Call to evangelize all nations includes the digital continent, influencers say

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Dedicating a Jubilee to Catholic influencers and content creators feels "historic" as the Vatican shows increasing support for digital missionaries and their influence, some participants said.

"We're called to be apostles of all nations, and that exists also on our phones, on our computers, on our iPads," Inés San Martin, vice president of marketing and communications for The Pontifical Mission Societies in the U.S., told Catholic News Service July 28.

Something that was mentioned a lot in a series of talks held in Rome's Auditorium Conciliazione July 28, she said, was the reminder that behind all these online efforts are real people.

"We're not profiles, we're faces, we're people on the other side," who are building "this missionary effort of the church on the digital continent," she said.

San Martin was one of more than 1,000 people from more than 70 countries registered for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers July 28-29. That Jubilee was part of the larger Jubilee of Youth, which was running to Aug. 3.

What struck San Martin most about the gathering, she said, is the beauty of "seeing influencers greet one another." There was no sense of competition or comparisons, just people excited to be meeting for the first time in "real life."

She said she's heard people say to each other, "'I've been watching you. I've been learning from you. I've been evangelized by you. Can I hug you?' And that has truly been incredible."

Michael Lofton, host of the Reason & Theology podcast, told CNS he was struck by the encouragement that digital influencers should not be motivated by personal gain.

"We need to speak the truth even if it doesn't get subscribers, even if it doesn't get the likes," he said. "This is something that Jesus did, and sometimes he lost disciples, right? It was costly for him. But we still have to do it."

"We need to ask the question: is this impactful? Is this constructive? Is this truthful? Not, is this going to get me more followers," he said.

Katie Prejean McGrady, an author, podcaster and radio host on Sirius XM's The Catholic Channel, told CNS that her "digital mission playbook" is guided by Blessed Carlo Acutis, who encouraged people to be the original person God made, not photocopies.

"If you're just yourself, if you're an authentic witness to the beauty, truth and goodness of our Gospel, and you do that by sharing your family, by talking about your kids, by having conversations about what matters to you most" and about your every day life, she said, then "people are attracted to that. They want to talk to you about that."

McGrady said it is "so cool that the church is acknowledging that this is a group of people doing a real thing and a real ministry in the world" by hosting a dedicated Jubilee.

"I think in a hundred years, people are going to talk about the Jubilee of 2025 and how this was the first time the church engaged with this group of missionaries," she said. While the individual people attending the events won't end up in history books, "this Jubilee and this conversation will" because of how it will continue to impact the church.

When asked about successful digital evangelization that seeks to get people to connect with their parish community, Brett Robinson, associate director for outreach at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, told CNS that Father Mike Schmitz of Duluth, Minnesota, has been "very good at inviting people back" and showing the church as "a place of welcoming, peace and joy, and fraternal fellowship with others."

Also, the Hallow prayer app is "another way for people who might not be ready to set foot inside a church" to hear what the church does say "in a TikTok post or an Instagram post," he said, which is "a big step in the church's desire to invite more people back in."