Digital media, including social media, is essential to evangelization, according to Catholic experts in that field. There’s a need, they say, to meet people where they are.
“Anywhere that people are is where the Church needs to be,” Amie Duke, social media manager at Ascension, a Catholic multimedia company, told Our Sunday Visitor.
Duke, together with other experts, spoke with Our Sunday Visitor about using digital media to invite others to encounter God’s love and the message of the Gospel ahead of the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers taking place July 28-29 in Rome. They addressed everything from social media and AI to young people as content creators and receivers.
They recognized social media and AI as tools that can be used for good and bad. They spoke about the power and responsibility that comes with digital content, much of which is created and consumed by young people. They also encouraged everyday Catholics to share their faith online — and emphasized that each person has something unique to offer in this space.
Two of the experts — Katie Prejean Grady, an author, speaker, podcast host and radio host of The Katie McGrady Show on Sirius XM, and Paul Jarzembowski, associate director for the laity at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth — are participating in the jubilee held for “all those who evangelize in the digital environment, sharing the message of the Gospel on social networks, blogs, channels, and apps.”
The multi-day event comes as a majority of U.S. adults say they use the internet (95%), own a smartphone (90%) or subscribe to high-speed internet at home (80%), according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. This impacts young adults more: A majority (62%) under 30 reported being online “almost constantly.” Most adults say they use platforms like YouTube and Facebook while roughly half say they use Instagram, according to the same survey.
Catholics are not an exception, according to a 2023 report on Catholic media use from Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. The report found that 98% of survey respondents, self-identified Catholics, said they had a social media profile. When asked about their primary source of religious content, more answered “internet/social media” (23%) than word of mouth (21%), print publications (19%), television (14%) or radio (4%).
The new printing press
Prejean McGrady described digital media as essential to evangelization as “the printing press was in getting the Bible into the hands of everyday people and as powerful as the microphone was to help amplify a voice at a pulpit.”
“It’s ‘online’ where people are sharing and discussing and learning and listening, and the Church — and believing people — must be there to share and discuss and offer insights into the Faith,” she said in emailed comments.
Echoing PreJean McGrady, Jarzembowski said, “If Christ told us to go out into the whole world and make disciples, that world is intricately connected to the digital continent.”
The responsibility of digital natives
At the USCCB, Jarzembowski recognized that youth and young adults make up a significant portion of the content creators and consumers in the digital media landscape.
“Most of them are digital natives, having grown up completely in that way,” he said. “In some respects, that puts young people in a very powerful role in our society today.”
He said that digital media use can present both struggles — such as mental health issues — and opportunities for young people.
“Catholic young people have the capacity to not just share their faith but also to bind up the wounds and to foster healing in that space.” Jarzembowski said. “(They can provide) mercy, reconciliation, qualities I think that are sorely missing from the digital continent.”
“Youth and young adults are playing, have played and can play that role both on the generating side but also on how they’re consuming that content,” he added. “There’s responsibility for both.”
Authentic witnesses
As a digital missionary or someone who shares the Faith through digital media, Prejean McGrady said her goal is “to introduce people to the Lord in a hopefully authentic and engaging way.”
“It’s to just be an authentic witness to the love of Jesus, in my life especially, and then hopefully encourage others to encounter him too,” she said. “I think I do that in a lot of ways, whether it’s on my SiriusXM show in talking about the news or interviewing interesting people, and on social media by posting what LEGO sets my family is working on or about our new cat (named for Pope Leo) — it’s in being an authentic, real, regular, normal Catholic that I find people are most interested in what is a very engaging and dynamic faith we have.”
At Ascension, Duke creates faith-inspired content for more than one million followers. Ascension’s posts include everything from saint quotes to video messages from speakers like Father Mike Schmitz, who is perhaps best known as the host of Ascension’s “The Bible in a Year” podcast.
Ascension seeks to use their social platforms to be a beacon of light and hope, she said.
“Whenever someone is doomscrolling … we want something to pop into their feed that shifts their perspective,” Duke said. “We want to be able to pop into people’s feed and be like, ‘Hey, remember the Lord loves you.'”
They reach Catholics and non-Catholics alike with their content, which includes trendy, fun and lighthearted posts. She remembered a popular video Ascension did with the Sisters of Life, a community of religious women, where they answered the internet’s top questions about nuns.
“If they interact with that, they’re also going to keep seeing more Catholic stuff in their feed and hopefully that could be a subtle invitation of, ‘Hey, come home,’ — or at least learn more about our faith.”
A focus on AI
Keeping in mind Pope Leo XIV’s focus on AI, these experts anticipated AI’s impact on the digital media landscape.
“AI worries me in that I think it’s becoming a replacement for either deep thinking (just as easy to get a chatbot to spit out a quick summary, right?) or it’s becoming a shadow of real relationships (let’s chat with a bot rather than engage with a human),” Prejean McGrady said. “I think AI is especially insidious when it’s used to craft art, rather than utilizing the gifts and talents of remarkable Catholic artists.”
“AI is a tool that WE should use, well, but I fear it’s going to begin using us, and we have to be honest and forthright about that,” she added.
At the same time, she said, AI can be useful. An AI app helps her with email organization and daily task lists.
“But it cannot and should not ever replace human creativity and deep thinking and contemplation that leads to the good, engaging, life-giving content we’re called to share online,” she cautioned.
At Ascension, Duke sees firsthand the benefits and threats of AI. She spoke about fake social accounts that pretend to be certain priests who work with Ascension and message people for money in scams. She expressed concern about the use of deepfakes, particularly impersonations of priests and other religious, that might be used in scams.
She also sees positive aspects: Ascension created a Father Schmitz action figure with ChatGPT for a fun April Fools joke.
At the same time, Duke concluded, “as a Catholic brand, we always want to stay rooted in real people and in real stories and the real Gospel.”
Advice for everyday Catholics
For everyday Catholics, there are many ways to evangelize online, these experts said.
“Don’t try to mimic someone else’s content or account, don’t just follow the trends to try and go quickly viral,” Prejean McGrady said. “Be yourself.”
“Blessed Carlo (Acutis) talked about how we’re born originals and die photocopies,” she added. “I think about that a lot, especially when scrolling social media or posting content myself. Is this a ‘photocopy’ of something else, or is this something original, unique to me, that expresses my faith and shares my love of Jesus, and could help someone else encounter him too?”
She focused on authenticity once more.
“We have to be aware that it’s so easy to fall prey to just wanting to go viral or make money or be popular among the crowd,” she said. “The goal should not be ‘influencers with influence’ — the goal should be ‘influencing for faith.'”
Quoting Spider-Man, Jarzembowski stressed that “with great power comes great responsibility.” He encouraged Catholics to embrace humility as well as remember the source of their influence.
“Many digital missionaries may think of themselves as the ones who are going to save all the people they encounter online,” he said. “But we know that it’s only Jesus who saves.”
He also suggested asking: “How can I model Christ, the servant leader, by serving and supporting others through digital media? How can I bring about healing and reconciliation in digital ways? And what might I actually learn from others about Christ that I think I know, that they may have to reveal to me?”
For her part, Duke encouraged people to share their faith, from moments at Mass to Bible verses. She also suggested they share others’ content that they like.
“It doesn’t have to be this super perfect thing or it doesn’t have to be this catered trend. … If there’s a moment that stood out to you and your encounter with Christ in your day-to-day walk, don’t be afraid to share that,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to show your faith and who you are and what that means to you.”
“Just do it,” she said. “You never know who you’re going to reach — and who needs to hear it.”
