endorsing creative methods, such as featuring Sister Albertine on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, to appeal to the younger generation and foster faith engagement through their engaging and attractive digital presences.
- Despite their popularity on social media, these digital missionaries, like Sister Albertine and Father Fusari, are reminded that they are not just entertainers, but missionaries anchored in prayer, sacraments, and Scripture, emphasizing the importance of their role in building bridges of faith and authenticity in the digital world.
