Vatican to content creators: Go beyond follower count

MANILA, Philippines — Instead of focusing on the number of content and followers, Catholic digital influencers should strive to connect with compassion with their audience, a Vatican official said.

Monsignor Lucio Adrian Ruiz, the Vatican’s secretary of the Dicastery for Communication delivered his message online to more than a hundred “online missionaries and Catholic influencers” gathered at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila on Friday, CBCPNews reported.

Ruiz said the Church is now living “a unique moment” in its missionary history as more people seek guidance and accompaniment in digital spaces.

He urged content creators to ground their work on compassion rather than metrics, echoing the call of the late Pope Francis to seek the “suffering flesh of Christ” online – in chats, comments and searches filled with anguish.

“Our mission is not by how much content we produce or how many followers we have,” Ruiz said. “It is to accompany, listen and respond with tenderness.”

The Vatican official said influencers should also build genuine communities beyond their posts, stressing that evangelization is incomplete without spaces where people can pray, ask questions and support one another.