On 28 and 29 July, Rome hosted the first ever gathering for digital missionaries and catholic influencers, as part of the Jubilee of Young People. ‘Even a short post, when shared in faith and love, can become a spark of grace,’ said Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Petro Parolin. ‘You are not only content creators,’ said the Cardinal. ‘You are witnesses. You are not just building platforms; you are building bridges.’
One such bridge-builder is the American priest, author and digital missionary Fr Casey Cole OFM, who was in Australia earlier this year as part of an ACU speaking tour. Fr Casey started writing about his vocational journey in a blog called Breaking in the Habit, and later added a podcast and a YouTube channel to his ministry.
Fr Casey says people were initially confused about seeing a friar on the internet, but since starting his ‘evangelising and catechising through YouTube, Instagram and TikTok’, he has amassed a following of half a million (and counting).
‘People often think of the friars as people in the Middle Ages,’ he says. ‘What they forget is that in the Middle Ages, the friars used the best technology of their day to evangelise—the printing press.
‘They went to the popular areas and preached in popular ways, so it makes sense that today we would be using this [digital technology and social media],’ says Fr Casey. ‘I don’t see it as a divide from my vocation, but a way to live it out as someone who evangelises.’
Fr Casey Cole was in his teens when he first encountered the Franciscans and says it was their ‘radical availability’ that attracted him to the order, something he now seeks to emulate as a digital missionary.
‘At 16, I found myself really on fire for Jesus and wanting to share him with everyone,’ he recalls. ‘And the friars were doing this. They lived out loud as this sign of radical availability. They were in the world, and people talked to them and they shared about Jesus.’
He says people can often get ‘caught up in the external’—be it the habit, the collar or other types of religious dress. For Fr Casey, the habit has always been a sign of service.
‘The habit can mean lots of different things. For some people, it can be a sign of traditionalism. For others, it can be a sign of poverty. Some people see it as a sign of medieval life.
‘For me, it was a sign of evangelisation, that I went out into the world to serve the world.’
I often ask people three questions: What do you love? What are you good at? And what does the world need?
While Fr Casey acknowledges that there are lots of ways to serve Christ in the world, he sees his presence online as a natural expression of his passion for Jesus.
‘I’ve always been someone who likes to share what I love, and so whether that be a television show, a recipe, a sports team—if I’m excited about it, I want everyone to know it, much to the chagrin of some people who say that I talk about the same things over and over again,’ he laughs.
‘And I think faith should be like this too.’
His digital ministry was borne of prayer and discernment, he says, something he believes is crucial to the success of any ministry.
‘I often ask people three questions: What do you love? What are you good at? And what does the world need? And I think if we can answer something for all three of those things, it’s not a coincidence, and it’s not a hobby, but it’s something that God is drawing us to,’ he says.
But he cautions that what we are often good at and want to do is not always what God wants of us. ‘I think we often look at things and say, “I’m good at this and I want to do this”, but we need to take the “I” out of that and say, “What does God want and what does God need?”
‘And sometimes we find ourselves pushed into something that might be a little difficult but might actually be the greatest thing for us.’
Fr Casey divides his time between his digital ministry and regular parish and chaplaincy life in Georgia, and says both come with their joys and challenges. He enjoys the interactions online and being able to reach a wider audience, but shares that it can be lonely too.
‘It’s very difficult being online,’ he says candidly. ‘One of the things that I often tell people is that everyone has an opinion of you, whether it’s good or bad.
‘So I think it’s helpful to have the people around us who are our brothers and sisters—those who know us very well and can help us to know what is the truth, so that they can say, “Hey, you messed up there or maybe you should try that differently,” or even “Don’t listen to them. You’re doing great.”
‘I always quote what St Francis said in one of his Admonitions that, “What a man is before God, that he is and nothing more.” And so the world will tell you who you are, your parents will tell you who we are, your friends will tell you who we are—and there might be some truth to it, but the only one who truly knows you is God. And so go to prayer each and every day and say, Lord, who are you and who am I?’
Despite the challenges, Fr Casey is adamant that the Church needs to be ‘where the people are’ to convey its message.
‘I think we need to speak the language of the day. Now that can be dangerous, because the language of the day is not always fit for everyone, but I think we need to understand the trends, and we need to understand not just the words people are saying, but why they’re saying it and what’s beneath it.’
And while he’s hopeful about the ministry and the message, he does acknowledge that cynicism and a sense of hopelessness can influence young people.
‘Young people are not trusting of institutions. So if you go in and say, “Join the Church, it’s 2,000 years old” and “Look at these great structures,” you’re not going to reach anyone. But if you can say, “Hey, look at our radical saints who have bucked the times and stood up against injustice,” then you’re going to reach people in a different way.
‘So I think understanding the hearts of people, and then, of course, the lingos and the trends and things like that, and I think hopefully offering a transformed version of it, we can take what is silly and what is shallow and add our own flair to it as a way to connect with people,’ he says.
‘Young people have grown up in a technological age in which they’re able to communicate so well, and if you give them a task, they can complete it. Where I think they might need a little bit of help is recognising that they can complete it.
‘When you look at the issues of our world, whether it be secularisation or racism or climate change, young people can feel pressured that they can’t do anything. They can feel absolutely crushed by the weight of it all. And so my goal for them is to say that you can do something and you can do that something well. You may not be able to fix everything, but showing them that even just one step is a step in the right direction is helpful.’
So where does a Catholic influencer like Fr Casey Cole go for inspiration?
‘I’m fed spiritually by the saints and by writings in the Scriptures,’ says Fr Casey. He says people are often surprised when he tells them that he doesn’t follow a lot of Catholic creators. ‘Not to say that anyone is bad, but I find a lot of inspiration from the secular imagination—if I can use that kind of interesting term—because there are a lot of people out there who are seeking and who are asking big questions.
‘I follow a lot of scientists, a lot of writers, people who are just entertainers, but more than for some shallow view count or money, but are doing things that truly make people laugh, and they can touch the soul.
‘I find it really interesting, because I do think they know something about God, even if they don’t have an explicit knowledge of him. And we can learn a lot from them.’
