In the Catholic Church, the number of Christian communicators using smartphones and devices to spread the Gospel directly through young people’s feeds is growing. There are over 3,000 active digital missionaries from 70 nations. During the first festival of Catholic influencers, held at World Youth Day, 577 of them met in person: a global gathering of Gospel 2.0. What is the possible audience they could reach? 20 million people. However, connections are the primary focus rather than numbers. They create communities, not followers. They reply to private messages. They pray for individuals in crisis. They listen to non-believers' questions. In recent months, 244 digital missionaries collected over 150 thousand questionnaires, with 30% of the responses coming from non-believers or persons outside of the faith. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts are the most popular platforms, not for theological reasons, but because they are successful at transmitting brief, emotionally resonant, and visually selected messages. The Vatican has announced the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, to be held on July 28–29, 2025.
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