Evangelization and Social Media
Encountering the Neighbor Online
One of the more interesting people who will be participating in the upcoming Synod on Synodality is Paolo Ruffini, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication. That dicastery is responsible for all media communications from the Vatican, including the Vatican News service, Vatican Radio, the newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and the Vatican’s publishing arms. At the Synod, Ruffini will be responsible for overseeing media access to the event. He will be assisted by Dr. Sheila Leocádia Pires, a Mozambican by birth who works as a radio producer and presenter for the Catholic bishops in South Africa and whom I briefly highlighted in my survey of Synod participants from Africa. One reason Ruffini is noteworthy because he is the first layperson to lead a Vatican dicastery (formerly called congregations), a reflection of the changing shape of the Roman Curia under Pope Francis and of what synodality looks like at the top echelons of the Church.
Perhaps Ruffini’s most significant act in this role was the publication in May of this year of Towards Full Presence: A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media, a document offering discernment regarding the realities of social media and what Christians’ presence on social media should look like. I didn’t remark on the document when it was published, so I thought it would be worthwhile to now offer some reflections on it, particularly on social media as a field for evangelization—not just in the sense of apologetics, but in the broadest sense of witnessing to the Gospel in one’s words and actions.
In my interview with Dr. Mary Kate Holman back in April, we discussed how the French Dominican theologian Marie-Dominique Chenu proposed that, when faced with the reality of secularization, the Church should not think in terms of people or populations “lost” to the Church. Rather, secularization has led to the emergence of new “worlds” that have never known the presence of the Gospel, even if those worlds come to be in the midst of geographical locations (such as France, in Chenu’s case) that have been traditionally Christian. For Chenu, that new world was the life of industrial workers, and the worker priest movement, of which Chenu was an enthusiastic supporter, was an attempt, albeit an imperfect one, to provide an evangelizing presence to that world.
In contemporary times, social media is another such new world in need of an evangelizing presence. As Toward Full Presence points out, social media is not simply a tool we use for communication, but a virtual “space” in which we build relationships and even communities (3). Although millions of people do not use social media, either by choice or because of lack of access, there are now approximately 4.8 billion social media users worldwide, just shy of 60 percent of the world population. Unlike industrial workers in the early 20th century, social media users do not make up a specific sector of society, but rather come from all walks of life, although, as Toward Full Presence points out, we can certainly divide the world into “digital natives” who have spent their whole lives immersed in the world of the internet and social media, and “digital immigrants” who have had to learn how to navigate this world (9). Still, the evangelization of social media is not a case of “outsiders” entering a world foreign to them, but rather of witnessing in a world most of us already inhabit, to one degree or another.
Because Christians are inhabitants of this new world or space, the evangelization of social media will require Christians to discern how they themselves are in need of conversion in their use of social media. Of course, personal conversion should always be part of evangelization, but that seems particularly true regarding social media use. And here is where Toward Full Presence is particularly insightful. Drawing on the growing body of what you might call the sociology of social media, the document outlines many of the vicious habits fostered by the way social media is designed:
“content overload” and the difficulty of verifying information makes it easy for misinformation to spread (14);
algorithms based on likes and clicks create “filter bubbles” that contribute to polarization and isolation (14-15);
social media algorithms also favor aggressive posts or misinformation that are sure to generate reactions, creating environments that build up anger and potentially contribute to violence (16).
Toward Full Presence insists that Christians are not immune to these pitfalls, and in fact can fall prey to them precisely as Christians; it notes that often Christians on social media engage in “hostile interactions” and use “violent, degrading words,” even when ostensibly “sharing Christian content,” behaviors that “cry out from the screen and are a contradiction to the Gospel itself” (50). It goes on to say that “We must be mindful of posting and sharing content that can cause misunderstanding, exacerbate division, incite conflict, and deepen prejudices,” and warns that:
We can all fall into the temptation of looking for the “speck in the eye” of our brothers and sisters (Mt 7:3) by making public accusations on social media, stirring up divisions within the Church community or arguing about who among us is the greatest, as the first disciples did (Lk 9:46).
Toward Full Presence, almost in the style of a long homily, draws on Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan to show how Christians can be a witness to the Gospel in the midst of these pitfalls by adopting a set of practices that run counter to these tendencies. We can be passersby who are connected online but do not allow those connections to grow into true encounters, or we can be the Samaritan who seeks to “heal” the wounds on social media by engaging with it in a different way (52-53).
With all of these risks, to which Christians are as prone as anyone else, one might wonder why it is worthwhile for Christians to engage with social media at all. Indeed, Massimo Faggioli, writing at Commonweal soon after Toward Full Presence’s publication, wonders whether the document is too sanguine in its assessment of the dangers of social media. According to Faggioli, the document downplays the growing body of research showing the negative psychological impact of social media use, particularly for young people. It does seem like the document focuses on how social media can encourage vicious behavior in our online interactions without giving adequate attention to its broader personal and social effects, not just the potential psychological harm, but also its impact on the growth of hate groups and the effect of the spread of misinformation on the democratic process. This omission is all the more striking given the document’s insistence that digital technology has become so pervasive that “some no longer speak of ‘online’ versus ‘offline’ but only of ‘onlife’, incorporating human and social life in its various expressions, be they in digital or physical spaces” (9).
At first, Toward Full Presence seems to suggest that Christians must engage with social media because it is a fait accompli: “In fact, the question is no longer whether to engage with the digital world, but how” (1). Although that statement may contain a kernel of truth, as the document states later (in a passage I will return to), “[T]he social web is not cast in stone. We can change it” (58). The refusal to use social media, at least in its current form, could be a radical strategy for bringing about this change.
As it progresses, however, Toward Full Presence develops a more positive understanding of the value of social media. Interestingly, it appeals to the original, almost utopian, vision of the internet’s founders, “the hope that the digital world would be a happy space of common understanding, free information, and collaboration,” a kind of technological “promised land” (11). Although the reality has not lived up to the promise, we still “turn to social media for a sense of belonging and affirmation, transforming it into a vital space where the communication of core values and beliefs takes place” (10). This theme is underdeveloped in the document, but it suggests that the evangelization of social media means its transformation, not just to better embody that original, utopian vision, but to at least partially reflect our eschatological “promised land.”
The promise of social media is its ability to grow a “culture of encounter” that defies the limits of time and space (45). Digital encounters “can be an avenue to engage sincerely with others, to engage in meaningful conversations, to express solidarity, and to relieve someone’s isolation and pain” (48). In what I think is one of the key passages in the document, it states that the purpose of communication is to share the truth, and an encounter is a form of communication in which the participants share the truth about themselves, “fundamental truths about what one holds and what one is” (45). It’s worth noting this definition of an encounter is remarkably similar to the Protestant theologian Karl Barth’s account of an authentic encounter that I discussed (drawing on an essay by Andrew Proudfoot) in relation to whether artificial intelligence can engage in pastoral care. According to Toward Full Presence, this sharing of the truth about oneself is at the heart of true community, and it can exist online as well as face to face.
Much of Toward Full Presence is focused on suggesting social media practices that can help Christians build this culture of encounter online. These practices include:
truly listening to others we meet online, and taking time for silence to reflect on what we see online, including taking time away from social media (25-36);
seeking “closeness, compassion, and tenderness” in one’s online activity, rather than a strategy of promoting engagement for its own sake (64);
trying to share only truthful information and to draw information from credible sources (66)—as I have written elsewhere, this requires developing the intellectual virtues;
thinking of our social media activity as the contribution of our talents for the building up of the Church community rather than as a kind of self-promotion (67-68).
Although predominantly focused on these specific practices for transforming social media interactions, the document also takes what you could call a more structural approach, as well. In one of my favorite passages, it insists that our reflection on how we engage with social media must begin with “an awareness of how these networks work and the opportunities and challenges we face in them” (25). Just as a contemporary approach to evangelization involves gradually gaining an understanding of a culture and the social structures that shape everyday life, including those that could be identified as “structures of sin,” Christian engagement with social media can’t be naive, but rather must be aware of the structures of the digital world.
This knowledge helps us discern the practices, like those listed above, that will challenge the vicious habits fostered on social media. But it also helps us to challenge the very structures that contribute to those vicious habits. In a key passage I already partially cited, Toward Full Presence states:
We can think even bigger: the social web is not cast in stone. We can change it. We can become drivers of change, imagining new models built on trust, transparency, equality, and inclusion. Together, we can urge media companies to reconsider their roles and let the internet become a truly public space. Well-structured public spaces are able to promote better social behavior. We need, therefore, to rebuild digital spaces so that they will become more human and healthier environments. (58)
As I have previously noted, the rapid changes to Twitter implemented after its takeover by Elon Musk, and the search for alternatives (like BlueSky, Threads, and Mastodon) by those fleeing Twitter has brought to greater consciousness the way that a social media platform’s structure, right down to seemingly small details like whether you can repost (“quote tweet”) someone else’s post or only reply to others’ posts, can profoundly impact the user experience. Different sets of rules create different “possible worlds” in the social media universe.
Toward Full Presence doesn’t go into detail on how everyday users could have an influence on social media companies, and perhaps that would be asking too much (it also seems to assume that Christians will only be users of social media, and not designers). It does, however, note that the commodification of social media through the use of data-driven, targeted advertising and largescale data collection. It even criticizes the impossibly long and obscure terms of agreement through which social media users sign away their rights to their data, which has been a focus of my own writing. Indeed, the document treats the commodification of social media as akin to the Fall from the original “promised land”:
Today it is not possible to talk about “social media” without considering its commercial value, that is, without the awareness that the actual revolution occurred when brands and institutions realized the strategic potential of social platforms, contributing to a rapid consolidation of languages and practices that over the years transformed users into consumers. (13, bold added for emphasis)
Given that claim, it is somewhat disappointing that the document doesn’t say more about the potential for non-profit, de-centralized platforms like Mastodon or even privately-owned but open-source and de-centralized platforms like BlueSky to encourage the “trust, transparency, equality, and inclusion” that Toward Full Presence envisions.
Toward Full Presence provides a balanced, nuanced, and theologically rich description of the challenges and promise of social media. Although once or twice verging on being corny in its use of neologisms and digital lingo, for the most part its language in fact demonstrates a deep understanding of social media and digital culture. Faggioli, in the article cited earlier, notes that, given the document’s focus on building authentic community online, it could draw more on the theology of the Church found in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, but that being said, it is grounded in a deep, contemporary theology of evangelization.
What are some practices you think can help Christians faithfully navigate social media? What are some changes you would like to see made to social media platforms that would help them build “trust, transparency, equality, and inclusion”? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Of Interest…
Writing again at Commonweal, Massimo Faggioli responds to Pope Francis’s remarks at World Youth Day regarding Catholic “reactionaries” in the United States (which I also commented on here and here) with a rundown of Pope Francis’s relationship with the American Church since his election in 2013, including the conflict over the two Synods on the Family in 2014 and 2015 and the U.S. backing for Carlo Maria Viganò’s 2018 accusations regarding Francis’s supposed complicity in the abuse perpetrated by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Faggioli’s article is a helpful reminder of the long history of these tensions. One incident he leaves out is the controversy generated by Francis’s criticisms of an unbridled free market economy in Evangelii Gaudium, the latter not different in substance from criticism in earlier popes’ social encyclicals but more strident in tone.
In last week’s reflection on the continental document from Europe, the latter produced in preparation for the upcoming Synod on Synodality, I noted that the document draws on the remarks given at the opening of Europe’s Continental Assembly given by the Czech philosopher and theologian Tomáš Halík. most notably his appeal to a “kenotic ecclesiology” willing to let old forms of being Church die so that the new can live. In Commonweal, Luke Timothy Johnson has a review of Halík’s recent book Touch the Wounds: On Suffering, Trust, and Transformation, a volume of essays on how God, in Christ, “identified himself fully with—has participated in—the suffering of all the world,” and thus calls on members of the Body of Christ to live in solidarity with those who suffer in the world. Coincidentally, in the introductory theology course I am teaching this semester, this week we are reading the chapter of Elizabeth Johnson’s Quest for Living God on God and suffering, focusing on the work of Jürgen Moltmann, Dorothee Sölle, and Johann Baptist Metz, who all in different ways reflect on God’s solidarity with those who suffer. Halík’s work sounds like it is in that same vein, and Johnson’s review makes me eager to check it out.
Coming Soon…
I know I sound like a broken record, but I continue to work on my profiles of the Synod participants from Europe. Western Europe alone has over 100 delegates and experts attending the Synod, far more than any other single continent (Latin America and the Caribbean is sending 80 participants), and the sheer numbers are making this slow work. I hope I can have the report on Western Europe ready by this weekend, and then the survey of Eastern Europe participants ready some time next week. Soon after, I will send out a new post collecting in one place all the essays in the Synod on Synodality World Tour series, without paywalls, as a resource as the Synod begins its work.
The preparation for today’s article, with its focus on evangelization, got me thinking, “Whatever happened to the New Evangelization?” I hope to write an upcoming post on that question, perhaps next week while I’m working on the post on Eastern European participants in the Synod.
Another topic I would like to write on, but need to study more, is the trend of Christian, and even Catholic, “deconstruction.” Having surprisingly little to do with Jacques Derrida, instead “deconstruction” refers to the process by which religious believers, sometimes particularly those who have experienced some form of religious abuse, critically assess their beliefs, some leaving Christianity entirely, others embracing new forms of Christian belief and practice. Author Sarah Carter is in the midst of a series on deconstruction from a Catholic perspective at her new and noteworthy Substack newsletter Recovering Catholic that is worth checking out (and I recently subscribed to the newsletter!).