Star Metro - Vatican embraces social media 'digital missionaries'

The 29-year-old nun, whose secular name is Albertine Debacker, is one of hundreds of Catholic influencers in Rome for a Vatican-organised social media summit this week.

The Vatican calls them "digital missionaries" and -- in an unprecedented move for the centuries-old institution -- Pope Leo XIV led a mass dedicated to them at St Peter's Basilica, calling on them to create content for those who "need to know the Lord".

Long wary of social media, the Catholic Church now sees it as a vital tool to spread the faith amid dwindling church attendance.

For Sister Albertine, this is the ideal "missionary terrain".

Inside the Baroque basilica, she was one of a swarm of religious influencers who surrounded the new pope, live streaming the meeting on their smartphones within one of Christianity's most sacred spots.

She said it was highly symbolic that the Vatican organised the event bringing together its Instagramming-disciples.

"It tells us: 'it's important, go for it, we're with you and we'll search together how we can take this new evangelisation forward," she told AFP.

The influencer summit was held as part of the Vatican's "Jubilee of Youth", as young believers flooded Rome this week.

- 'The great influencer is God' -

Sister Albertine has 320,000 followers on Instagram and some of her TikTok videos get more than a million views.

She shares a mix of prayers with episodes from daily religious life, often from French abbeys.

"You feel alone and I suggest that we can pray together," she said in one video, crossing herself.

But, as religious content spreads online in the social media and AI era, one of the reasons behind the Vatican's summit was for it to express its position on the trend.

"You are not only influencers, you are missionaries," influential Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle -- one of the few Vatican officials active on social media - told those attending mass.

The "great influencer is God", he added.

- 'Jesus not a digital programme' -

But Tagle also warned that "Jesus is not a voice generated by a digital programme".

Pope Leo called on his online followers to strike a balance at a time when society is "hyperconnected" and "bombarded with images, sometimes false or distorted".

"It is not simply a matter of generating content, but of creating an encounter between hearts," said the American pope, 69.

It is this balance that has been hard to strike, with some Catholic clerics themselves embracing a social media presence.

Father Giuseppe Fusari does not look like a regular priest: wearing tight shirts exposing his arm tattoos.

To his 63,000 followers on Instagram, he mixes content about Italian church architecture and preaching.

- 'Important we're online too' -

Fusari told AFP there is no reason Catholic clerics should not embrace the world of online videos.

"Everyone uses social media, so it's important that we're there too," said Fusari, who came to Rome for the influencer event from the northern city of Brescia.

Fusari said his goal was to reach as many people as possible online, sharing the "word of God" with them.

This also takes the form of sharing videos of his chihuahua eating spaghetti.

But priests and nuns are not the only ones trying to attract people to the Church online, with regular believers spreading the faith too.

Francesca Parisi, a 31-year-old Italian teacher, joined the Catholic Church later in life.

She now has some 20,000 followers on TikTok, where she tries to make the Catholic faith look trendy.

Her target audience? People who have "drifted away" from the church.

It's possible, she said, to lure them back through their smartphones.

"If God did it with me, rest assured, he can also do it with you."

S.Cloutier--SMC