Over 1,000 Roman Catholic priests are convening in Rome for a social media summit to explore strategies for integrating social media into their missions.
The event, part of the Church’s Jubilee Year celebrated every 25 years, will cover best practices and pitfalls to avoid in promoting the Catholic faith to a new generation.
The global summit follows Pope Francis’ call, shortly before his passing, for digital evangelism to become a “key priority” for the Church.
Among those leading the way is Father Cosimo Schena from Brindisi, Italy, known online as “the poet of God’s love”.
Fr Cosimo Schena, the priest of San Francesco church in the southern Italian city of Brindisi has become well known as “the poet of God’s love” after publishing spiritual poems across his social media accounts. With over 450,000 followers on Instagram, he shares spiritual reflections, poems, and videos featuring his dogs.
“The important thing is to deliver a beautiful and credible testimony, and to spread God’s universal language of love,” he said. “I get lots of messages from people seeking help and comfort, not just from those who believe in God.”
Then there’s Fr Ambrogio Mazzai, rugged, guitar-playing, and often seen biking through scenic mountain trails. His photos and videos have earned him a loyal audience who, judging by the comments, appreciate both his sermons and his aesthetics.
Others expected to attend include Fr Giuseppe Fusari, a tattooed priest in the northern town of Brescia who loves bodybuilding and Fr Stefano Maria Bordignon, a friar known online as FraStefano, who uses YouTube to comment on the gospel.
This movement toward “Catholic influencers” is part of the Vatican’s broader aim to remain relevant in a digital-first culture.
Despite leading one of the most traditional religious institutions in the world, Pope Francis never came off as distant or unapproachable. Instead, he worked to humanise the papacy and make it relatable, often by sharing humble anecdotes from his past, like working as a nightclub bouncer or a janitor in Buenos Aires. His authenticity struck a chord. Within a year of becoming pope, he was named Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ and even appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.
He once said, “To paint the pope as some sort of a Superman, a star, is offensive. The pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps calmly, and has friends as everyone else. A normal person.”
Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost and the first American to hold the papacy, has inherited this modernising vision since taking office in May.
Francis X. Rocca, the Vatican editor of EWTN News, believes that social media is essential to the Church’s future and that the energy driving this transformation is coming from young Catholics themselves.
“It’s not going to be the Vatican office of communications or some diocese that is going to generate the most innovation in this area,” Rocca said. “But there are a lot of young people, some of whom are coming to Rome, who are experimenting, and they will be the vanguard.”
(Picture Courtesy: Reuters)
