The initiative The Church listens to you has submitted to the General Secretariat of the Synod of Synodality a document with the synthesis of the results obtained by a survey carried out by 244 influencers Catholics through their profiles on social networks.
“Now we know that 30% of those who follow us do not go to church, but are following a digital missionary», declared the religious of the Pureza de María Xiskya Valladares congregation, one of the most active religious in digital evangelization and who has participated in the initiative. “The more educated we are, the more we help the Holy Spirit continue to act on the internet as well,” she insisted.
A network to evangelize
The text sent to the Synod claims that the network can be a “training channel of value and future”, which can serve as a means of communication for evangelization. “The web makes it possible to reach the folds of so many lives of the People of God who show they feel lost,” says the document.
For this reason, they express the need to develop “a digital pastoral in an organic, systematic and institutional manner” that promotes communion, participation and missionin addition to a reflection from Theology and Canon Law “as is done with catechists”, so that the influencers «be and feel part of the Body and the Mission of the Church».
Tune in with Francis
In this sense, the secretary of the Dicastery for Communication in the Vatican, Lucio Ruiz, has declared that “the fact that 30% of those who have participated in the questionnaire are not believers, or are agnostics or alienated from the Church, means a lot for the Church, it means that in these influencers or digital missionaries find a friendly voice in which they trust and through which the caress of God reaches them».
For the preparation of the document, 110,000 questionnaires have been carried out in 115 countries and in seven languages, and it has given rise to more than 150,000 synodal proposals. The respondents, with an average age of 40 years, have been both people who declare themselves Catholic or practicing and non-believers. For their part, of the influencers who have been part of the initiative, 27% are priests; 10%, religious; and 63% are catechists and committed lay people.
a clear church
Among the results, it stands out that 67% of the Catholics surveyed feel in tune with Pope Francis and 37% ask for “an exemplary and courageous Church in its structures, attitudes and way of proceeding”. They also claim to the Church that speaks and acts clearly “In the face of what appears to be unjustifiable, such as pedophilia, sexual abuse, contempt for women, corruption.” Regarding the liturgy, 20% consider that the masses are “boring”.
Regarding suggestions for the future, the participants underlined, among others: promote spirituality (silence, contemplation); accompany couples, families, separated and divorced people, people in poverty, migrants, LGTBI groups, ethnic groups and prisoners; and promote equality for women in society and the Church.
Catholic ‘influencers’ and digital evangelization: “30% of those who follow us do not go to Church”