Thinking Of An Ala-Facebook “Faithbook” To Cultivate Catholics To Become Deeper & Better Catholics!

Facebook must be the most popular single platform for all kinds of people of all colors for all kinds of interests – and reading about the suggestion of last October’s Synod on synodality, I Roman Catholic believe t’s time for the Catholic Church to evangelize – and continue to evangelize – via the digital world. How about “Faithbook”? It will be designed as “The Catholic Facebook.” (image “Catholics in the Internet” from amazon.nl)

I have come across, read and re-reread with favor & fervor Christopher White’s sharing, “Catholic Digital Leaders Urge Modern-Day Missionaries To Learn The Internet” (22 Feb 2024, National Catholic Reporter, ncronline.org). And why is that? These reasons:

(1) You have to get to know people, learn their language and appreciate their local customs and culture. Only then can you begin to evangelize. That takes a long time – you have to begin somehow.

(2) “Sending missionaries into new frontiers entails risks, including that of martyrdom.” So – No more martyrdom for Catholic converts and converters! The Catholic Faithbook should guide you to friendly territories – and warn you of any dangerous terrains.

(3) Ideally, do not expect converts overnight. Mr White says, “When Francis Xavier reached India or Mother Cabrini arrived in the United States, neither believed they would make converts overnight.” Today, with a Facebook-like Faithbook, you could make simultaneous converts overnight anywhere in the world!

(4) Mr White says, “José Manuel De Urquidi makes the case that the Internet is 'a place of encounter' and that 'it's not a tool, but rather a culture.'” Differently, I say as a digital denizen since 1991, the Internet is a tool as well as a culture – and that is exemplified by Facebook. Everybody loves Facebook!

(5) Mr Urquidi also says, “Like those earlier missionaries of centuries past, the digital space is ‘a place where we need to be. We need to learn the language and to engage.’"

Well, I taught myself the language of the Internet, literally from zero, from typewriter-based journalism, beginning Innocents Day 1985, with WordStar Version 1 (Nobody talks about Wordstar anymore that I know.) Anyone can learn the Internet as long as one has the interest – and the perseverance to learn something new, including the intricate and/or complicated – and later master everything.

I say, why not “Faithbook” – inside or outside Facebook?

“Facebook is most popular social media platform among Internet users in Philippines – Pulse Asia,” Kaela Malig says (GMA News Online, gmanetwork.com). An Internet hound since 1991, I love the move that –“Catholic Digital Leaders Urge Modern-Day Missionaries To Learn The Internet” (Catholics on the Internet Paperback – 15 Oct. 1997. English edition by Brother John Raymond, auteur, National Catholic Reporter, ncronline.org):

“Next to sex, religion is the most popular reason people explore the Internet. And with 70 million members, the Catholic Church and its members are extremely active in cyberspace.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson says: “Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.” So? That Faithbook will be perfect anytime!@517