Written by Ryan Dilag, Director of Campus Ministry, Bishop O’Dowd High School, Diocese of Oakland, rdilag@bishopodowd.org
“Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
The average teenager spends several hours each day engaged with digital media. Social media platforms, streaming services, podcasts, online communities, and emerging artificial intelligence tools increasingly shape how young people understand themselves, build relationships, and make sense of the world around them. For Catholic school educators, this reality presents a critical question: How do we accompany students in the places where they are already living, learning, and searching for meaning?
For generations, Catholic schools have lived out Christ’s call to “go into the whole world” and share His Good News through the faithful formation of young people. Today, however, the “whole world” goes beyond classrooms, parishes, and neighborhoods. It also includes digital spaces where young people learn, interact, and seek meaning. As Catholic school educators discern how to accompany students in this ever-changing landscape, digital evangelization has emerged as a unique opportunity, as well as a responsibility.
A New Mission Field
The Church recognizes that each generation needs new methods of evangelizing. St. Paul used marketplace and forum settings to preach. Missionaries sailed across seas to spread the Good News to new lands. Catholic school educators developed schools to form young people’s minds and hearts. Today, the digital world represents a new missionary frontier.
Pope Benedict XVI repeatedly referred to the internet as a “digital continent,” stating that the Church needed to be represented everywhere people congregate. Pope Francis built upon this idea when he urged Catholics to go forth as missionary disciples, accompanying people as they experience the realities of daily life. For many of today’s students, those realities are being increasingly shaped by digital experiences.
Catholic schools are at a crossroads. They need to develop strategies to disciple students inside the walls of a classroom, but also outside of those walls—in the digital spaces where students constantly experience ideas, values, and other communities.
Evangelization Through Creativity
Engaging students in digital culture requires more than transferring classroom instruction onto digital platforms. Effective evangelization demands both fidelity to the gospel and creativity in communication.
Young people today receive information by way of visual storytelling, short-form videos, podcasts, interactive media, and digital communities. The Good News of the gospel remains unchanged, but the way we communicate that Good News must resonate with each new generation.
Many Catholic schools are already responding creatively to this challenge. Students produce podcasts exploring Catholic social teaching, create video reflections for retreats, share prayer experiences through social media, and develop multimedia projects connecting faith to contemporary issues.
At Bishop O’Dowd High School, Senior Campus Ministry Team students created short Holy Week prayer and reflection videos and shared them through O’Dowd’s social media channels. What began as a classroom assignment became an opportunity for evangelization that reached parents, alumni, and community members beyond campus. More importantly, students began to see themselves not merely as consumers of digital media, but as missionary disciples capable of sharing their faith with others.
Digital ministries, including Word on Fire, Ascension, and San Gabriel Media, have given us examples of how technology can help deliver faith-based messages to people who would otherwise never experience traditional catechetical programs. Through video productions, scripture studies, podcasts, publications, and online formation resources, these ministries reach audiences far beyond the limits of traditional catechetical programs. Their success provides a valuable lesson for Catholic school educators. Evangelization in the digital age requires imagination, authenticity, and a willingness to meet people where they are.
Formation Beyond Geography
Another significant aspect of digital evangelization is its capacity to transcend geographical borders. A classroom lesson reaches students physically present in that classroom. A digital lesson can reach students across continents.
Digital ministries demonstrate how Catholic content can transcend geographic boundaries. Within minutes, a video production made in California can be viewed in Asia, Africa, Europe, or Latin America. This global accessibility reflects the universal mission of the Church and serves as a potent reminder that Catholic education belongs to a worldwide community of faith.
Catholic schools now have opportunities previously unavailable to them. Students can engage with global Catholic perspectives, participate in virtual faith experiences, and collaborate with peers in creating digital content that serves audiences farther away than their immediate communities. The global nature of evangelization ultimately removes previous constraints based on geography.
St. Paul states that “faith comes from what is heard” (Romans 10:17). Digital media platforms have greatly increased the number of individuals who can receive the Good News.
Lessons from Magnifica Humanitas
The emergence of artificial intelligence, social media, and advanced digital technologies raises important questions regarding human dignity, truth, and formation. In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV confronts these challenges head-on, calling on the Church to assure that technological innovations remain focused on supporting the flourishing of the human person.
The encyclical emphasizes that technological advancements should enhance communion among people, increase wisdom, promote the common good, yet never replace genuine human relationships nor diminish the dignity of individuals created in God’s image. Furthermore, Pope Leo cautions against technological developments that value efficiency above humanity and information above wisdom.
This encyclical affords great insight for Catholic education.
The goal of digital evangelization is not merely producing additional content. Rather, it is providing an opportunity for young people to encounter Christ. The role of technology is to assist in fulfilling the mission; technology is not the mission itself. The most successful digital ministries understand that engagement online leads to greater relationships among people, stronger communities, and authentic discipleship.
Digital tools can enhance education, foster communities of faith, and support Christian disciple-making when used in a thoughtful way. However, if digital tools are used without discernment, then they can undermine opportunities for reflection, build barriers to empathy, and diminish authentic human relationships.
Therefore, Catholic schools should work with their students to develop not only technical proficiency in using digital tools, but also the moral and spiritual wisdom needed to use these tools ethically and responsibly.
Three Practical Lessons for Catholic Schools
Although the discernment process for what Catholic schools can do in the digital world is ongoing, there are three lessons learned from successful digital evangelization efforts:
Meet Young People Where They Are. Effective ministry starts by acknowledging the environments in which your students spend their time. While digital spaces may be a distraction from our own evangelization activities, they have become a space in which we must now evangelize.
Empower Students as Creators. While students consume media, they should also be empowered to create their own media (e.g., podcasts, videos, and blogs). This media can express the truth, beauty, and goodness of Jesus Christ within a Catholic perspective.
Use Technology to Deepen Relationships. The ultimate goal of digital engagement is not an increase in screen time, but rather a deepening of one’s relationship with God, an increased sense of community, and authentic discipleship.
Forming Missionary Disciples for a Digital Age
Catholic schools have always served as centers of evangelization. However, in the twenty-first century, part of that same mission is developing students equipped to live out their faith within digital culture.
To Catholic school educators, there is one clear takeaway: The digital continent is not a place to avoid. It is a mission field to embrace. As Catholic schools continue forming future leaders and disciples of Jesus Christ, they now have an unparalleled opportunity to prepare an emerging generation of missionary disciples—young people who will carry the light of the gospel to a connected world.
Throughout history, the Church has consistently identified new ways to proclaim the Good News. Today, ministries such as Word on Fire, Ascension, and San Gabriel Media remind us that the mission does not cease because of distance. It continues not just through classrooms and church buildings, but through screens, networks, and digital communities around the globe.
The question is no longer whether the Church should be present on the digital continent. The question is whether Catholic schools will equip their students to become its next generation of missionaries.
In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms, Catholic schools remain uniquely positioned to help students become disciples who communicate truth, cultivate authentic relationships, and witness to Christ both online and offline.
