You might have noticed my conspicuously missing Thursday article last week. That was because I had started the research for a deep dive into what it means for Catholic creators to identify themselves with the moniker “Catholic” online. My hope was to break down the different ways of thinking about it and come away with a good clean bit of advice. Turns out it’s something of a can of worms and it seems to hinge a bit on the concept of making money. Suffice it to say, we are not ready to give you anything cut and dried on that front yet.

So, while we continue researching that topic I thought I’d start with something that is apparently not so obvious to everyone:

How do “digital missionaries” end up as paid “influencers” in the first place?

I want to start this by saying that this is very much a cultural issue. This question has different answers based on the country from which the missionary hails. Our Latin American brothers and sisters, for example, have a host of missionaries who make their content on a volunteer basis. In Africa the bishops have taken up the Augean task of creating a particular formation for digital missionaries, thinking of them as being similar to the catechists who volunteer across Africa. The support of the institutional Church and the bishops in these regions help create trust in their digital missionaries.

As the American bishops are just starting to embrace the concept of digital mission, their support hasn’t yet been given to any particular set of missionaries. As such, people spreading the gospel online have fallen into the secular model of “influencer,” which has given them greater reach than many of the African or South American missionaries but has its own set of pitfalls.

Ok, if you are not yourself in the Catholic creation world you might have just rolled your eyes and/or thought very hard about leaving this article. Give me just a few seconds to explain what I mean by that. I promise, it’s not “poor little influencers”.

You see, in American life the simple truth is that people put value on things based on how much they paid for it.

Generally, the way one signals that they are competent as an influencer is by having sponsorships. Someone thinks highly enough of their content to pay for it. That lends credibility to a creator. But it doesn’t have to stop there. Having their content purchased by an institution lends credibility. Being seen as having above-average access lends credibility.

Think of it this way: if you were going to hire a photographer for your wedding, and someone told you they’d do it for free, would you assume they were the best photographer? Probably not. What if they said they’d do it for free and you’d seen their work in The New Yorker? It’s a little different now, right? What if they said they’d do it for free and you knew they were the official photographer for the Royal Family of England? Whole. Other. Ballgame.

Ok, so, let’s look at this through the lens of digital mission. A content creator who desires to spread the gospel online full-time has to find some way to pay for the time it takes to do that. The same way a traditional missionary does. Absent institutional support, that has to come from sponsorships and patrons. We’ve talked about the cycle that creates before. You can read about that here. But for better or worse, the fact is that American consumers, those that are most in need of hearing the gospel online, view other people’s investment as a shortcut for credibility.

Think of Fr. Mike Schmitz and Bible In a Year. That podcast topped the charts for years, not just because it was an excellent podcast. There are lots of those. But also because the marketing dollars behind it signaled to the average American non-Catholic that this was something that deserved their attention. And it doesn’t hurt that the collar on Fr. Mike strongly suggests that the Church as an institution trusts him.

Now, I’m not here to argue that digital missionaries ought to identify as “Catholic Influencers” and make millions. I do think that content creation as a form of digital mission is work and workers are worthy of their wages. But in the same way that their credibility is in question without some sort of support, their mission is in jeopardy when maintaining that support becomes the primary driving factor. For my money, there is only one way to solve that: build real relationships between the independent creators and the institutional Church.

Independence from the church does not mean isolation from it. Right now the American influencer marketplace is driving the credibility bus for our missionaries and that cannot be. The Church’s largest resource on the Digital Continent is that group of creators who already have large followings and who are interested in being led and formed by their bishops.

So now, diocesan folks whose eyes have glazed over and are seriously hoping I get to the point soon, this is where you need to focus:

How can you get to know the existing missionaries in your diocese? How can you build trust with them? What are the concrete steps you can take to start the work of forming these digital missionaries before the influencer ecosystem becomes the primary institution forming them?

Creators: How can you get to know your bishop? How can you get in contact with the people you need to get the access or formation you’re looking for?

Evangelization Lab actually has some answers there for you and we’d love to work with you on that! Reach out to me at katie@evangelizationlab.com and we will get you some resources, make some introductions, and get us all started on the path of evangelizing the digital continent together!

Saturday was the festival, open to the public and streamed to the whole world. What some people call Catholic influencers, but whom I know personally and know to be true digital missionaries, preached that God called them to evangelize online, not to do cosplay for the algorithm. Another one said the only social network that matters is the one that holds you when you fall. And another one said they don’t make content for followers, that they speak to souls.

Listeners, viewers, followers and community members (I never know what to call them) of these Catholic creators watched TikToks, lives, reels and stories and read carousels, posts and newsletters about the festival.

But the reason Hechos 29 has reached six editions (the first two years they where in my hometown, Monterrey, Mexico, then Lisbon during WYD, next year Bogota, Colombia and last year we had our Jubilee in Rome) is the five days that happen before Saturday that some miss.

Monday through Friday was not live-streamed and “the public” had no access. They were days of formation, prayer, discernment, daily Mass, and a lot of time in which the digital missionaries from more than twenty countries shared their struggles and temptations, and their frustrations with things they have done in the past or are doing now. Yes, these things were said out loud in a very open atmosphere.

Digital missionaries from all over the Spanish speaking world (LatAm, US and Spain) plus a few from Korea and Italy were in Costa Rica last week. Some were priests, others religious sisters, but most were laypeople, each one invited because of their trajectory, their commitment and the honesty of their missionary eagerness online, not because of reach or number of followers. Some have more than 500k followers. Others have 10k or 20,000.

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Also, besides all the spiritual moments and the formation and the accompaniment and the party and everything else, there was a day out of the building “touching grass,” being fully Catholic and responding to Matthew 25:35, serving people in the margins.

The Saturday festival has happened since the first edition, but it happens because of the days before it. There is no other way for it to happen, because the festival is not a celebrity or an influencer festival (although of course mistakes have been made and we have learned from them).

There was a lot of introspection and things there are not easy where admitted very publicly. A digital missionary from Spain said there that being on Christ’s mission online requires formation and maturity in the faith, and that faith without formation turns into sentimentality, or into ideology the moment we start presenting our own opinions as the teaching of the Church. What he shared was simple and could help everyone who wasn’t present: before you post something, hold your doubts and your content up against Scripture, the Magisterium, and what is actually known to be True by the Church.

A consecrated laywoman with more than 400k followers talked about the healing that online evangelizers themselves need, and named what damages this work from the inside: Comparison, the hunger for recognition, emptiness, the loss of intimacy with God, the pull toward making yourself the protagonist. The path she laid out were formation, accompaniment, prayer, and direct and constant exposure to Truth and Beauty.

A priest who has been behind a lot of the digital missionary work with the institutional Church in Argentina named three risks that come for everyone doing this: the search for approval, the comparison, and the character you slowly build in social media that isn’t quite you. But his answer wasn’t a strategy. It was simple, maybe too basic: keep learning from Jesus, and learn to stay next to people who are suffering. Fruitfulness, he said, is not visibility. So simple, yet so difficult…

As cool events happen and are being planned all over the world around Catholic creators, there is a temptation to copy the public parts of Hechos 29, be it the influencer and celebrity festival sort of thing or even formation conferences imparted to followers. If you ask me, that copies the wrong half. The public events are Instagrammable and for sure they can be fundable but although the closed week produces almost nothing visible, most of what happens there affects the digital missionaries very intimately and fuels them. It reignites a missionary ardor and their spiritual life.

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So if we focus on building only the public part, a crowd will for sure come and it will feel good, and don’t get me wrong, it can help a lot of people. I know, I know.

But what about the Catholic creators?

Are we helping them by only giving them more spotlight, now at an in-person event?

Catholic creators most probably won’t get formed if we only focus on the public events with their followings, because they are the ones doing the forming. They don’t get accompanied, because nobody has the planned and unplanned moments to share openly with others also on Christ’s mission online and to get to really know them, their struggles and their issues and their dreams. Also , nobody is sent.

That’s what an only public-facing event does’t do for a Catholic creator.

Since the beginning of Hechos things were clear. We knew the festival, or the public conference, is the fruit of a week of prayer, accompaniment and formation, not the reason creators are there.

Last minute, I wasn’t able to fly to Costa Rica (please pray for me!), but I still felt I needed to write about what happened, even though I didn’t live the week there.

I know the festival was not the focus, but it’s so easy to only see that, so I felt I needed to write this. I know the vast majority of creators who were at Hechos 29 don’t want to be influencers or celebrities. They are digital missionaries, or they really want to become one, which is why being on Christ’s mission and their role in it are clear to them.

For the vast majority of them it’s not about developing a “personal brand” and only doing things in alignment with it. It’s not about transactional relationships, seeing what they can get for doing something online and what new sponsor they’ll get to advertise their products or services. No no no. I’m telling you. Which I know, if you live in the U.S., sounds crazy, and you might think I am either lying or too naive.

So I publicly ask what I have been asking of the Church’s hierarchy (and a few Catholic leaders) behind closed doors: who is forming, accompanying, correcting and helping digital missionaries, and where does that happen?

I didn’t mention who else was there: Bishop Daniel Blanco, who leads the communication center of CELAM, the Latin American and Caribbean bishops. He has been accompanying and forming digital missionaries from all over the continent, more directly since we formed the network of digital missionaries accompanied by their bishops. Also, Msgr. Lucio Ruiz, Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication at the Holy See, was there the whole week, and other bishops were in and out of Hechos 29.

So apart from the bishops’ conferences that already have an office to accompany and form digital missionaries, and the dioceses that have one too, there are a lot of regional and local things happening in the continent where digital missionaries can meet in person and also be formed and accompanied by their bishops. It’s just that this is the week of the year when we all come together to get that fuel in a different way.

I know this has been all over the place, there is so much that could be said (some parts I will share in the following weeks), so let me see how to land this and finish it.

Yes, let’s have in-person events! Please!

Just be careful!!!!!!

Let’s look at what these events are and what they do to creators, and what they do to the people who follow them. It’s easy to fool ourselves, focus only on the shiny parts, and help them them end up as influencers or even celebrities. That’s why a lot of the work we do has to be quiet, not public, behind the scenes so to speak.

We need to pray for Catholic creators! A lot! God is using them! But there are lots of temptations they face. Spiritual life, formation and accompaniment are essential.

Also, please pray for the Church here in the U.S., especially for the bishops in their role as shepherds of Catholic influencers, Catholic celebrities and with those that are digital missionaries in their dioceses!

Please pray for us as we continue on our mission with the Institutional Church in all its levels as well as digital missionaries!

In addition to being boisterous, he also had some very interesting table manners. He considered “digging” in a tub of spreadable butter to be a serious offense. He sang “Here she is, Miss America!” whenever the last person arrived at breakfast. When there was ever a piece of something left on a grandkid’s plate he would hover his fork one centimeter above it and look them dead in the eye and say “You gonna eat that?” In an age of “You don’t get dessert if you don’t eat your dinner” this was his way of taking something off our plates.

So, diocesan comms directors, to channel my inner Earl Taulborg, picture me with my fork one centimeter away from your stack of requests to promote parish events. Look me in the eye.

You gonna eat that?

Didn’t think so. Let me take this off your plate. This week, I spoke with a diocesan head of digital media who has figured out something that I think the rest of us should steal. I do not want to spark competition, so I’ll keep her name and diocese under wraps. Let’s call her “Casey”. Casey won the game when she realized how much of her time was spent fielding requests from parishes to promote events on the diocese social media platforms and how little that type of promotion actually helps.

Let me give you some numbers. These are from my own diocese, not that of our friend discussed above. The Diocese has 234 followers on Instagram, 844 on Twitter (X 🙄), 4300 on Facebook. By way of contrast, my parish alone has 911 Instagram followers, 367 on Twitter, and 6300 on Facebook. Across all platforms, that means the parish has 41% more followers than the diocese. And keep in mind, social media isn’t a huge priority at this moment at my parish. And even still, it would do no good for the parish young adults ministry to be advertised on the Diocesan Instagram. Someone living on the other side of the diocese isn’t going to hoof it down to our neck of the woods on so slight a temptation as kickball. The people most likely to attend are already in our parish’s geographic orbit, and our parish already has the larger audience.

To put it bluntly, Casey realized the type of person following the diocesan social media is more likely to be a parish employee or a big fan of the bishop, not really a person looking for event information. This tracks in my diocese where a reel of the priest-seminarian baseball game is the best performing post of the last 3 years. People want to see their priests and bishops on the diocese socials. They look to their parishes for events. The diocese shouldn’t be trying to centralize parish communications, instead it should multiply them.

So, what did our Casey do instead? She shifted her sights to parish support. Instead of just being a bottle neck for parish events being posted, she empowered the parishes to use their own, far more substantial accounts. She saw herself as a servant to the parish comms people, not their director. She set up a Canva Pro for the whole diocese and reached out to teach the parishes how to use it. She looked at upcoming software changes that were sure to impact her parishes’ bulletins and she proactively reached out to coach them through a platform handover.

Basically, Casey looked for things that were causing the parishes heartache and she looked for solutions. She took things off their plates. Instead of mandating a style guide, expecting every parish secretary to know the difference between Helvetica and Arial, she set up the style elements for them in the Canva Pro brand guides. Simple tasks that took her a few hours to set up took tons of stress off of her parishes.

And what did that do for her relationships with them? She says the best part of some of these changes is that her parishes now trust her to be looking out for them. When she calls to offer help, it’s not received as a criticism but instead as genuine help from someone who cares. If the answer for something has to be “no”, it doesn’t feel like the diocese is just putting up roadblocks for no good reason.

So, Comms Directors, do you want to build this type of relationship with your parishes? Would you like to be in a support position rather than the bottle neck? Some of the things Casey did in her diocese were very simple changes that just might not have occurred to someone who hasn’t spent time in a digital space. That’s okay. That’s what we are here for.

Evangelization Lab is talking to diocesan communications directors around the country about what they have found that is working. A lot of us are having our time eaten up by the same tasks, and we don’t think every diocese needs to independently solve the same problems.

So, if you’re looking at a communications plate piled high with parish requests, software headaches, social media questions and tasks that probably aren’t really your job, give us a call. We can walk you through some of these things Casey did, or help you with solutions to what ails you.

For most people it was a pretty robust Facebook following, a few were dipping their toes into YouTube and Instagram. Some had huge plans for what they wanted to accomplish this year and others were struggling to know where to start.

This week’s Evangelization Lab Substack post is very simple: We want to talk to you comms people. One on one. We want to hear your ideas for digital mission and we want to help you make them into reality. And we mean that in an immediate and very urgent sense. So this article is extremely short.

Email me: katie@evangelizationlab.com. Lets set up a meeting this week and get your mission started. You’re not buying anything, we aren’t selling anything. We just want Jesus in every corner of the Internet and we want the institutional church there to guide people to the sacraments.

Email me. For real. Right now.

Contrariwise, some of us get really fussy about words that sound good, but we hate them because they are inaccurate. Chief among these words, I suspect, is “irregardless”. It’s not a word and if it was a word it would mean the opposite of how people use it. “Wary/weary”, “intensive purposes” the list goes on and on. For some of us, these malapropisms are worse than “moist” and “fart” put together, which I think we can all agree makes for a really gross combination.

For me, as an advocate for digital evangelization, the conflating of “Catholic Influencer” and “Digital Missionary” drives me up a wall. Especially (Expecially *smirk*) when people think that “Digital Missionary” is just a rebranding tool rather than a completely separate concept.

I’m nobody’s PR girl. Digital mission is different.

Like I mentioned last week, I got the opportunity to spend a week in July with traditional missionaries in Mexico. I talked to you about Antonio, one of the full time resident missionaries of General Cepeda, but I didn’t mention Madelyn, Faith, Dominic, Aleksandra, Miguel, Leann, Jessie and Marcos. They all live full time in General Cepeda also. Ordinary people who choose to live their lives among those they serve. Mostly by being a good example of Christian charity and being willing to learn the language and culture they moved into. Their missionary work isn’t flashy and most of them do not have first name recognition around the town, but they are knowable in the way the Christ tells us His disciples will be known: by their love.

While I was there, it was known that I work with digital missionaries. And the skepticism that one could be a digital missionary was understandable, given the context. But the question I was asked a few times was “Who is your favorite digital missionary?” I suspect they were looking for an answer like “Truth Charting” or “Hallow”, but the real answer is far less splashy.

Her name is Zoe.

I didn’t ask Zoe’s permission to talk about her in this article, and she would probably baulk at the idea that she is a digital missionary. So for that reason, I won’t give you her Twitter handle or anything like that. But if you’ve encountered her online you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say she’s the best example of a digital missionary.

Zoe is a regular person. She doesn’t have a YouTube channel, her Twitter (I will never call it X) following is under 3000, and she spends most of her tweets talking about baseball, hobbies she’s trying out and people she met that she finds beautiful. Sprinkled in there is her love of Jesus, the way she finds Christ in every day encounters. She pins the Pope’s monthly intention on her page and then tweets about tap dancing. She is one of the first people to offer prayers when one of her mutual followers is suffering. She remembers the things people are passionate about and tags them in where she thinks they will be interested. She’s never aggressive or hateful. She’s just a very normal human being that you can identify as Christian the same way you can identify the missionaries in General Cepeda: by her love.

Here at Evangelization Lab we love our papal quotes about the digital continent. The one I come back to most often is Pope Benedict XVI in the 45th World Communications Day message from 2011 “It follows that there exists a Christian way of being present in the digital world: this takes the form of a communication which is honest and open, responsible and respectful of others.”

There are tons of Catholic Influencers online, people whose paid profession involves making content that centers around Jesus. But when I think of what Pope Benedict was saying to us in that line, I can’t help but think he wasn’t talking to the huge Catholic Influencer accounts of the world but instead to each and every one of us. There are millions of Catholics online whether they are open about the faith or not.

But can anyone even tell? Can they be known the way Christ tells us they should be?

Scripture gives us a lot of ideas of what it means to represent the faith publicly:

1 Timothy 6:20 tells us to “avoid profane and idle chatter and the contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.”

In Colossians 3 Paul tells us as Christians we must put away anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene language.

In James 3 you can find “Jimmy”, as Martin Luther famously called him, basically begging us not to be public teachers but rather humble examples of Christ’s love. He tells us “Consider how a small fire can set a huge forest ablaze.” How one loose tongue can defile the whole body of Christ. The third chapter of James could just be a letter to Catholic Influencers, if you ask me.

But it’s not written to Zoe. She, and many like her online who take their baptismal call to mission seriously, are described by verse 17: “But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.” In other words the Christian way of being present in the digital world is the way of love.

This week I want to challenge everyone with an internet presence of any kind, myself included, to take seriously the promises of our baptism.

Every last one of us is a missionary online. The question is, how will they know us?

Having the word “influencers” in the title, and seeing what some Catholic influencers do and foster online, rubbed some people in the media and some Catholic circles the wrong way. If I wasn’t involved and didn’t know the context, I have no doubt I would also be critical (though never publicly, not my way of doing things) and suspicious of the reasons and objectives the Church has doing something like this.

That’s why I want to share this with you.

Some people who were not present don’t understand it yet. Others think they understand what happened there and criticize it without actually reading what was said, or asking attendees about their experience, or even asking the organizing team why we wanted to do it, why we proposed to Archbishop Fisichella that this Jubilee was needed, what our objectives were, what really happened during those days, and the fruits and challenges that followed.

This might help. But if it doesn’t, just send me a DM and we can hop on a Zoom or comment below and we’ll start a conversation.

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In order of appearance, below you’ll be able to read a quote or two (sometimes three) that most stood out to me from what was said those days from each of the people that was there and talked with us (including Pope Leo XIV, of course). But most importantly, there’s a link so you can go read each of the talks and homilies yourself. Some are very powerful. Others will for sure make you think and rethink some things.

As usual, the Holy Spirit most worked during the breaks, the prayer times, breaking bread together, and all those conversations in which hearts were full of love for Christ and a desire to go to the ends of the earth to make disciples of every nation. A lot of Catholic creators started to walk toward acting and being digital missionaries, I will go deeper into what I mean by that another time, but for now, let’s focus on what was said on stage.

*At the end you will be able to watch a (not so) brief video that might give you a sense of what happened there.

What was said

Just click on the underlined name to go read the address, presentation or homily:

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State

He opened the Jubilee by naming the digital world as an environment and a language rather than a tool, calling the Church to a posture of presence over strategy.

• “Every person is a face, not a profile; their history is a sacred history, not simply a collection of data.”

• “Digital technology has ceased to be just one tool among others... but has become a language, an environment, a way of inhabiting our world.”

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-Prefect for the New Evangelization, Dicastery for Evangelization

He reworked Paul VI’s line on witnesses versus teachers and made the case for silence as a precondition for listening.

• “Today’s world does not listen to influencers, but to witnesses; and if it listens to influencers, it is because they are witnesses.”

Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication

He built his talk around Pope Francis’s final examination of conscience, warning against turning community into an audience and audience into merchandise.

• “Never turn the community into an audience, nor the audience into merchandise, lest we ourselves become merchandise.”

• “Is our communication accompanied by prayer, or do we end up communicating the Church by adopting the logic of digital marketing?”

• “We must offer those who follow us and trust us an alternative, not a substitute: the truth of an encounter, the joy, not fleeting, of meeting Jesus who changed our lives.”

Msgr. Lucio A. Ruiz, Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication

I (jokingly) call him the grandfather of digital missionaries, and as such he offered seven points centering on digital mission as first proclamation that belongs to the whole Church, not the individual creator.

• “That ‘little proclamation’ that arrives in the right place at the right time.”

• “Let us not separate ourselves from our pastors or from the whole Church.”

• “We would have ‘won,’ but ‘God would have lost.’” (this was a truth bomb)

Fr. Antonio Spadaro, author of Cybertheology: Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet and Undersecretary for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education

He drew a hard line between content and fire, and between building a personal brand and being a blessing.

• “The Son of God did not make a post. He became man.”

• “You are not a brand. You are a blessing.”

• “I am not asking you to shine. I ask you to burn, which is different.”

Dr. Kim Daniels, coordinator of the Synod’s Study Group 3

Joining by video, she laid out the argument that the digital environment is a culture rather than just tells, requiring the same formation as any cross-cultural mission.

• “We are now living the preferential option for the poor in new ways.”

• “Leadership in the digital age is not merely about mastering new technologies, but about fostering a particular kind of culture, one that respects human dignity, promotes authentic encounter, and witnesses to the truth in love.”

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education

He named digital missionaries as cultural translators in the line of Saint Paul, and drew a distinction between chasing likes and building an Amen.

• “It’s about building together an ‘Amen,’ not a ‘like.’”

• “Digital missionaries and Catholic influencers are, fundamentally, the great translators of the Christian experience.”

• “We cannot give what we do not have.”

Cardinal José Cobo Cano, Archbishop of Madrid

Preaching at the Eucharistic adoration that Monday night I told you about, he described the internet as an immense square full of noise, and proposed three doors to open: hospitality, peace, and the Church.

• Internet is “A place where everyone talks, but few listen.”

• “It doesn’t matter if you have three followers or 300,000. What counts is not quantity, but hospitality, consistency, humility, and truth.”

• “The Holy Spirit also navigates the web.”

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization

He preached the homily at our Jubilee’s Mass on the feast of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he traced the word “influence” back to its Latin root and set it against the love of Christ.

• “Love cannot be generated by an algorithm. Only a divine person with a human heart can love divinely and humanly, effecting profound and enduring change.”

• God “did not send to us a text message or an email or a file document,” but sent His Son.

• “You are not only influencers but also missionaries.”

Pope Leo XIV

He entered St. Peter’s after the Jubilee Mass with three appeals for digital missionaries and Catholic influencers: proclaim peace, seek the suffering flesh of Christ online, and go mend the nets.

• “Peace be with you!”

• “Go and mend the nets.”

• “It is not simply a matter of generating content, but of creating an encounter of hearts.”

Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

He closed the formal talks with the light and salt image, and a direct instruction to seek and build real relationships with local bishops.

• “You can’t have light without salt or salt without light.”

• “Please go to your Bishops for the needed salt: meet them, converse with them, enter into communion with them.”

• Digital missionaries’ work as “Church action in light of the Gospel, and not merely a personal choice.”

Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, O.S.A.

Just before leading us into consecrating ourselves to Mary, the now Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity closed the Jubilee in the Vatican Gardens. He gave us four cardinal points for digital mission: humility, communion, dynamism, and creativity.

• “We have been invited to something greater than just being ‘on the net.’ We have been called to evangelize the whole world.”

• “We are not the center; Christ and his Gospel are.”

*Note I excluded the following from this index/guide: two panels (I only added the initial address of Dr. Kim Daniels at the Study Group 3 on the Mission in the Digital Environments’ panel, not what the members of SG3 said, and have nothing on the panel in which some digital missionaries share experiences, though I might transcribe what I said there and add it later), the very engaging activity led by Fr. David McCallum is also not here, what me and the other emcees said on stage, and of course all the times in which we asked the digital missionaries and Catholic influencers to get together in groups to share, dream and encourage each other.

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Other than some of us on the organizing team, no one there those days knew this was coming. Quite a surprise was waiting for the digital missionaries and the Catholic influencers, so when the Holy Father walked in after the Mass Cardinal Tagle celebrated, it was so cool to watch them get so excited.

He gave his address in Italian, Spanish, and English. When he was speaking in Spanish, he used the word redes, which, I am sorry but it just doesn’t translate well into English.

The word means the nets the first apostles were mending when Jesus called them, but it means networks as well, and it also means social media. So it’s one word with three meanings. So when you hear “go and mend the nets,” just think about what nets means in Romance languages and it makes much more sense.

Go and mend the nets (redes!), he told us (Katie’s favorite quote from his address). Why did he not ask us to go cast new ones? I don’t know about you, but thats what I instinctively want to do, it’s quite a temptation. But he told us: Mend the torn ones! We could go into a deep exegetical study of what this means today in our context. (It’s now on my long list of articles I should write.)

My favorite part was when he said: “It is not simply a matter of generating content, but of creating an encounter of hearts.” To us at the Evangelization Lab, this is essential.

He made three appeals to the digital missionaries and Catholic influencers: proclaim peace to the ends of the earth, look for the suffering flesh of Christ in whoever you meet online, and go mend the nets.

But please read the whole thing below. You can also watch the video from the moment he arrived, just after Mass.

Pope Leo XIV

Address to Catholic digital missionaries and influencers, St. Peters Basilica on Tuesday, 29 July 2025

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, peace be with you!

Dear brothers and sisters, we have begun with this greeting: peace be with you!

How much we need peace in these times marked by hostility and war, which in turn calls us to give witness to the greeting of the Risen Lord: “Peace be with you!” (Jn 20:19). May his peace be with all of us, in our hearts and in our actions.

This is the mission of the Church: to proclaim peace to the world! The peace that comes from the Lord, who conquered death, brings us God’s forgiveness, gives us the life of the Father, and shows us the way of Love!

1. This is the mission that the Church entrusts to each of you who have come to Rome for your Jubilee. You are here to renew your commitment to nourish Christian hope in social networks and online spaces. Peace needs to be sought, proclaimed, and shared everywhere, both in the places where we see the tragedy of war and in the empty hearts of those who have lost the meaning of life and the desire for introspection and the spiritual life. Perhaps, today more than ever, we need missionary disciples who convey the gift of the Risen Lord to the world; who voice to the ends of the earth the hope that Jesus gives us (cf. Acts 1:3-8); and who go wherever there is a heart that waits, seeks, and is in need. Yes, to the ends of the earth, to the farthest reaches, where there is no hope.

2. There is a second challenge in this mission: always look for the “suffering flesh of Christ” in every brother and sister you encounter online. Today we find ourselves in a new culture, deeply characterized and formed by technology. It is up to us – it is up to each one of you – to ensure that this culture remains human.

Science and technology influence the way we live in the world, even affecting how we understand ourselves and how we relate to God, how we relate to one another. But nothing that comes from man and his creativity should be used to undermine the dignity of others. Our mission – your mission – is to nurture a culture of Christian humanism, and to do so together. This is the beauty of the “network” for all of us.

Faced with cultural changes throughout history, the Church has never remained passive; she has always sought to illuminate every age with the light and hope of Christ by discerning good from evil and what was good from what needed to be changed, transformed, and purified.

Today we are in a culture where the technological dimension is present in almost everything, especially as the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence will mark a new era in the lives of individuals and society as a whole. This is a challenge that we must face: reflecting on the authenticity of our witness, on our ability to listen and speak, and on our capacity to understand and to be understood. We have a duty to work together to develop a way of thinking, to develop a language, of our time, that gives voice to Love.

It is not simply a matter of generating content, but of creating an encounter of hearts. This will entail seeking out those who suffer, those who need to know the Lord, so that they may heal their wounds, get back on their feet and find meaning in their lives. Above all, this process begins with accepting our own poverty, letting go of all pretense and recognizing our own inherent need for the Gospel. And this process is a communal endeavor.

3. This brings us to the third invitation in this mission, which I extend to all of you: “go and mend the nets.” Jesus called his first apostles while they were mending their fishing nets (cf. Mt 4:21-22). He asks the same of us today. Indeed, he asks us to weave other nets: networks of relationships, of love, of gratuitous sharing where friendship is profound and authentic; networks where we can mend what has been broken, heal from loneliness, not focus on the number of followers, but experience the greatness of infinite Love in every encounter; networks that give space to others more than to ourselves, where no “bubble” can silence the voices of the weakest; networks that liberate and save; networks that help us rediscover the beauty of looking into each other’s eyes; networks of truth. In this way, every story of shared goodness will be a knot in a single, immense network: the network of networks, the network of God.

Be agents of communion, capable of breaking down the logic of division and polarization, of individualism and egocentrism. Centre yourselves on Christ, so as to overcome the logic of the world, of fake news, of frivolity, with the beauty and light of Truth (cf. Jn 8:31-32).

Before concluding with a blessing and commending your witness to the Lord, I would like to thank you for all the good you have done and continue to do in your lives: for pursuing your dreams, for your love for the Lord Jesus and your love for the Church, for the help you give to those who suffer, and for your journey along the virtual highways.

His four cardinal points can be used as a very practical framework to Catholic creators that want to be digital missionaries:

• Humility as an attitude

• Communion as a duty

• Dynamism as a style

• Creativity as a challenge.

I love how we can can dive deep into each one getting both theological and very hands on. It was a short but sweet talk just after walking up in the Vatican Gardens in a very very hot Roman day, before the consecration to Our Lady and before the Catholic Influencers Festival we hosted at the Piazza di Risorgimento. Quite a day we had!

12. H.E. Msgr. Luis Marín de San Martín, O.S.A.

Marian Consecration Vatican Gardens, Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Dear friends,

I am very happy to be here with you, digital missionaries and Catholic influencers, to consecrate the digital mission to our Mother Mary Most Holy, in the Jubilee of Hope.

First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude. Thank you, dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, for your generous and not always easy commitment; for your courage that knows difficulty but also possibility; for going to Christ who is ever new and for bringing Christ in a new way. Apostles of today, navigators of the Spirit, explorers of the digital continent, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Today, on this afternoon in the Vatican, after these intense days, we entrust our projects to Mary, asking her to guide our presence in the digital world. She knows how to do this very well.

During the Vigil with Young People in Panama in 2019, Pope Francis conferred on Mary the title of “influencer of God.” Because “without wanting or trying to, she became the most influential woman in history.” She involved herself to the point of becoming the guardian and witness of the divine message, the Word.

What does she say to us today? Allow me to offer a summary that comes simply from my heart and seeks your hearts. The message is very clear, precise, and concrete. I would like to share with you the four “cardinal points” of our service.

1. Humility as an attitude.

Let us say it once again: we are not the center; Christ and his Gospel are. Our task is to seek followers not for ourselves but for Christ. Therefore, we must fill ourselves with Christ, open ourselves to the Spirit, and know God. The Christian influencer prays, meditates on Sacred Scripture, and becomes a true friend of the Lord. Only if he carries Christ in his heart can he bear witness to him in his life.

2. Communion as a duty.

Unity with Christ brings the Virgin Mary to unity with the body of Christ, with the Church, that is, with all Christians. We can highlight Mary’s sensitivity towards others. Pope Leo XIV asked us influencers and digital missionaries, in such a polarized world, to create communion, not division. To offer kindness, never aggression; welcome, never discrimination; fraternity, never hatred. We must overcome sad ideologization and highlight the centrality of love. This is Jesus’ new mandate and the identifying reality of Christians. But let us not forget: the Kingdom of love has no boundaries.

3. Dynamism as a style.

Christians think big and look high and far. This is what Mary did after the Annunciation and before Pentecost. The Holy Spirit guides us, transforms us, and pushes us forward. Let us open ourselves to the risk of the Spirit. Digital missionaries, Catholic influencers, we must go beyond fears, routines, and conformity. Christ asks us to evangelize, not just to inform or communicate. Evangelize knowing that the Truth is not an idea or a mandate, a strategy or an activity, but a living Person––the only one who fills us with light and gives us meaning.

4. Creativity as a challenge.

Certainly. We need to read the signs of the times, open ourselves to new languages, new presences, new realities. Mary did this, for example, at the Wedding at Cana. Let us not repeat outdated recipes or failed remedies. Never conform, never get used to mediocrity, never sink into pessimism. Always move forward, always restless, with inventiveness, with vitality. And if possible, with enthusiasm. We have been invited to something greater than just being “on the net.” We have been called to evangelize the whole world, and therefore we place ourselves decisively at the forefront of the Church.

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May Mary Most Holy, our Mother, a strong and tender woman, attentive and serene, meek and courageous, guide us on this path, full of hope. We consecrate ourselves to her, we place ourselves in her hands, we entrust ourselves to her intercession.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church, remain always with us. Amen.

These are not the demands of a digital missionary, that’s for sure. But in all that time of prayer I realized that I may be wrong about something. See, I have spent the better part of 3 years encouraging Catholics to stop making content for other Catholics online. I have told a lot of people that mission work is for the uninitiated, not the baptized. Now, I’m not so sure.

General Cepeda changed something for me.

The missionaries there are almost entirely speaking to Catholics. Broken ones. Fallen away ones. Catholics living with shame. Catholics who have been disconnected from the Eucharist, from the sacraments and the life of the Church. I heard countless stories of single mothers who “couldn’t” come to the church because of their state in life. I watched missionaries pray with the fathers of drug addicted sons for whom the shame was just too great. They weren’t converting atheists, they were holding the hands of the baptized.

Sarah Granger is a rockstar in General Cepeda. She grew up in the house I spent the last week in. She was in and out, going to various mission locations with her parents, going to college etc. But she always returned to General. Even as a single mom with her three kids.

You can’t take 3 steps out of the mission house in General before someone asks if you know “Sarita”. “Little Sarah” as this 50 year old woman is called around town, is famous for her killer smile and incredible prayer life. I once had the incredible privilege of having Sarah pray over me in a loud and very crowded bar. The lady will pray anywhere for anything.

Including Antonio.

This article is about Antonio, remember?

Antonio was born and raised in General Cepeda. He’s one of those 78% of Mexicans who are Catholic but also the 79% who were away from the sacraments. He described himself as an angry young man in his younger years, always spoiling for a fight. He took a job at the Presidencia next door to the mission house when Sarah was serving there with her first three kids. Sarah invited Antonio to a Bible study every day as he waited to be let into his job. He literally started avoiding her, took the long way around the plaza to keep out of her eyeline. But the Holy Spirit is wild and kept putting Sarah in Antonio’s way until finally he felt like he had to bring his wife to the Bible study just so he could get Sarah off his back.

Antonio and his wife Mari, their two kids at the time and Sarah’s family studied the Bible together, sang worship songs in Spanish. The one time appearance meant to appease Sarah turned into a years long relationship that brought Antonio and Mari back to the sacraments. That was 20 years ago. Since then, Sarah has been called away.

But Antonio and Mari live in General. Their encounter with Sarah taught them that they were called to be missionaries where they live. And it wasn’t exactly an easy choice, Antonio was not naturally charismatic. He questioned God’s will for him, he was not at all convinced that God really wanted him to quit his job and become a missionary. He did that very silly thing we all do where we say “God if this is really what you want, give me a sign.”

He got fired that day.

And instead of being upset Mari responded “well, it’s God’s will! Here we go!” and they started work as full time missionaries, completely dependent on the generosity of benefactors in order to keep a roof over their head and food on the table for their now 8 kids.

Antonio and Mari’s days aren’t as slow as the mission tripper’s. They go door to door with bags of supplies. Mari and her daughters sing praise songs in the ranchos outside of town while Antonio preaches to the people who live there. He helps the parish priest at St. Francis of Assisi parish as a catechist and eucharistic minister. He is authorized by the Bishop of Saltillo to expose our Lord in the Eucharist for the missionaries to spend a nightly hour of adoration together.

And he never leaves, because General Cepeda is his home.

You might be asking yourself, what’s this got to do with digital mission? I’m getting there I promise. You see, Sarah Granger is the rock star. She is the name everyone around town knows, she and her family and other FMC missionaries have created a path back to the sacraments for the baptized around General. But Sarah didn’t build followers. She built more missionaries.

I think this is the call of the digital missionary. The view counts do not matter. It’s the Antonio count that matters. We are called to equip our followers. We need to use our platforms, our personalities and even the algorithm itself to create people on fire for Christ. People who want to invite their neighbors to come to adoration with them. Digital missionaries can be rock stars, Sarah certainly is, but the point is that they have to be contagious rock stars with an infectious love of Christ who inspires others to action.

At Evangelization Lab we have been doing research into digital converts, people who credit their choice to convert to digital catechesis. I personally get to conduct the qualitative interview with these folks. Time and time again the story is the same: a video caught their attention, then they turned to the most joyful Catholic they knew. For some people it was a coworker. In my case it was a single mom I knew from a local moms group. It’s average broken people who had the guts to be known as Catholics. It’s Antonios.

So, creators, how are you equipping your followers? Have you shown them how to share the gospel? Have you taught them to look for easy entry points to Christian community? Have you sent them specifically to perform the works of mercy where they are?

I wasn’t wrong that creators should stop talking to each other online. I was wrong about the audience. The audience isn’t just non-Catholics. It’s Catholics who love their neighbors enough to invite them home.

Digital missionaries are called to be creators. So go create some more missionaries.

If you’re interested in foreign missions or would like to check out a mission trip, check out Family Missions Company

We bring the light, the reach into corners of the digital continent the institutional Church could never reach alone. The Church brings the salt, the permanence that keeps our light from becoming one more flicker in an endless feed.

He told each one of us to get in touch with our own bishop as soon as we were back (he did not say it metaphorically.) He asked us to reach out, to say hello and introduce ourselves. And he also asked the bishops to welcome digital missionaries and ask about their joys and their hopes. These last years I have had many conversations around this point with him and how this changes everything at a local level and opens up a new way of seeing the internet and what digital missionaries do in dioceses, but also helps digital missionaries see themselves as part of their local Church as they evangelize not to themselves but to the Church. It also reminds them they have a shepherd and it starts a relationship with him. Which is why this is something we at the Evangelization Lab have as essential and we do in Dallas and are about to start helping both digital missionaries and bishops get to know each other all over the U.S..

11. Card. Michael Czerny

Conciliazione Auditorium, Tuesday, 29 July 2025

As you are concluding your Jubilee, I am happy to address you, dear Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, you here in Rome and those online everywhere. Let me re-read a bit of Matthew’s Gospel:

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.”

Now let’s see how the Lord addresses you. When Jesus saw you here, he went up a hill, the Vatican Hill – the name is associated with the Latin verb “vaticinari”, which means, “very appropriately, to prophesy”, a hill of prophecy.

After Jesus sat down, you came to him from all over, and he began to teach you, saying: “You are the light of the world.” Light is communication, illumination, inspiration, comfort and orientation. To this you say, “Yes!”, for with all your gifts, talents and competences, you bring light to every corner of the digital continent, even some very dark ones.

And then Jesus spoke again, speaking now of the Church: “You are the salt of the earth.” Salt is permanence, solidity, conservation, value. We even say: “rock salt” (salgemma), reminding us of Peter the rock upon which Jesus builds his Church. Salt symbolizes the Church, the real body of Christ here upon the earth, down through the ages and everywhere in the world.

Now this is the great grace of this Jubilee for us, brothers and sisters: Jesus is speaking of both light and salt, and if a mission and ministry is to be really Catholic, really Christian, really fruitful, you can’t have light without salt or salt without light.

Without your gifts of light, the Church is not going to reach people dwelling on the digital continent or in the digital space and be the real salt of Christ for them, Salt without light can be lifeless, restricted, inflexible, static and sterile. A Church which is too much salt remains inert, parochial, stuck, no longer struggling to enculturate the Gospel in the cultures of today and tomorrow. Jesus doesn’t want his Church to just cling to being salty. The Church cannot do without the light of your creative evangelization and active ministries.

At the same time, you need the Church for your ministry to be real, incarnate. For light by itself can be merely novel, shiny but superficial, passing, impermanent, vanishing, empty. Digital missionaries and Catholic Influencers need the Church to be salty, to be real missionaries, to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15) as Christ missioned us to do. The cornerstones of this real, historical Church are the apostles, and their successors are the Bishops. You missionaries and influencers cannot do without the salt of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Please go to your Bishops for the needed salt: meet them, converse with them, enter into communion with them.

This great double grace of light and salt, I experienced when the digital mission was “born” at the Synod over the past few years.

The first session of the Synod began with influencers, ministers and missionaries who seemed scattered all over and were waiting to be recognized so as to get on with “the evangelization of the digital environment” (FD 58). And the second session ended with the emerging digital mission which this Jubilee celebrates. Let’s thank God that the Synod embraced the discovery, challenges and promise of the digital mission in the Catholic Church.

The Synod’s Final Document speaks to you, dear Influencers and Missionaries, as Christians engaged in the evangelization of the digital environment and so involved in developing cultures inspired by the Gospel (cfr. 58). [The FD recognizes that] you are asking the Church not to abandon you, but rather to enable you to feel that you are sent and sustained in mission. You are asking to be nourished by the bread of the Word and the Eucharist, as well as by the familial bonds of community. You ask that your commitment be recognized for what it is: Church action in light of the Gospel, and not merely a personal choice. Lastly, you ask the community to accompany those who, through your witness [and ministry], are being drawn to the Gospel. In a missionary synodal Church, under the leadership of our pastors, communities will be able to send you out in mission and support you (cfr. 59).

So, dear brothers and sisters – ministers, evangelizers, missionaries, influencers – please reach out to your Bishop, your Parish Priest: say hello, introduce yourself, explain a bit, start to listen, share the light …

Dear Bishops, priests and sisters – please welcome the influencers and missionaries who approach you or reach out to them yourself. Express interest in what they are doing, listen to their joys and hopes, their griefs and anxieties (Gaudium et Spes, 1), move together towards communion, towards salt for the digital mission.

So, upon the Vatican hill, Jesus addresses you prophetically, asking you to help bring both light and salt together. May this great grace accompany, console and strengthen each of you.

The question is which stars we let flow into us.

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He told us what happens when the wrong stars are the source: false advertising, election bribery, blackmail, coercion, war. Then he pivoted to the true source: God who is Love, who did not send a text message or an email, but sent His Son, the Word made flesh. Love cannot be generated by an algorithm, he very clearly told us.

He also gave us Martha, Mary, and Lazarus as three models of influence:

• the zealous influencer who serves,

• the listening influencer who sits at the Lord’s feet, and

• Lazarus, who simply hears the voice that calls him out of the tomb.

Three very different postures that are no performative.

10. Card. Luis Antonio Tagle

Homily (1 Jn 4,7-16; Jn 11,19-27) Saint Peter’s Basilica, Tuesday, 29 July 2025

We thank and praise the Lord who has gathered us as His community at the Table of the Eucharist. The jubilee invites you, digital missionaries and Catholic influencers, to become pilgrims of hope.

What is influence? Influence usually refers to the capacity or power to affect or to change someone or something. According to some experts, the Middle English word influence came from the Latin influere (to flow in) since the word influence used to refer to a fluid believed to flow from the stars to cause people to behave in a particular way. We can say that influencers are a type of fluid flowing from some stars. But which stars?

We must remember that to influence and to be influenced are a fact of ordinary life. Daily life is a tapestry of crisscrossing influences. To name a few, we think of the family, the neighborhood, the school, the government, the farmers, the hospitals, the police, the arts, culture and work that constantly influence us and society, as we also influence them. The degradation of family, community, education, government, agriculture, health care, security, the arts, culture and work also influence the type of people and society we are, as they are effects of our influence on them. As we influence, we are also influenced. As the earth and the environment affect us, our activity affects the planet as well.

The Jubilee invites us to scrutinize the intention that fuels the influence our contemporary world wants to effect. The change we desire is often connected to the means we use to influence people and situations. Let us give some examples. To influence consumers so that monetary profit may increase, some manufacturers resort to false advertising, even using famous personalities. To influence the results of political elections, some candidates bribe the voters, while destroying the reputation of their opponents. To influence persons or organizations to accept a financial deal, some threaten them with blackmail. To influence people to embrace their beliefs and ideology, some use coercion and brainwashing. To influence their enemies into submission, some powerful persons and nations resort to war, bombing, and forced starvation. We see, smell and touch poisonous fluids or influence flowing from dangerous stars. Be discerning, brothers and sisters. Using harmful fluids or influence should not happen with you. You are not only influencers but also missionaries.

It is providential that we are celebrating this Jubilee Mass on the memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus, a family of friends of Jesus. Who influenced them? How were they influenced to become the friends and saints that they are? Our readings provide the answers.

Saint John declares in the first reading, that the Great Influencer is God who is Love. To effect the transformation, renewal, sanctification and salvation of humanity through love, God did not send to us a text message or an email or a file document. Rather God sent His Son, the Word of God who became human so we might have life (1 Jn 4,9-10). The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1,14). Jesus is not a face or voice generated by a digital program. He is the image of the Invisible God, the first-born of all creation (Col 1,15). Love cannot be generated by an algorithm. Only a divine person with a human heart can love divinely and humanly, effecting profound and enduring change. Saint John then encourages us to allow God’s love in Jesus to influence us so we could be changed into loving persons. As we have been loved, so we should love one another. As we have been influenced by God’s love, so should we influence others through God’s love. It is by loving that God remains in us and we in God: a never ending influence propelled by divine and human love (1 Jn 4,11-12). I pose this question: will we let the water and blood of Jesus poured for love for us to be the true “fluid” of influence that will wash away all iniquity, falsehood, injustice, prejudice, manipulation and violence? Dear missionary influencers, let the love of God in Jesus and the Holy Spirit prevent various poisonous influences from flowing into human hearts and societies.

Finally let us learn from Martha, Mary and Lazarus. They welcomed Jesus as a guest and friend into their house, indeed into their lives. Jesus was the great influence and influencer of this family. When Jesus interrupts his journey to stay in their house, Martha, set on fire, prepares the best food and rest for Him (Lk 10,38-40). When you welcome Jesus in your life, you will be a zealous influencer. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus to listen to His words (Lk 10,39). Jesus influences her into becoming a disciple. When you welcome Jesus in your life, you will be an influencer who listens to Jesus’ word and acts on it. Lazarus becomes the sign of the glory of the Resurrection. It is said that the last of the five senses to fade when someone dies is hearing. Lazarus has been dead for four days already when Jesus calls him, “Lazarus, come out!” He comes out. He hears, he is alive (Jn 11,43). The beloved friend for whom Jesus weeps hears His voice.

When you welcome Jesus, you will be an influencer bringing Jesus’ voice so people could get out of their tombs. Loved by Jesus, they believe in Jesus. Martha expresses her intimate knowledge of Jesus, a confession of faith based on love: “I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world” (Jn 11,27). Martha, Mary and Lazarus can be models for us of a missionary influencer. Influenced, transformed and saved by the love of Jesus, they proclaim Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God who is coming, who is “flowing into” the world. Dear digital missionaries and Catholic influencers, Jesus loves you. Do not doubt it. Through you, may the person of Jesus influence many people, human and digital spaces so God’s truth, justice, love and peace may flow to the ends of the earth! May the love of Jesus constantly flow into us through Mary, Star of Evangelization.

He described the digital world as an immense square, full of people who cannot be seen, where everyone talks but few listen. I couldn’t agree more with him. He proposed three doors: hospitality, peace, and opening the doors of the Church.

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He with a line from Dumbledore (yes, the magician headmaster of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts): “it is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

09. Card. José Cobo Cano

Homily at Eucharistic Adoration and Penitential Liturgy Saint Peter’s Basilica, Monday, 28 July 2025

Dear brothers and sisters, communicators of the Kingdom in the digital world:

Tonight, Jesus himself gathers us here, in the heart of the Church, in Rome. Jesus took great pains to seek out each of his disciples. He sought out Mary Magdalene, Peter, John, and those who were walking disappointed and aimless along the paths of life. Jesus became one more traveler to teach us how to proclaim the Gospel and to tell us that he always seeks us and rescues us.

1. Peter, one of those rescued by Jesus when he was trying to escape by another route, is said to have returned to this place. He was not a senator, a philosopher, or a general. He brought only one piece of news: the Nazarene had conquered death and rescues us on the paths of life.

And so, in the heart of the Empire, where wars were decided and statues and obelisks of power were erected, a new message began to emerge: a different Kingdom, without armies, without borders, without coins engraved with the faces of emperors.

Peter did not come alone. He came with the power of the Spirit, with the living memory of the Master, with a community that supported him, and with the certainty that love is stronger than fear. And with the experience that the Church is born from the encounter with Jesus on the paths of life. He only asks us to listen, to let him light our hearts, and to invite him into our homes.

Rome was not chosen by chance. It was the crossroads of all roads. From there, the Good News would spread to the east and west, north and south. And the Church of Rome took on the role of guarding unity, of keeping the flame of the Gospel alive in the midst of storms.

And that same Church, even with its wounds, even with its mistakes, is what brings us together tonight. We are called by Christ to walk and proclaim together what Peter proclaimed centuries ago in the streets of the Empire: “Jesus is alive. And his Kingdom will have no end.”

It is true that the world has changed a lot. We live in a reality where each person carries a window to the world in their pocket. Words travel faster than thoughts, and images shape emotions before questions arise.

Right now, the digital world is a huge square.

It is full of people who cannot be seen. A place where everyone talks, but few listen. Where many shout, and others simply come and go. It’s like a city that never sleeps.

Every second, thoughts are published, images are edited, lives are judged, half-truths are sold, pain is trivialized, and the ephemeral goes viral.

In this digital continent, there is also beauty. Yes: There are young people who share their faith with creativity. There are communities that pray together via streaming. There are podcasts that offer more comfort than some sermons. There is a thirst for meaning disguised as likes. There are profound searches behind superficial questions.

But there is also noise. A lot of noise. The noise of vanity disguised as authenticity. The noise of hatred made viral in seconds. The noise of filters that cover up so much that they no longer allow the truth to be seen. The noise of haste that prevents encounters.

And in the midst of all that... there you are. And there we are, each one of us, travelers to Emmaus:

The communicator. The sower of meaning. The narrator of the Kingdom in the digital world. The one who has understood that evangelizing is not just repeating doctrines, but building bridges, provoking questions, showing beauty, touching hearts.

Pope Francis reminded us forcefully: it is not a matter of conquering spaces, but of initiating processes (cf. EG 223).

And you can start them with an image, a story, a tender response, a silence at the right moment, a word that seeks not likes but light.

The internet can be a trap, yes. But it can also be a place of grace.

Where God makes himself present, not with likes, but with faces that are waiting for something more. Not with emotions, but with encounters. Not with followers, but with disciples.

2. Your presence here and your desire to go forth from our Church are the reasons for which Christ continues to walk on digital paths, offering a living word, an incarnate presence, also on the internet.

To narrate hope, to ask what people are talking about along the way, is already to sow it. That is to communicate as Christians: to sow hope in the digital desert, to be light in the darkness, to be hope for the poor and vulnerable, where sometimes only scandal, controversy, or applause are sought. But you, who believe with faith, can make the Gospel contagious.

We are called to walk and invite Jesus into this digital world: “Stay with us,” we say to him now. It doesn’t matter if you have three followers or 300,000. What counts is not quantity, but hospitality, consistency, humility, and truth.

The important thing is to know that Jesus seeks us and chooses us for this mission. Only then can we feel that we are sent to tell what He does in us.

If we are here on the digital paths, it is because we have been chosen. And we can only respond to the vocation we have received by walking in prayer and community discernment.

Do not forget this. These are the two sides of the same communication that we place before the Lord tonight as He becomes the Eucharist: listening to the Lord, and discernment—which goes hand in hand with welcoming the pilgrim: hospitality and walking together.

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities,” said Dumbledore in “Harry Potter.” What matters is where we communicate from, our underlying decisions and vocations. Only then will we be sent to leave the mark of Christ’s love alive in his Church. It is about being known for what we sow, for the love, faith, and hope we transmit, and in whose name we go.

Because if you truly love and are sent by your Church, your words will be full of the Gospel, even if you don’t mention it.

3. We only need to enter the inn with Jesus, recognize him, and return to Jerusalem, where our brothers and sisters are gathered in diversity. That is why I encourage you today to open three doors to Jesus to invite him in and say to him, “Stay with us.”

a. Open the door of hospitality. Invite Jesus to welcome everyone, with their concerns and difficulties. Especially the most needy and poor, whom he always prefers.

Like Jesus, we must invite pilgrims and speak to them not from our heads, but from our hearts. This is how Jesus acts.

The poor, the weak, those who are lying on the roadsides are also waiting for us to take them to safe lodgings, as the Good Samaritan did.

Do not forget to be the voice of the poor in a world where only the powerful have a voice! Do not forget to be the voice of the victims of violence and thus be instruments of the Lord’s peace!

Because it is easy to fall into digital vanity: measuring value by “likes,” living by numbers. But God’s measure is different. In his eyes, a heart touched by the beatitudes is worth more than a thousand empty views.

b. Open the door to peace, dialogue, and the sharing of experiences. We are called to be lights of the Gospel and at its service: to be a living presence, not a spectacle.

We want to give priority to actions that generate new dynamism in society and involve other people and groups (cf. EG 223). Evangelizing is not about producing perfect content, but about allowing ourselves to be encountered by those who need a living word.

Today we need that living word to inspire voices of peace and reconciliation in our world: here, in Gaza, in Ukraine, and in so many corners of the world where human dignity is displaced by other interests. You, from your experience of going to Jerusalem, like those of Emmaus, participate in that mission.

c. Open the door of the Church in everything we do. We are not alone.

Evangelizing in the digital world is not an individual effort. We are a body. We need each other. We need to pray together, correct each other, share resources, and help each other in the temptation of the ego. We need to work in an ecclesial network. It is not a matter of winning debates, but of opening windows to the Gospel discerned in ecclesial community.

Dear evangelizers: God has touched your hearts so that love, lived ecclesially, may be your language. May this prayer lead you to walk and open doors.

You who record videos in your room. You who edit prayers for young people. You who pray for those who evangelize online. You who want to make visible what is silenced and hurts. You who delve deeply into controversies and do not fuel confrontation.

You too are called to this broad and communal “We,” called to give light and to recognize those who break bread before us. And even if you don’t see whom you are illuminating, your light matters. Don’t stop shining it, because in this ocean of pixels, God continues to seek hearts that burn to reflect his warmth in the lamp of the Church.

In this sea, God continues to ask not for lonely little boats, but for bold and humble sailors who, with their skills, help the boat of the Church to navigate our world with the light of Christ. “As significant as personal witness is community witness. A welcoming and open community of witnesses, capable of accompanying those who approach Christ, has much more strength and impact in evangelizing on the Internet than isolated personal projects.”

And yes, with us, the Holy Spirit also navigates the web.

He didn’t say broadcaster, creators, or even influencers. He said translators, which is someone who knows the two languages fluently and who has to be trusted by speakers (and the receivers or listeners) of both. This has several layers to what it can mean for us as it reframes digital ministry in interesting ways.

He also told us its about building together an “Amen,” not a “like.” Which if you ask me is basically the distinction between chasing engagement and actually leading someone toward assent: Thy will be done. He also talked about why charisma has to be carefully tied with formation, because charisma without formation cannot give what it does not have, so it can be dangerous. He left us with lots of things we need to ask ourselves as a Church on regards to the formation of digital missionaries.

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08. Card. José Tolentino de Mendonça

Conciliazione Auditorium, Monday, 28 July 2025

A warm greeting to all digital missionaries and Catholic influencers.

It is a great honor for me to be able to personally and informally address you, to highlight how important your mission is.

Today, in this time of epochal change, Christianity needs mediation, it needs cultural translators. Digital missionaries and Catholic influencers are, fundamentally, the great translators of the Christian experience.

I am reminded of the moment of transition between the historical Jesus and the early Church when, for example, a man like Saint Paul took the testimony of Jesus – who had carried out his messianic action in a much smaller, Palestinian, rural context, limited in geo-cultural terms – and felt a deep, vocational call, similar to yours. Paul felt the need to bring this message to the cosmopolitan world of the time, that of the Greco-Roman cities, which were the great cultural centers of the era.

You too feel the same call: to carry out a similar mission. Paul invented new concepts; he translated the evangelical language and, above all, the Christian experience, in a way his contemporaries could understand.

Paul’s speech in Athens, recounted by Saint Luke, addressed to the philosophers of the time, describes that great megalopolis that was ancient Athens and highlights the possible points of contact with that culture and that world. It is undoubtedly a paradigm of dialogue that you today, two thousand years later, are replicating. And that is something extraordinary.

You are a true blessing for the Church, because you have this mission: as Pope Francis said, to “build bridges” – cultural bridges, religious bridges, bridges of spirituality.

And if we believe that every human being has a moment to encounter God, an occasion to cross paths with God at any time in their story, then you are contributing, supporting, and in a certain way hastening – and in a beautiful way – that encounter between God and the contemporary world, with the men and women of our time.

Jesus entrusted His followers with this mandate: “cast the nets.” It is very interesting how Peter responds to this challenge, because, in that Gospel passage you all remember, Peter not only casts the nets, but throws himself into the sea as well. And this is precisely the challenge: to fully immerse oneself in this new reality.

It is a great challenge, because in order to transmit we must fully understand the complexity of contemporary culture. And what the Church expects from you, dearest missionaries and influencers, is a detailed knowledge of today’s world, an ability to listen to this complex reality, and then a competence to engage in dialogue.

A new world is opening up. If in past ages Christianity always gave “new worlds” to the world, today, before this great emerging digital continent, the strength of Christianity and of Christians – who are “the salt [of the earth] and light of the world” – is precisely this: to give new worlds to the world.

A very significant aspect of your mission is to ensure that your presence in the digital world is true evangelization. This is not about creating forms of entertainment. The word “entertainment” is interesting, because it means to hold attention, to capture it, but we do not want to capture attention needlessly. This is not a race for “likes,” not a search for easy popularity: it’s about building together an “Amen,” not a “like.” An “Amen,” that is, a “so be it,” “thy will be done,” so that what happens is as God wills. In this lies the true spirit of evangelization.

For this, charisma is certainly important. Because communicators, in order to carry this out, must have passion, charisma, and the assistance of the Holy Spirit: only then is it possible to communicate in an impactful way, capable of touching and making hearts burn. This is the charismatic dimension, and it is fundamental. You are truly extraordinary, digital missionaries and influencers: you have this spiritual capacity.

But charisma must be accompanied by formation. We cannot give what we do not have. That is why it is so important, for a digital missionary and a Catholic influencer, to be formed: because the better the formation, the greater the capacity for a quality intervention, capable of touching in the right way, with a message suited to the Church’s needs and faithful to her nature. This is the great challenge today: not only to see many emerging missionaries and influencers, but also that formation becomes the strengthening, support, and nourishment of that extraordinary presence you are developing.

My message, therefore, is one of great encouragement. We need your mission. The Church needs you, so that you may help all of us generate hope.

I think often of what Mary did and represented in the history of salvation: Mary helped to generate God, she conspired – we could say – to the birth of God into history. And I believe that this task of the Most Holy Mary is also the task of the Church and of Christians, of digital missionaries and Catholic influencers: to generate God, that is, to make the idea of God present in the lives of our contemporaries.

May God bless you all, grant you great missionary joy and the certainty of doing good, bringing Jesus into the heart of our time.

Thank you all!

She was the coordinator of the Synod’s Study Group 3 on the Church’s Mission in the Digital Environment, and she focused on four points: the digital environment as a change of epoch, communication that gathers the voices of the voiceless, digital mission as requiring the same formation as any cross-cultural ministry, and digital spaces as a natural home for synodality itself: listening, participation, shared responsibility.

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She went even further by say digital outreach os a new expression of the preferential option for the poor. I had never heard it framed like that before, and I think it can give real theological weight to this missionary work, which sometimes gets dismissed.

07. Dr. Kim Daniels

Digital mission in the life of the church. Conciliazione Auditorium, Monday, 28 July 2025

Hi everyone, welcome to this discussion with members of the Synod’s Study Group 3 on the Church’s Mission in the Digital Environment. My name is Kim Daniels, and I’m the director of Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, as well as the coordinator of Study Group 3. I’m so sorry I can’t be with you in person, but I’m very glad for this chance to join you virtually.

Our study group has been working together to understand how the Church can witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a digital culture, within an interconnected global context that is now indistinguishable from everyday life. Joining us here today are three other study group members: Sister Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod; Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication; Father Lucio Ruiz, Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication; and Father Antonio Spadaro, whom you just heard from.

We’ve been asked to offer concrete suggestions to the Holy Father regarding how the Church can carry out the mission of proclaiming the Gospel in the digital environment and live out this new missionary page in the history of the Church.

We welcome the opportunity to learn from you, digital missionaries, who are living out this mission every day. We look forward to continuing to learn from you. We are so grateful for all that you do—your experience and your insights are essential to our work.

So, as we get started, I’ve been asked to offer some of what we’ve learned in the course of our extensive and synodal consultation and listening efforts, and I’ll focus on four points.

First, the digital environment is not merely a set of tools to be mastered. It is a culture. Understanding it involves understanding how we relate to one another, how we form community, and ultimately how we share the Gospel in a world that is increasingly digitally mediated, as Pope Francis has often said.

We are not only living through an epoch of change, but a true change of epoch. The digital revolution is at the center of this transformation, and responding well to it is critical to carrying out our Gospel mission today, as Pope Leo has emphasized. He has noted that the Church must face the challenges posed by the times, and your witness in these times is therefore crucial.

Second, we need communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of those who have no voice. A consistent theme we have heard again and again is that the digital environment is not a secondary or optional space. It is a real, additional territory where people genuinely search for God and express deep spiritual needs.

Among other things, the digital mission is an expression of the Church’s social mission. When we reach out through digital platforms to accompany the isolated, to give voice to the voiceless, to create spaces of authentic encounter, we are now living the preferential option for the poor in new ways. This is the work embodied so often by those of you gathered for this Jubilee.

Pope Francis’s vision of a Church that goes out to the peripheries is reflected in your work. You also show us how digital spaces can become places of genuine human connection, not just information exchange. Through your witness, you help us see that digital engagement does not have to replace in-person encounters but can instead lead to them, enriching relationships and communities. Through such efforts, you are helping build, in the words of Cardinal Czerny, “a place of encounter and conversation, a ministry of accompaniment and reconciliation.” In other words, the “field hospital” Church that Pope Francis has called us to be.

Third, this digital culture requires the same intentionality, formation, and missionary spirit that we bring to any cross-cultural ministry. Just as missionaries throughout history have learned languages, understood customs, and adapted their approaches while maintaining the integrity of the Gospel, we too are called to be digital missionaries: to understand this new culture while remaining rooted in the truth, goodness, and beauty of our Catholic faith.

Finally, the digital environment naturally fosters elements of synodality: listening, participation, and shared responsibility. At its best, online engagement enables unprecedented opportunities to hear diverse voices from different backgrounds, geographic areas, and perspectives—especially those often marginalized in traditional Church settings. At its best, digital culture reflects something of the Church’s own identity as a network of networks: unity in diversity, a community of communities.

Of course, there are challenges. The digital world is shaped by algorithms that can isolate us in echo chambers, by business models that monetize our attention, and by dynamics that foster polarization rather than communion.

The same platforms that enable connection can also enable dehumanization. This is why leadership in the digital age is not merely about mastering new technologies, but about fostering a particular kind of culture, one that respects human dignity, promotes authentic encounter, and witnesses to the truth in love.

He asked a question every content Catholic creator who wants to become a digital missionary needs to answer every time: does this post come from fire, or from the fear of not being seen?

He also warned us and gave us tips on how to distinguish between different online temptations versus actually being on Christ’s mission online. I loved how he questioned if we are digital missionaries or Catholic influencers by asking us if we seek the spotlight and to shine as a star or if we want to burn from the fire of Christ within us.

Enjoy!

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06. Fr. Antonio Spadaro

Conciliazione Auditorium, Monday, 28 July 2025

Dear friends, you are here because something burns within you. You are not mere users of the internet. You are not just scrollers of content, collectors of likes, or passive spectators of digital noise.

You are here because you feel that the Gospel has something to say even in the fluid and noisy universe of the web. Indeed, it is precisely there, in the heart of that uninterrupted flow, that a different word can shine. A word that does not impose itself, but ignites. A word that does not stand out for its volume, but for its light. You want to be that word. That presence. That fire. So let’s be clear.

You are not here to receive a Catholic communication strategy. You are not here to become more effective. We are not at a workshop on “how to get more engagement using the name of Jesus.” We are here because we feel that this time—our time—is hungry for meaning.

And we, as Christians, cannot remain silent while the world burns. We are called to set alight what seems extinguished. We are called to burn, not to “function.”

1. The internet as a place of incarnation

We are used to thinking of the web as a parallel, fake, “virtual” world. But this is not true. The digital world is real. The emotions generated there are real. The loneliness, the crises, the words that heal or hurt... are real.

Benedict XVI said this very clearly in 2013: “The digital environment is not a parallel or purely virtual world, but is part of the daily reality of many people, especially the young.”

For this reason, as Christians, we cannot consider digital technology merely as a “means” for evangelization. Being “digital missionaries” does not mean using the internet as a tool for mission or wondering how to evangelize with TikTok or Instagram. It means living the digital environment as a place to inhabit with faith.

The Son of God did not make a post. He became man. And today he asks us too to enter into the concrete lives of people, which often take place right there, between one scroll and another. So let us not ask ourselves only, “How can I use social media well?” Let us ask ourselves, “How can I become a real presence in this world that breathes through a screen?” And the answer will never be technical. It will always be spiritual.

2. More than content: the fire

We are bombarded with content. We are overwhelmed by posts, videos, stories, reels, comments. Every day, everywhere, every moment. And yet... how much of this really changes us? How much of it penetrates us? How many words remain with us once we turn off the screen?

The world doesn’t need more “well-packaged” content. The world needs hearts that burn. Lives that shine even without filters. Words that arise from silence and strike straight to the heart like arrows. Fire cannot be built. It is lit and communicated through contact. And this also applies to you. The real question is not, “What should I post tomorrow?” The real question is, “What is burning inside me that I can’t help but share?” That will be your best content.

If hatred burns inside you, then that will be your best-performing content... If it’s love, then love... Because only what burns inside you can shine outside. So, when you create content, ask yourself: Does this come from fire or from the fear of not being seen? Is this post a gesture of love or a way to boost my profile?

Because if the engine is ego, sooner or later you will burn out. But if the engine is love, then miracles happen.

3. You are not an algorithm. You are a soul.

The algorithm knows everything about you. It knows where you click, how long you stay on a video, what attracts you, what stops you. But the algorithm doesn’t know who you are, who you really are. It doesn’t know your truth. It doesn’t know what moves you, what hurts you, what saves you. Only you know that. Only God knows that.

In the back-end of every platform there are data, metrics, analytics. Every click is traceable, every interaction measurable. The digital system wants us to be increasingly predictable, analyzable, measurable. But the soul cannot be measured. Love cannot be measured. Grace cannot be calculated.

Francis wrote in his latest encyclical, Dilexit Nos: “In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity... All these little things, ordinary in themselves yet extraordinary for us, can never be captured by algorithms.”

Nor can your truest influence. You do not know who you influence or how. There is no digital metric for faith. God can convert a heart with a bad, poorly written post more than with a technically perfect one.

Being an influencer today means resisting the temptation to become a content-producing machine. You are not a machine. You are lives. You are people. You are presences.

Every time you create, publish, respond, don’t forget that you are much more than what the feed tells you. Your value is not in the number of likes, but in the truth you are able to convey.

And when no one likes your post, when a post “goes wrong,” when a video “doesn’t work,” remember: even Jesus, on the cross, looked like a failure. But it was there, in that failure, that salvation happened.

And here we touch on an important point: even the word “influencer” is changing. According to recent market analysis, the most commonly used term today is “creator.” Why? Because influence is no longer enough. Companies, the media, and culture itself are no longer looking for those who shift opinion, but those who create value. Those who generate stories, visions, experiences.

A creator is not just someone who “drives traffic.” They are someone who generates reality, who brings new imaginaries into the world. Have the courage to “dream new versions of the world,” as Francis said to artists. This also applies to you! This concerns you directly.

You are not called to influence as marketing does. You are called to create as the Gospel does. To generate new narratives. Not to sell, but to save. Not to shift public opinion, but to touch hearts.

4. Algorithms and otherness.

The internet “learns” our tastes, what interests us most, what we are usually looking for. In short, algorithms learn to “know” us, storing the information we provide through our online activities. All of this is analyzed anonymously through reference algorithms that filter our knowledge.

There is a great risk: that of remaining closed in a sort of “bubble” that filters out anything that is different from me, so that I am no longer able to notice that there are people, articles, books, and research that do not correspond to my ideas or that express an opinion different from mine.

So, in the end, I will be surrounded by a world of information that resembles me, risking remaining closed to the human and intellectual provocation that comes from otherness and difference.

Herein lies the challenge: to avoid losing sight of diversity to the point of increasing intolerance, of closing ourselves off radically to novelty, to the unexpected that falls outside our relational or mental frameworks. The risk manifests itself in many ways. For example, on a political level, the opponent ceases to be simply that and becomes an “enemy.”

Even in the Church: those who have a different idea from mine, whether conservative or progressive, become the enemy to be defeated without regard, without charity.

Herein lies the challenge: the other must be meaningful to me not because they are in some way similar to me, but for themselves and their originality and even their diversity from me.

5. You are not a brand. You are a blessing.

The digital world tells us: “build your personal brand.” Take care of your image. Set the tone. Conform to a recognizable style. Become interesting. But the Gospel tells us something else: become authentic.

Your mission is not to build a winning image. It is to embody a living truth. Those who follow you need to see that you are real, not that you are perfect. They do not need a new Catholic communication strategy. They need a witness who tells them, “You too, you yourself, are loved just as you are.”

Your profile is not a showcase. It is a possible place of encounter. Of wounding and healing. Of shared tears. Of stubborn hope. Of provocations that make people think. Of silences full of expectation.

You are not a brand. You are a blessing. And that means you don’t have to sell yourself. You just have to let yourself be touched by what lives within you. And offer this: a glimmer of light.

Testimony is the form of communication in the digital environment. News has value not only in and of itself, but because it is linked to a worldview embodied by a person who testifies to it.

The logic of social networks makes us understand better than before that shared content is always closely linked to the person offering it. In fact, there is no “neutral” information in these networks: people are always directly involved in what they communicate. Everyone is called upon to take responsibility for their own knowledge.

For this reason, we must be careful about at least two things:

1. Sometimes we run the risk of thinking that a post works if it is somehow sexy, masculine or feminine or “genderless,” even flaunting a posed appeal. There is no such thing as a Catholic physique du rôle. And the ostentation of the power of attraction, in whatever form, always risks being seductive and thus nullifying the very message that, even in good faith, we intend to communicate.

2. Then, as Pope Francis wrote in his Message for World Communications Day 2014: “Christian witness is not made by bombarding people with religious messages, but by the willingness to give oneself to others through a willingness to engage patiently and respectfully in their questions and doubts, in the search for truth and the meaning of human existence.”

6. Don’t create fan bases. Create fraternity.

The internet is full of influencers. People who talk, who convince, who move the masses. But the Gospel does not ask us to have “followers.” It asks us to create fraternity.

The question is not: How many people follow me? But: How many brothers and sisters have I learned to love? How many stories have I listened to? How many wounds have I caressed with a word? You are called to build digital communities. Not religious ghettos. Not Catholic bubbles. But spaces for encounter. Bridges. Crossroads. Intersections of differences that recognize each other.

Being Christian online today means being in the places of real life. Even the hard, dirty, tiring ones. And it means not running away from complexity. Not shouting slogans. Not looking for enemies to feel strong. But welcoming, understanding, creating bonds.

In a world that builds walls, you build bridges. In a time of anger, you bring words of peace. In the midst of crises, you become a presence that remains.

7. Don’t live by reactions. Be a voice that opens up the future.

Today, everything is reaction. Someone says something and immediately comments, video responses, and clashes flood in. We live in the moment. In adrenaline. In constant indignation.

But faith is not reaction. It is vision. It is hope. It is saying: there is something beyond.

You are not called to chase after controversy. You are not there to add one opinion to all the others. You are there to shift the gaze. To offer a glimpse of the possibility of another way of being human.

Sometimes, the most prophetic thing you can do is say nothing. Switch off. Be silent. Pray. Wait for the right time. We live immersed in deafening noise. Silence today is revolutionary. Because it opens up space. Because it brings out what is essential.

8. The internet as a place of compassion

In his message for the 57th World Day of Social Communications, Francis asked that communication “not foment acrimony that exasperates, creates rage and leads to clashes,” but help “people peacefully reflect and interpret with a critical yet always respectful spirit, the reality in which they live.”

This is a serious and urgent appeal. Francis spoke off the cuff in a speech to the bishops of Central America: “I am concerned that the compassion of Christ has lost its central place in the Church. Even Catholic groups have lost it, or... are losing it, not to be pessimistic. Even the Catholic media: compassion is lacking. There is stigma, condemnation, malice, denunciation of heresy... We must not lose compassion in the Church, and above all, we must not lose the centrality of compassion among bishops.”

Even so-called “Catholic” communication is losing compassion. And it is acquiring stigma, that is, the denial of the other—hatred. So Francis has warned us and tells us that today communication “excommunicates.”

Compassion is what makes us feel like a community, part of the human race. If we lose compassion, we lose the ability to “bond,” to create bonds. Without compassion, the bond becomes a connection, that is, a link, but without contact with reality, without roots.

Pope Leo, in his first meeting with journalists, said:

“Today, one of the most important challenges is to promote communication that can bring us out of the ‘Tower of Babel’ in which we sometimes find ourselves, out of the confusion of loveless languages that are often ideological or partisan. Therefore, your service, with the words you use and the style you adopt, is crucial. As you know, communication is not only the transmission of information, but it is also the creation of a culture, of human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and discussion.”

A simple and radical piece of advice: remain human. Remain human. Even in the digital world. Perhaps especially there. Do not trade your authenticity for a handful of views. Do not sacrifice your truth to please everyone. Do not sell your vocation to become “relevant.”

The Gospel does not need famous influencers isolated in a bubble. It needs real witnesses. Profiles that exude mercy. Words that do not impose, but welcome.

Remain human. Even when you are criticized. Even when you are ignored. Even when you are exalted. Remain steadfast. Connected, yes, but above all rooted.

Rooted in God. Rooted in prayer. Rooted in your community. Rooted in a real life, made up of real encounters, real friendships, time spent not accumulating, but loving.

One final word: fire. I leave you with just one word: fire. The world is full of artificial lights. Spotlights. Flashes. Pixels. But what really warms, what really illuminates, what really transforms, is fire. I am not asking you to shine. I ask you to burn, which is different. To be fire. Mild and courageous fire. Fire that warms and guides. Fire that burns in the heart and lights the way for others.

Today, in a world that calls those who create content for the market “creators,” be creators of meaning. Be artisans of hope. Storytellers of another possibility. Witnesses of a light that never goes out. Be fire. The rest will come. Go forth! Best wishes!

Digital missionaries from around the globe see him as our shepherd, as a guy who can be in a Zoom at whatever time during his Roman nights if that is when he is needed, for a sending liturgy, for a presentation, for a workshop. Everyone has his email and hundreds of them have his phone number and regularly WhatsApp with him.

Almost five years ago he started seeing how we could respond online to the Holy Father’s call to start listening to the Church but, mostly, to the cries of the world, so we as a Church could better be on Christ’s mission to this wounded world. I have several stories of my reactions and his patient explanations when he told me about this experiment and as he asked me to invite some Catholic influencers to listen (I had met him and done some things with Catholic creators for a project dear to his and the Pope’s heart). But I’ll love those stories for later.

If you don’t know much about what the Church means by digital mission, this is the way to start. It has been his own thought, based on his own personal experience of decades and with what only working in the Vatican since JPII gives you, and then these last years of his real listening to digital missionaries. Which is never a pose for him; he does truly listen and let his ideas be challenged in reality. He has been very open to adjusting things, even with things he might initially not see very enthusiastically or might not even understand them or might be against them.

Late nights discussing and contrasting views on what digital mission means for the Church, then bouncing off ways forward, finding holes, making sure everything is directly in line with our missiological Tradition, opening so many questions that we have been praying about and in discernment with every level in the Church, some disagreements here and there of course, but always, always trusting Our Lady of Guadalupe and pointing to her Son.

That’s why you will always see a not-small-at-all replica of Our Lady of Guadalupe that is usually in his apartment’s chapel in everything we have done: in WYD in Lisbon, on the stage of our Jubilee and the Festival we had at the Piazza di Resurgimento, at the prayer gatherings we have done at the Clementine Chapel in St. Peter’s, in Santa Maria Maggiore, and so many other places I am not remembering right now. Always entrusted to her maternal care and always leading to Christ.

I could write a whole book about him and my journey with him, so I will stop because I haven’t really given my highlights about his presentation.

I would read and re-read this if you are, of course, a digital missionary, but also someone in Communications or Marketing at a diocese, parish, or any Catholic organization.

His call for unity is a mic drop moment as well, but let’s get there.

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04. Msgr. Lucio A. Ruiz

Conciliazione Auditorium, Monday, 28 July 2025

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21) “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15)

Dear digital missionaries, dear Catholic influencers, with all my heart, to all of you, to each one of you, welcome! You are all very welcome, this is your home, the home of Mother Church; enjoy her tenderness towards you. Feel the originality of the moment because of the originality of the event; these days are for you. Welcome! Welcome, may these days make you feel the presence of the Church, our tender Mother, who walks with you; make this moment a true encounter. Welcome, be the architects of what you wish to experience. Live in your hearts what we are living in the Church.

Before talking about some important points of the digital mission, I would like to say a few things:

1. Thank you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for accepting the invitation; this is a meeting that shows the universality of the Church and of the mission. Be also representatives of those who could not come, and bring them the enthusiasm of being a missionary and pilgrim Church. Thank you for coming, despite the great expense; thank you for your generosity and selflessness.

2. I apologize! Please forgive anything that may not go well, but know that everything has been done with much love and dedication. Above all, know that we have prayed for each one of you, offering you as a precious treasure in our daily Mass.

3. Challenge yourselves! If the organization may have limitations, I want to ask you to be the ones who overcome those limitations, to be the architects of what you want this event to be. It is your jubilee; be its architects, give it all the life you want it to have.

4. Finally, I wanted to explain the name of the event: Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers. What we wanted to represent is a big hug, like the one in St. Peter’s colonnade, that embraces all those who, in digital spaces, live, bear witness, and give themselves to the Lord in many different ways—whether through direct preaching or in non-direct ways—but who equally live and transmit the Gospel. The name has no hermeneutical or semantic intention; it means an embrace for everyone, offering a space to receive the caress of Mother Church, to find ourselves all in great communion and to say to everyone: “We are with you.”

After these introductory points, I would like to focus our attention on some fundamental elements of our mission and presence in digital environments:

1. Let us be aware that it is the Lord who has called us

This is the first point, it is essential, because it is the source and origin of our faith, of our gifts and talents, of the call and mission we have received, and therefore the only truth of our hope.

Let us look to the Virgin Mother, the great “influencer of God,” who sings in the Magnificat: “All generations will call me blessed.” She knew that she would have many “followers” ... all generations! But she herself knew where the gifts came from: “For the Lord has done great things for me.”

Therefore, let us never be mistaken about where greatness lies and who is the source of all gifts.

2. The foundation of the mission: the witness of our lives

Here, the truth of our words and the credibility of our message are at stake. If we are missionaries, it is because we are disciples, the first recipients of the Gospel, which must penetrate our minds and hearts. We cannot give the Lord if we do not have him in our hearts and experience him in our lives. Our personal spiritual life, our encounter with the Lord in silence, in moments without words and without cell phones, is essential for the mission. It is an intimacy that knows love, to contemplate “the wonders he has done for me.”

3. “Being a Samaritan” the key to every mission

This is a key point that places us at the heart of the Gospel. The parable of the Good Samaritan redefines not only who our neighbor is, but also who the priest and the believer who has value before God are. Attention to pain is the essential point; it makes God’s mercy present. Our mission in digital environments is not to produce content, but to encounter people, to help those who have fallen, to give hope to those who seek, to accompany those who suffer... Let us think, then, about how we carry out our mission and how Jesus feels represented in our way of being present in the digital world.

4. The value of the first proclamation

So many times we are asked, what value does mission have on the internet? It is clear that evangelization on social media does not have a character of “fullness,” but seeing your actions over the years, I have no doubt in saying that its great value is that of “first proclamation.” That “little proclamation” that arrives in the right place at the right time... that knows how to be present when the person needs it. But we must remember: the subject of evangelization is not the individual person, even if he or she is very good, but the Church. We evangelize as Church, as the Body of Christ. If some make the first proclamation, others must nourish and help others to believe, and for this reason we need one another. Let us count on the whole Church; let us not separate ourselves from our pastors or from the whole Church.

5. Unity

In his prayer, Jesus says to the Father: “That they may they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us”––and he adds something important––”that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:21). Jesus places his credibility as the Father’s Envoy in our hands, in our unity. If we are divided, those who listen to us become polarized... Then they may follow what we say, but we will have broken the Body of Christ. We would have “won,” but “God would have lost.” Please, let us take care of unity; let us never go against one another. May our time and energy allow the world to believe that the Father sent Jesus.

6. Thank you for your mission

God does not want to carry out his work of love without the essential participation of human beings. Let us look again at Mary: God needed her response to take flesh and redeem us. Mary’s “yes” shows the extent to which we participate in the Mystery of God. That is why, today, here, we want to say “thank you” to each one of you. Thank you for saying “yes” to the Lord. Thank you for wanting to live, bear witness, and give yourselves to the Lord also in the digital spaces. Thank you for taking risks, for putting your face, your name, your life out there. Thank you for your creative mission.

7. A new missionary page for the Church

The Church is missionary by nature, always has been, and we are all missionaries through our baptism! The Church’s mission always has the dynamic of the Incarnation and Pentecost, which is why it is always incarnate and must always be made understandable in the language of those who listen to us. That is why today, in this new digital culture, the Church is opening this “new missionary page of the Church.”

This is why I want to say to you: be aware of your calling, be responsible for the gift you have received, be united with your Pastors, because the Church is made in the Church.

Dear friends, like Mary, in this new missionary chapter of the Church, may you be the writers. Go, go to the ends of the earth, go and bring the hope that Jesus has given us.

I was all smiles with this recognition.

Then he questioned the network (again, remember this is a translation from Italian, so he meant both internet and social media here) itself. He told us the Church was a network long before the internet existed, and that the web that truly unites us comes from God and from baptism, not from the internet.

He closed stating a big danger of influencer culture and with a warning: never turn an online community into an audience and an audience into merchandise, this makes us the merchandise, he said.

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03. Dr. Paolo Ruffini

Conciliazione Auditorium, Monday, 28 July 2025

Good morning and thank you very much for coming in such large numbers. I would like to echo the words of His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin: it is wonderful to meet in person, after having gotten to know some of you only through digital means. At least for me, it is wonderful to meet in person, and even more so in an auditorium: a place whose very name promises encounter and listening.

And so it is wonderful to listen to one another live, looking into one another’s eyes, in a space designed so that voices—even silences—blend together like notes. Like the song we heard earlier, the hymn of this meeting: pilgrims of a hope that transcends us, that makes “all things new” and transforms us into one, into a joyful community, like the one you are today.

Welcome and thank you for being here. A special thanks to Monsignor Lucio Ruiz, because without him you would not be here: he has done almost everything himself, together with the group of volunteers who have supported him. Thank you all.

I sincerely hope that this will be a blessed time for us: a time of listening, prayer, and conversion; and that it will give us the strength for a new beginning. Welcome to those who were able to come, and welcome also to those who could not be here because of wars, migration laws, or simply because there were not enough spots available.

We are living in difficult times: times of war, hypocrisy, and falsehood. But we are also living in a time of joy, communion, and beauty. And what has called us here, and what unites us, is stronger than any distance, any evil, and even the falls and mistakes that each of us may have made or will make—because we are human beings; we are not perfect.

Of course, we are also united by the internet, digital technology, social media, and the web. But this is not, at least in my opinion, the foundation of our hope. If we think about it, the Church was already a network before the internet existed. And the web that truly unites us, deep down, is much greater than what we build: it is a web that transcends us, that comes from God, and that makes us part of one people, His people, where “there is neither Jew nor Greek,” because we are one in Christ Jesus: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all.” This is what unites us, all of us, todos.

It is what makes us, gathered here together with all the baptized throughout the world, missionary disciples of our time, which is also a digital time, full of promises and risks.

This is the secret of the Church: a network of people, not algorithms, much less chatbots. A network of people, each one different from the other, none perfect, who become one thanks to the one baptism and the same faith.

A network where no one is at the center. On the contrary, as Pope Leo XIV reminded us when he was first elected, all those who belong to it should desire to make themselves small, so that Christ alone may be known and glorified. This is what we pray in the Gloria: “You alone are holy” (Eucharistic Liturgy).

It is not easy, of course. But if we are here for the Jubilee, it is not to glorify ourselves, nor to measure our greatness, our power, or the spread of our brands. We are here to rejoice together, to live a time of grace, and to examine our consciences, both individually and collectively—all of us, myself first—on how we, as a Church, bear witness to the Kingdom of God in our time.

I will therefore use the questions posed by Pope Francis a few days before his admission to Gemelli Hospital at the beginning of this Jubilee Year, shortly before his suffering and then his death. These are questions that can guide our examination of conscience, because they concern us all:

• How do we sow hope in the midst of so much despair that challenges us?

• How do we cure the virus of division that also threatens our communities?

• Is our communication accompanied by prayer, or do we end up communicating the Church by adopting the logic of digital marketing?

These are powerful, big, and difficult questions, as is our mission: to speak the language “of the world without being of the world.” Questions that make us understand that “alone we can do nothing,” but that we must do something.

The data tell us that social media are becoming the primary source of information, formation, and relationships. But they also tell us that they are a source of misinformation, fragmentation, and isolation. I believe it is up to us, all together, to empty ourselves and let ourselves be filled with God’s joy, to bear witness that another way is possible: it is possible to “cast the net on the other side,” a net of joy and communion.

Each of us is well aware of the increasingly blurred boundary between nonsense and the search for meaning; between the fear of missing out and the joy of discovering something; between the terror of being excluded—which leads to compulsive scrolling—and the joy of a unique, exclusive encounter; between infantile regression and conscious growth; between judging and sharing.

Even the boundary between opinions and facts has become increasingly blurred, threatened by the practice of creating emotionally biased, surreal, and misleading content, in the belief that this will generate consensus, however ephemeral, driven by the illusion that the end justifies the means. But this is not our rule: this is a trap we must not fall into.

What, then, should we do? We cannot stand still, nor can we take refuge in another time. We have a clear duty to do our part here and now, without vainglory but with joy; with simplicity, without shirking our responsibilities.

The Church—and when I say Church, I mean all the baptized—needs media literacy, digital literacy. We need ongoing formation, to always think of a journey that is never solitary. We must never forget that ours is a common mission.

This is the rule for not getting lost: to have “one heart and mind.” Never turn the community into an audience, nor the audience into merchandise, lest we ourselves become merchandise. Our faith is not individualistic, nor consumerist, but communal. Being here today is a joyful demonstration of this.

The isolation of the community is a childhood disease of the digital age, a virus cultivated and sometimes even induced for economic or power purposes. But no one can save themselves on their own, nor can we save anyone on our own.

We must offer those who follow us and trust us an alternative, not a substitute: the truth of an encounter, the joy—not fleeting—of meeting Jesus who changed our lives.

Community is not an abstract term: it is not a crowd of reactions under a post, but “sharing bread” and persevering in “the breaking of the bread” and in prayers. It is praying together, as we will do in these days; finding ourselves together in the streets of the world to witness a greatness and joy that transcend us.

In the Church, there is no big or small. Rather, there is the immeasurable unity between us and God who is Father, the uniqueness of an extraordinary relationship: so unthinkable that we always struggle to understand it fully, but so beautiful that we cannot help but share it in every way, especially in the extraordinary ways offered by digital technology and, at the same time, in person, as we are doing here today.

This is the field of our missionary witness: to be, as a network, “the good soil where God’s seed takes root.” This is why we are here: to understand together how to overcome the friend-enemy logic that pollutes relationships, even on social media; to learn to be close to others even in the digital world, which is real; to witness that it is possible to “love even our enemies” and that making enemies is a temptation.

We are here to show the world that we don’t need idols who cultivate their own personalities; to rediscover the purity of “the eyes of little children;” to save our time from the disillusionment that kills every dream and redeem it from the risk of losing the uniqueness of relationships, from their commercialization and standardization.

We are here to change the relationship between influencers and followers according to the Christian paradigm, that of Jesus who says, “Come and follow me.” To restore a profound meaning to the word “friendship,” used by Jesus to define his disciples-missionaries; to distinguish between showmanship, performance that seeks only fans, and sincere sharing, which creates friends in an equal relationship; to reconnect virtual presence with real presence, and “to be always and in every way fully present.”

Thank you, then, for being here, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for sharing your stories and for making this Jubilee an important stage in your journey and ours.

He also contrasted how Isaiah’s watchman sees the feet of the one bringing good news and how online we do not see feet but faces. This one is short but sweet, straight to the point on evangelization.

02. Archbishop Rino Fisichella

Conciliazione Auditorium, Monday, 28 July 2025

Dear friends,

Welcome to this Jubilee. It is no coincidence that, together with Msgr. Ruiz and his collaborators, we chose the beginning of the Jubilee of Young People, so that you can report on it in the most coherent way possible. You have the great responsibility of recounting what happens during these days.

You see, I am particularly happy about this meeting. When we speak of evangelization, we usually emphasize its content, but we often forget who evangelizes and how many are evangelized, that is, the people. This meeting is meant to be a commitment to emphasize and combine content with people. Evangelization cannot be done without evangelizers, but evangelizers cannot be evangelizers unless they themselves feel the need and urgency to evangelize and be evangelized.

I would like to recall here a passage from the prophet Isaiah, when the term “Gospel” appears for the first time in Sacred Scripture. It is the watchman on the rock of Zion who sees some people coming to announce liberation from slavery. The prophet exclaims: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one bringing good news” (Is 52:7). With the Internet, we do not see feet, we see faces. I like to say, then: “How beautiful are your faces, which carry the good news of the Gospel!” Do not be afraid to proclaim that Hope has a face, that Hope has a name: Hope is called Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

Faced with this great commitment, we are all left with the desire to discover something profoundly true: when we are evangelizers, especially through the Internet—this great Areopagus—it is a great challenge. You have succeeded in making your mark, and this is a source of satisfaction for the Christian community as well. But do not forget that the first task is to be aware that you are instruments: we are not the end, we are instruments of grace, instruments for bringing the Gospel; we are people who encounter other people.

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At a time when technology seems to have the upper hand, we want to remember that interpersonal encounter remains what most engages us: encountering faces, stories, experiences, knowing, however, that we are witnesses. St. Paul VI, in that programmatic document that still retains its validity today, Evangelii Nuntiandi, wrote: “Contemporary men listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, [...] or if they listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (December 8, 1975), EN 40: AAS 68 (1976), 31.).

We could paraphrase this as follows: today’s world does not listen to influencers, but to witnesses; and if it listens to influencers, it is because they are witnesses. Herein lies your great challenge: to be aware that you are instruments of God’s grace, proclaiming the Gospel to awaken faith, but—as the Apostle reminds us—”faith comes from what is heard” (Rom 10:17-18).

Your challenge and ours is therefore this: to be capable of helping others discover the value of silence. As paradoxical as it may seem—because we want to fill the air with words, we want to be interlocutors—in our dialogue we must be capable of helping others discover the importance of listening. And we listen truly, effectively, when listening is accompanied by silence.

We are often tempted to judge, to say—especially those of my generation—”it was better when we were young.” This is a great mistake. Today, we must all be in a position to listen as much as possible to what is said to us, to what is communicated to us. The great challenge of faith, your challenge, is once again this: to help others discover the value of listening. Because, I repeat, faith is born from listening.

So take courage, and good luck.

May the Lord bless you! Thank you.

• I loved how he started with a question he didn’t answer right away: “How can the digital world communicate the faith?”

• “A face, not a profile.” 💣 And he told us that their history is a sacred history, not simply a collection of data. Basically he was helping us go against the temptation of focusing on metrics and not in the actual people.

• I was so glad to hear him say what we have been preaching and showing over there for some years: that internet has stopped being a tool and it is now an environment. And he expanded on it and what that should mean for us on a very clear way.

Now let’s go to his message:

01. Card. Pietro Parolin

Conciliazione Auditorium, Monday, 28 July 2025

Dear young people, dear communicators on the internet,

A cordial greeting to all of you here present, who have come to Rome for this Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers. It seems to me a very enriching and beautiful experience to see you, who usually meet on social networks, here today in person, together, in communion with each other and with the whole Church, to celebrate the Jubilee of Hope.

One of the aims and objectives of social media is to provide information; but I think that what characterizes us as human beings, what makes us truly human and alive, is our ability to ask questions. The question that challenges us today, in addition to all those that history has posed to the life of the Church, seems to me to be this: how can the digital world—an environment that is rapidly transforming social dynamics and profoundly challenging our way of being in the world—communicate the faith?

The wisdom of the Church points us to some paths we have taken in an attempt to answer this question, which in social media language would be: “Be in the World but not of the world; be in time but do not be of the times” (Jn 17:16). This is what is asked of us in order to bear witness to the truth of an encounter that, acting in time, transcends and transforms it.

What we are experiencing, and what we ourselves have brought about through our commitment, is not simply a technological change, but an authentic change of era. It is a cultural change that also affects our perception of time, relationships, access to information, and the meaning that all this takes on.

In this scenario, the Church’s mission cannot be passive or improvised. It lies in the ability to offer, through the encounter with God, meaning and direction. At the same time, it requires an attentive, active, dialoguing, and missionary attitude, capable of reading the signs of the times with the eyes of faith and the heart of Jesus.

Digital technology has ceased to be just one tool among others, more powerful than others, but has become a language, an environment, a way of inhabiting our world. Faced with this change, the Church is not called to replicate pre-established patterns, but to discern how to offer the Gospel with fidelity and creativity in this new scenario.

Speaking of digital mission does not mean reducing evangelization to a technical or communicative issue, but recognizing that digital technology is part of the way in which more and more people think, feel, search, and relate to one another. For this reason, rather than strategies, we must speak of a presence: a presence imbued with humanity, a witness to evangelical life, and a willingness to dialogue, listen, and journey with others, even online. In this sense, what is at stake is not so much the effectiveness of content as the Church’s ability to witness to God’s closeness in an environment that can be impersonal or frenetic, often steeped in hatred, fake news, and falsehoods.

Digital mission means taking on the rhythm, the wounds, the questions, and the searches of those who inhabit that space, without giving in to anonymity and superficiality, or to the temptations of protagonism. It means rediscovering instead the beauty of being Christ, of living in the communion of the Church, and thus bringing hope, that hope that comes to us from the Lord Jesus, risen and alive, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

One of the precious contributions that the Church—and therefore each one of you—can offer in this field is the relational vision of the person, which springs from our being the image and temple of the Trinity. At a time when bonds can be fragmented or manipulated by different interests that diminish the dignity of the person, the Christian faith reminds us that every person is a face, not a profile; that their history is a sacred history, not simply a collection of data.

For this reason, the digital mission always requires a Christian style that privileges real encounters over discourse, service over protagonism, communion over individualism, patience over haste, truth over what is pleasing. Evangelizing in the digital world is not a privilege for those who master technology, but a responsibility for all who live in this age and have received the gift of faith. It is also a special call for those to whom the Lord has given particular talents to work in this environment. It is also your task to imagine new digital tools, new platforms, and new economic models.

Our beloved and late Pope Francis, at the World Youth Day in Panama, called Mary “the influencer of God” because she had the courage “to say ‘yes’ and to trust in the love and promises of God, who is the only force capable of renewing, of making all things new” (Address of His Holiness Pope Francis in Panama on the Occasion of the 34th World Youth Day, Vigil with Young People, Campo San Juan Pablo II – Metro Park, Saturday, 26 January 2019). On June 20, Pope Leo XIV urged us to discover that “authentic wisdom has more to do with recognizing the true meaning of life, than with the availability of data” (Message of Pope Leo XIV to Participants in the Second Annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, Vatican Apostolic Palace, 20 June 2025).

So, renewing the digital environment is the challenge that awaits all of you, that awaits each one of you. Feel it as your mission and live these days as an opportunity to grow in this sense and in this commitment.

May the Lord bless you all, bless your work, your mission, your service. Have a good Jubilee and thank you.

Almost a year ago I walked into an artistically lit Saint Peter’s Basilica for Eucharistic adoration. It had been quite a day. A day? I won’t fool myself, it had been years. There is a particular kind of tired that comes from years of trying to convince bishops, cardinals, people working in the Church, influencers and other Catholics about something the Popes have been saying and pleading we do.

I carried a lot of that tiredness into St. Peter’s with me. Particularly from the last five years and especially the days before our Jubilee (need some mezcales to start talking 🤪 JK).

Going in I started feeling it (I had to record a bit of how it looked like, the whole Basilica closed for ourselves and with the lighting and the organ as digital missionaries and Catholic influencers walked in), but when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, I was just there: praying and crying. On and off, the whole time. If you have done anything in or with the Church for some years, you know exactly the kind of exhaustion I mean, the kind that doesn’t really surface because we need to continue.

I’ll tell you a little about why that night hit the way it did, because none of it started in Rome.

It started years earlier in ways I am still not ready to write about in full; some of it needs more distance before I am ready. But I can tell you this much: it started in 2018 (although it really started in 2003 with SPO in Minnesota) with my first podcast, way before Evangelization Lab had a name, before I knew any of this would become my life rather than a personal ministry I focused on after hours and on the weekends.

It grew through Juan Diego Network and Juan Diego & Company, then through La Iglesia te Escucha, the initiative with Msgr. Lucio Adrián Ruiz, which taught me more about what people actually need from the Church than any strategy document ever has (hint: it’s the most basic things, but more on that for another time). It grew through my participation in the different stages of the Synod on Synodality, and then through my appointment as one of the few lay voting delegates at the final session in Rome, where I lived, ate, prayed, talked, drank, and sometimes greatly disagreed with cardinals, patriarchs, bishops and religious from every continent.

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So when I knelt at St. Peter’s that night, I had so many things in my heart and my mind that I didn’t even know where to start.

But then He was there, and it was weird because I didn’t start praying about a particular thing. My prayer was all of it, a very very unique thing I’d never experienced before. Every conversation where I had to explain, again and again, that followers and likes and views and listens and selling Catholic products are not why we should be online. Every year of being told, gently and not so gently, that what lots of Catholics were doing online was not real ministry but it was all about influence, ego, money, power, fame and so many other things. Also, all the things behind the scenes, the processes that just didn’t make sense to me, the way things sometimes felt like politics, with so many things and pressures happening from all over. Things handled in ways I just couldn’t understand, how things took such a long time to happen even if it was clear the Holy Spirit was there, agreements, fears of stepping on important people’s toes, and a lot of other Church-related things that weighed heavily on me. I brought all of that into adoration, and the Lord let me set it down for a couple of hours.

The next morning we walked up into St. Peter’s again, this time for a mass with Cardinal Tagle and for the surprise we had for everyone: a time with the Holy Father. I was lighter. More ready to actually enjoy our Jubilee, this dream we had been working on for a while. I didn’t feel at all like the day before when I had been on stage leading some of the things (people who know me and my faces told me how my body language showed there were lots of things bothering me).

But it was then that Pope Leo stood in front of all of us, missionaries and influencers gathered from every continent, and told us to go and mend the nets. As I heard him my mind was just racing through the many nets I have tried to mend over the years and how much I had failed to do so. Sometimes I sort of managed to actually do it, but badly or imperfectly. But now Peter was actually telling us that mending the nets (in his original Spanish, redes works a lot better because it means at the same time: the fishermen’s nets, networks, and social media) is the actual assignment online. If you reflect on what he said, you will see I am not doing it justice, it’s a lot deeper.

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Over those days I heard from more voices besides the Holy Father. Having him and so many Prefects of Vatican Dicasteries talking to and with us was a strong confirmation that the Church sees what we have been doing online as the same mission Christ entrusted the Church with almost two thousand years ago. Lots of things are finally opening up (which is why we exist).

Starting today, I am going to publish every one of the talks from the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic influencers. Before each one, I might give you some of my thoughts, but I’ll try not to, so you can read the full text underneath, exactly as it was spoken, so you are not relying on my read of it. I won’t send them via email because it will be too much, but you can find them at Evangelization Lab’s Substack.

I do not know how to fully explain what those days did to me yet, after the journey I have been on. Some of that I am still praying through, and some of it belongs to stories I don’t think I will ever tell in public. But I know this, I walked into St. Peter’s on Monday night carrying years of quiet doubt about whether any of this mattered to the wider Church, and also despair and struggle within me about a lot of things going on. But praying and crying in the very heart of the Church that night changed a lot of things inside me and gave me peace (I had several great reminders, some of them where: it’s not on me! The Church continues due to Jesus’s promise! The Church is made up of humans!) and also I later felt a weird permission to enjoy our Jubilee more amidst everything.