Catholic influencers at WYD are called 'to announce Christ Jesus in digital spaces'

By Alessandro di Bussolo and Francesca Merlo - Lisbon, Portugal

The Church "needs you, dear digital influencers, to be the leaven of hope in these new spaces of social construction that are social networks and digital networks."

The question "is no longer whether or not we will interact with digital culture", this is now an irreversible fact, but the reflection imposed on us "is to know how to do it".

Thus Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, involved hundreds of young digital influencers in the mission "to culturally translate the message of Jesus" in today's digital world.

He did so at the Portuguese Catholic University of Lisbon, in his homily at the Mass which concluded the meeting held at the end of Pope Francis' encounter with young university students on Thursday, an event promoted by the Dicastery for Communication (Vatican News' parent organization).

WYD: an opportunity to get to know the "digital next"

The 37th World Youth Day, underway in the Portuguese capital until 6 August, according to Cardinal de Mendonça offers an opportunity to be able to learn to recognise our "digital neighbour", because it brings together hundreds of thousands of young people face to face, "to show the world that war, the dictatorship of indifference and inequality between human beings are not inevitable."

Young people can thus realise Pope Francis' dream when he speaks of the need to build a "culture of encounter" and "challenges us to be protagonists together in the missionary dream of reaching out to everyone."

Imagination to proclaim the faith out of doors

The prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education told Catholic influencers: "Now it is your turn. It is up to you to fall in love with Christ, to make Him the centre of your personal story."

"Christianity needs witnesses who say precisely this," he explained, "who express it credibly first and foremost with their own lives. Contemporary Christianity," added the Portuguese Cardinal, needs "existential credibility on the part of Christians. But it also needs cultural credibility."

The worst thing that can happen to us, he said, "is to talk to ourselves, to reduce the experience of faith to a clandestine conversation or to the circle of those who are already convinced, clinging to a language that the men and women of today do not understand. Jesus is good news. Today's mission asks you to inhabit the new Areopagus. It asks for imagination and courage to announce the faith out of doors, in heterogeneous contexts, where the traditional presence of religious does not arrive, or arrives in a transformed and rarefied way."

'Make it felt that you are the Church'

And finally, Cardinal de Mendonça reminded the young influencers that "the Church is a team effort": sometimes we see "that social networks function like a bubble, where polarisation and rejection are easily normalised."

What triumphs, unfortunately, is "the logic of the mirror and a certain tribalisation of discourse, very different from the synodal mission that Jesus entrusts to us. He exhorts us to walk towards others."

The Cardinal wrapped up his homily by urging Catholic influencers to feel at home in the Catholic Church. "Make it felt that you are the Church. Fill yourselves with your youth, with your joy. Act as co-responsible for her and her mission."

Msgr. Ruiz: 'Influencers of God's tenderness and mercy'

At the end of the homily, the young people approached a large crucifix, painted in the WYD colours, so that each person could place on it a post-it note, which had been previously given to them at the entrance. Each young person thus offered to the Lord their social media usernames, which they had carefully written on the post-it upon arrival.

Afterwards, Monsignor Lucio Ruiz, Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication, asked for the celebrating Cardinal's blessing on the young Catholic influencers, called them "influencers of God's tenderness and mercy" like Mary. 

For the past year, the project "The Church listens to you", explained Msgr. Ruiz, which accompanies the ongoing Synod and was dubbed the "digital synod", has been discovering this "river of grace, love and mission, bringing them together, making them feel the caress of the Church, which sees and values the mission and encourages them to be an outgoing Church and to go to the existential peripheries."

Dr. Ruffini: A different kind of communication in social media

Before the celebration, during the first of several Catholic influencers meetings at WYD (another will be held on Friday evening, 4 August, after the WYD Way of the Cross), Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, offered several words of welcome, along with Msgr. Ruiz, who presented all the participants with a small wooden cross and an icon blessed by Pope Francis.

Dr. Ruffini thanked the young influencers "for having accompanied with your reflections our pastoral reflection on the Christian presence on social networks."

Since our age is a digital one, he said, "we are all digital missionaries. We must all be 'fully present'. Young people are digital natives, and 'those who, like me, come from another era', are digital migrants."

A network that frees and does not enslave

Dr. Ruffini spoke also about the importance of gathering together to "network with each other". He mentioned the Dicastery for Communication's new document "Towards Full Presence", and urged young people to move from words to deeds.

"Building something in social media is a truly different form of communication," he said.

The Prefect added that "a network of witnesses must be created who are aware of the difference between the Spirit that unites us and the algorithms that fail to perceive the love in which everything exists."

He urged Catholic influencers to be willing to open themselves up to others, without pretending to be someone they are not. "Only in this way will our network be different," he said, saying social media needs to be "a net of freedom that frees you rather than enslaving you."

Cardinal Tagle: 'Only Jesus will make us true influencers'

Also among the concelebrants was Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, who expressed his hopes that digital influencers would find "a way to understand and practise Gospel-based influence or, better still, to learn from Jesus how to influence others."

The Filippino-born Cardinal invited Catholic influencers to lead their bishops, priests, religious and peers "into this territory as fertile ground for ministry and mission," reminding them that "every influencer who wants to be an evangeliser must be influenced by Jesus and His Gospel. Only Jesus will make us true influencers. The world already has many false influencers for false purposes."