A Filipino bishop advised Catholic media workers, even online personalities and social media influencers, to focus more on spreading the Gospel and less on monitoring the number of their followers.
Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Midyphil Billones said that becoming obsessed with a so-called ‘followers system’ will pull away communicators from their true mission of being “online missionaries of God.”
“As a messenger, you are meant to gain not your followers but followers for Christ,” he said.
Bishop Billones was delivering his keynote address during the opening of the Catholic Social Media Summit (CSMS) in the Archdiocese of Cebu on December 2.
The bishop said that there is more to online evangelization than statistics alone.
“In the Catholic online community, this doesn’t matter as long as you encourage them to find strength in their faith. You have served your purpose,” he emphasized.
“Even with far fewer followers, you lead people to Christ; that is better than a million followers that you lead away from the Lord,” he further said.
Even though evil is constantly contaminating and manipulating the digital world, Bishop Billiones stated that Catholic media professionals must learn to become "bridge-builders."
“We must never lose sight that [social media] can bring forth our energies within and convert the space into a sacred space of encounter of the human and the Divine,” the bishop said.
Furthermore, Bishop Billones called on the youth to guide their elders and the clergy in trekking the “hills and valleys of the online world.”
“You are special navigators,” said the prelate. “Together, we will fulfill our role in drawing all to Christ.”
Now in its 12th year, the two-day summit welcomed more than 400 Catholic media workers and social communicators in a hybrid setting, with participants attending the event both physically and virtually.
This event was organized by the Filipino youth group YouthPinoy and the media organization Areopagus Communications. Both are under the auspices of the Media Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).- Luke Godoy
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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