When Francisco Xavier arrived in India, or when Mother Cabrini arrived in the United States, neither believed that conversion could occur overnight.
First, I needed to get to know the people, learn the language, and understand the local customs and culture. Only then could they begin evangelizing.
And according to some of the participants at last October’s Synod on Synodality, it’s time for the Church to apply the same approach to the digital world.
“For 20 centuries, we have never been afraid to go out as a church,” José Manuel de Urquidi told me. “You’re sent on a mission, but who knows what will happen?”
For Urquidy, founder of the Juan Diego Network, which helps Catholic digital missions connect with Latinos, the Church must understand that sending missionaries to new frontiers comes with risks, including martyrdom. I always knew.
José Manuel de Urquidi claims that the Internet is a “meeting place” and that “it is not a tool, but rather a culture.”
“We’ve never been afraid of it,” he said. “Why are we afraid of the Internet now? What’s different?”
During last fall’s conference, Urquidi was one of the few voices who maintained throughout the month-long summit that the Internet is a “meeting place” and “more of a culture than a tool.”
His message was direct. Just like the missionaries centuries ago, the digital space “is where we need to be. We need to learn the language and be active.”
And Mr. Urquidy is only 39 years old, a young man who represents the target demographic most church leaders desperately want to get more people into their pews.
Pioneering efforts in this area began more than a year before the 400 Congress delegates arrived in Rome. Under the banner “The Church is Listening” (also known as the “Digital Synod”), it was the brainchild of Mizgul. Lucio Ruiz, Vatican Secretary of Communications and Diplomacy.
The project has activated a group of “digital missionaries,” which started with 250 people and now numbers over 2,000, to actively engage both Catholics and non-Catholics and ensure their voices are heard as well. Did. These were eventually incorporated into a comprehensive document during the continental phase of the conference.
The idea is that these digital missionaries (Catholics with large followings online) use mediums like podcasts, WhatsApp, and social media platforms to engage people in conversations and, most importantly, was to listen to their concerns.
As a result, tens of thousands of respondents wanted to contribute to the conversation about how the church can become more welcoming, immigrant and environmentally friendly, peacebuilding committed, and supportive of families and youth. Many were non-believers.
“You have to go where the people are,” Lewis told me. “As a missionary, you have to go there and learn the language, learn the music, and learn the culture in order to get your message to them.”
During the first week of the conference, St. María Siskiya Validares of Nicaragua was one of the first delegates to formally address the topic of the Church’s digital mission.
It is known as.twitter nun” Validares told the audience, including the Pope, that within the digital realm, he encounters people whose “wounds need to be healed.”
“It is not enough to tell them about the Mass schedule or invite them to visit the cathedral if we do not first approach them to dialogue and listen to them,” she says. . “Sometimes they feel confused or embarrassed and need a ‘traveling companion’ to help them. To be that companion, we have to step outside of ourselves and our way of thinking. , we need to meet them, listen to them and accompany them.”
Validares recalls that time when many synod participants approached her and de Urquidi during coffee breaks and small group discussions and asked them what they thought about the church’s digital mission. He said he was starting to learn more about it. Many were concerned about reaching young people and felt this might be a useful starting point.
When the conference’s synthesis document was published at the end of October 2023, one of its 20 chapters was devoted to this very topic.
Chapter 17, titled “Mission in the Digital Environment,” proposes the creation of a cooperative network of digital missionaries to “unleash new energies for new forms of mission.”
“It’s not enough just to create content,” such as posting on Instagram or TikTok, Lewis argued, but rather to tap into digital culture and interact with the real people who are there. .
“The ultimate goal is to bring people back to sacramental life,” de Urquidi said. “But sometimes there are a hundred steps to the journey.”
As for what will happen next, de Urquidy, who was born and raised in Mexico but now lives in the United States and has helped launch nearly 100 podcasts, said the bishops will have to figure out who the digital missionaries in their dioceses are. He says it is important to start understanding what is going on. And take the time to get to know them. Missionaries can also meet with the bishop.
“You have to go where the people are. As a missionary, you have to go there and learn the language, learn the music, learn the culture in order to get your message to them.”
-teacher.Lucio Ruiz
The hope is that dioceses will find ways to recognize digital missionaries, form them, send them on missions, and accompany them on missions.
Ruiz told me that the Archdiocese of Bogota in Colombia has already agreed to launch a pilot project and hopes that other countries will work on it, especially in the run-up to the next synod next October. He said he was doing it.
But while the Digital Mission is deeply connected to the Synod, Mr. de Urquidi was quick to remind me that the Vatican Conference is just a starting point.
“This is the beginning of the church recognizing the Internet as a missionary frontier,” he claimed.
“People are looking for meaning, they are looking for love, they are looking for truth. They are looking for God, and most of them don’t know it,” he continued. “People aren’t going to church, but they’re using their devices. So we have to go to church and show them who is love.”
