‘Cyber-priests’
talk #evangelization
Diocesan
clergy are using social media to reach the faithful.
Dave Borowski
| Catholic Herald
The era of social media began almost 15 years ago with
the social networking sites MySpace and Hi5. Those two pioneers are still
around, but giants like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have taken many of
their users.
Long embraced by athletes and other celebrities,
religious organizations and clergy now are using social media platforms to
reach the faithful.
The Catholic Herald has an active Facebook following
of nearly 4,300, with more than 10,000 Twitter followers. Catholic Herald
editorial s taffers live-tweet from events, sharing photos and videos.
The Arlington Diocese has a strong social media
presence with nearly 7,540 followers on Facebook and 9,270 on Twitter.
Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde has a Twitter account
with more than 2,200 followers and more than 340 tweets.
Several Arlington diocesan priests reach out to people
on social media to evangelize, to comfort and counsel, and to draw people to
the faith.
Father José E. Hoyos, director of the diocesan Spanish
Apostolate, may have one of the largest social media followings in the diocese
with about 21,000 followers on Facebook and about 2,000 Twitter followers. He
posts to each daily.
Father Hoyos said answering his Facebook posts keeps
him up late at night.
“People want to hear about the Gospel,” he said,
adding that many people are depressed and ask, “Please Father, pray for me.”
And while most of his followers are in the diocese, he
has followers from around the country and in other parts of the world. His
popularity on social media is built through word of mouth.
Twitter’s restriction of 140 characters makes it
difficult to tweet about complex theological themes, he said, but he posts a
daily Gospel message.
Father Hoyos is an active user of YouTube, posting
more than 800 videos of his homilies, and he uses Instagram, but Facebook is
his primary platform. One of his followers in Colombia called him the
“cyber-priest.”
Father Bjorn C. Lundberg, chaplain of Saint John Paul
the Great Catholic High School in Dumfries, uses Facebook to keep in touch with
friends and family. In the beginning, he would just share posts from other
sources.
“I was the Lundberg News Service,” he said.
For him, social media is a tool and a great way to
evangelize. He likes to think of it as an online homily.
“I’m not (Bishop) Fulton Sheen,” he laughed. “I have
maybe 8, 10 or 15 minutes to reach someone (at Mass). It’s limited.”
But with Facebook, he can take his time to compose a
post.
“I’m inspired by Pope Francis,” he said, citing the
pontiff’s 2 million Facebook followers.
Social media platforms are nonthreatening and
effective tools for reaching people, he said, adding that he thinks more
parishes should take advantage of it.
Father Christopher J. Pollard, pastor of St. John the
Beloved Church in McLean, uses social media to publicize events at his parish.
Facebook is more for his generation, he said, and
Twitter reaches a younger crowd.
He live-streams church events, such as a May 12
presentation at the church by Father Douglas Al-Bazi, a Chaldean Catholic
priest in Iraq who was tortured for nine days in 2006. After streaming his
talk, “A Witness to Genocide,” it was archived on the parish website, along
with other videos produced by the parish.
Father Pollard said Twitter has the potential to reach
a larger audience, and he tweeted Father Al-Bazi’s talk. He also tweets
invitations to events and includes photos.
In addition to Twitter and Facebook, the parish uses
Evites to announce events, and an email managing system called MailChimp to
send a newsletter to about 800 people.
Father James R. Searby, parochial vicar of St. Charles
Borromeo Church in Arlington, was profiled in a 2013 article in the Catholic
Herald as a veteran social media user.
Now involved in video production for the Arlington
Diocese’s YouTube channel, he helps make “2MinutesToVirtue” videos, which are
reflections on the Sunday readings.
Many of the numerous diocesan priests and religious
using social media see it as a modern means of evangelization. It’s not a
replacement for human interaction, but it can help spread the good news one
post or tweet at a time.
