Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday participated in the Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica on the occasion of the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, encouraging them to create encounters “between hearts” regardless of the number of followers they have.
The Holy Father arrived at the Vatican basilica at the end of the Mass, which was celebrated by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.
More than a thousand Catholics from different countries participated in the event, which also coincided with the Jubilee of Youth, filling the basilica with young and enthusiastic faces.
In his address — delivered in Italian, English, and Spanish — Pope Leo XIV shared three missions or challenges when it comes to evangelizing online:
1. Proclaim peace to the world.
For Pope Leo, peace “needs to be sought, proclaimed, and shared everywhere; both in places where we see the tragedy of war and in the empty hearts of those who have lost any meaning of life and the desire for introspection and the spiritual life.”
Leo emphasized that “today more than ever, we need missionary disciples who convey the gift of the risen Lord to the world” and who give voice to the hope that the living Jesus gives us “to the ends of the earth” and to “the farthest reaches, where there is no hope.”
2. Seek the “suffering flesh of Christ” in those one encounters.
The Holy Father asked Catholic influencers to always seek “the suffering flesh of Christ” in every brother or sister they encounter online.
In the context of a new culture shaped by technology, he appealed to the responsibility of digital missionaries to ensure that culture “remains human.”
“Nothing that comes from man and his creativity should be used to undermine the dignity of others. Our mission — your mission — is to nurture a culture of Christian humanism and to do so together. This is the beauty of the ‘internet’ for all of us,” the pope stated.
Faced with cultural changes throughout history, the pope emphasized that “the Church has never remained passive; she has always sought to illuminate every age with the light and hope of Christ by discerning good from evil and what was good from what needed to be changed, transformed, and purified.”
Given the challenge of artificial intelligence, the Holy Father emphasized that we must reflect on the authenticity of our witness, “on our ability to listen and speak, and on our capacity to understand and to be understood. We have a duty to work together to develop a way of thinking, to develop a language, of our time, that gives voice to love,” he noted.
“It is not simply a matter of generating content but of creating an encounter of hearts. This will entail seeking out those who suffer, those who need to know the Lord, so that they may heal their wounds, get back on their feet, and find meaning in their lives,” the pontiff added.
To achieve this, he advised “accepting our own poverty, letting go of all pretense and recognizing our own inherent need for the Gospel. And this process is a communal endeavor.”
3. Go and mend the nets.
Just as Jesus called his first apostles while they were mending their fishing nets, Pope Leo XIV said that “he also asks this of us.”
The pope noted that “he asks the same of us today. Indeed, he asks us to weave other nets: networks of relationships, of love, of gratuitous sharing where friendship is profound and authentic.”
“Networks where we can mend what has been broken, heal from loneliness, not focus on the number of followers but experience the greatness of infinite love in every encounter,” he counseled.
In short, the pontiff encouraged the missionaries and influencers to create “networks that give space to others more than to ourselves, where no ‘bubble’ can silence the voices of the weakest; networks that liberate and save; networks that help us rediscover the beauty of looking into each other’s eyes; networks of truth. In this way, every story of shared goodness will be a knot in a single, immense network: the network of networks, the network of God.”
He also invited them to be “agents of communion” and to avoid individualism. Finally, he thanked them for their commitment and for the help they offer to those suffering, and “for your journey along the virtual highways.”
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This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
