Catholic social tips
It’s been about a month since I attended the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers in Rome, hosted by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication.
The event garnered worldwide attention, and officials along with Pope Leo XIV shared insights with over 1,000 attendees who traveled from across the globe to learn about the mission of those evangelizing the Catholic faith in digital spaces.
Msgr. Lucio Adrian Ruiz, secretary of the Dicastery for Communication, shared seven reflections with us to be mindful of as we communicate in digital spaces:
- Remember that we have been called.
- Our mission is to seek the Lord in silence and share our witness of living our faith.
- Model the parable of the good Samaritan by paying attention to suffering. We should not be focused on creating content, but on creating encounters with people: to help those who have fallen to give hope to those searching and accompany those who suffer.
- The subject is not the person, but the church. Do not separate ourselves.
- Seek unity — let us not go against each other.
- Let us look to Mary. Mary’s “Yes” shows the extent to which we are participants in the mystery of God. That is why we thank you for saying “Yes” to the Lord and witnessing in the digital spaces.
- This is a new missionary page for the church. May you be the writers who go to the ends of the earth. Go and give the hope that Jesus has given us. Be responsible for the gift you have received.
Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, cautioned us to be mindful of what we share in digital spaces.
“Being digital missionaries is not just bombarding your followers with religious messages and quotations; this is just indoctrination. This is just proposing an ideology; it is life that changes,” Father Spadaro said.
“The Gospel is not asking us to grow followers. It asks us to all be brothers and sisters and create fraternities, so not how many people are following me but how many brothers and sisters have I learned to love, how many stories have I listened to, how many wounds have I tried to heal with words and build digital communities, not religious ghettos, not Catholic digital bubbles, but places of encounter.”
Lastly, we were called to live the Gospel messages, which outline how we are to be disciples of Christ and follow him in a world that focuses on the very things we are called to give away.
“Consider how your life itself is a gift, along with all the qualities that make you, you,” said Jesuit Father David McCallum, director of Discerning Leadership.
“Creativity demands diversity. Consider how God holds and beholds you, appreciating you as his creation, with unconditional love. Consider how God has called you to a purpose and a mission, to use your gifts for good to co-labor for his kingdom, to be a person of faith, hope and love. To be salt, and light, and good leaven. To be his people, together on the way. To be his witness to his love through works of justice and mercy, for reconciliation and peace.
“Those who have hope in God, hope for the world, can imagine and create the future we desire, the future that God desires for us.”
There is also a resource designed by the Dicastery for Communication titled “Towards Full Presence: A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement With Social Media.” Learn more at the Dicastery for Communication’s website, www.comunicazione.va/en.html.
Sherry Hayes-Peirce is a Catholic social media consultant based in Southern California.