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Catholic Church Harnesses Influencers to Reconnect With Youth Online

Pope Leo XIV is backing tech-savvy priests through symbolic acts like Carlo Acutis’s upcoming beatification to deepen youth engagement

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Overview

  • Don Cosimo Schena has built roughly one million followers with motivational videos and livestreams from his Brindisi parish
  • Clergy such as bodybuilder-priest Giuseppe Fusari and Anglican pastor Chris Lee use modern imagery to attract broad online audiences
  • Pope Leo XIV has met over 1,400 digital missionaries, embraced smartphones in public and presided over a youth jubilee in Rome attended by more than one million people
  • The Vatican plans to beatify Carlo Acutis in September and host the first digital National Catholic Youth Conference address in November with about 15,000 registered participants
  • Church leaders warn that preserving authentic Gospel messaging over self-promotion remains a key challenge in the expanding digital ministry