From ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’ to Catholic content creator: John Sansone’s journey of faith
John Sansone, a 27‑year‑old from St. Louis, transitioned from appearing on Fox’s “Farmer Wants a Wife” to building a Catholic social‑media presence. Raised in a devout Catholic family on a 170‑acre farm, Sansone says his faith shaped his upbringing and guided him through the reality‑TV experience. After the show, he gained a large following on Instagram (@notjohnsansone) and now shares Catholic teachings, prayer and everyday faith reflections to a broad audience. He views his platform as a gift from God and uses it to encourage others to grow in faith, emphasizing relatable, everyday Catholic content.
11 days ago
John Sansone, a 27-year-old Catholic farmer from St. Louis, has shifted from reality television to social media evangelization. After appearing on Fox’s Farmer Wants a Wife in 2025, he began using his growing online audience to present Catholic teaching, prayer, and the pursuit of holiness in an accessible way. 1
Sansone was raised with five siblings in a Catholic family, where faith was central to daily life. His family maintained a prayer corner in each home, complete with a picture of Jesus, a kneeler, prayer cards, and memorial materials for deceased relatives. 1
He also grew up working on his family’s 170-acre farm, which produces soybeans, corn, and wheat on land belonging to his great-grandfather. His upbringing connected religious practice with family life and the discipline of farm work. 1
Sansone initially had little interest in Farmer Wants a Wife, despite encouragement from his mother and sisters. He reconsidered after receiving an Instagram message from the show’s creators and ultimately joined the program after discussing the opportunity with his family. 1
He described his reasons for participating as a mixture of curiosity, the chance to experience something unusual, and the possibility of finding a wife. Although he did not find a spouse on the show, the experience prompted him to reflect more seriously on his beliefs. 1
Sansone said he was the only Catholic in his group. Conversations about religion and personal beliefs encouraged him to examine what he actually believed and ultimately reinforced his faith. 1
After the show aired, Sansone gained a substantial social media following. He said he viewed the attention as a gift from God rather than something he had earned, and decided to use the opportunity to promote his faith. 1
Under the Instagram handle @notjohnsansone, he has amassed approximately 109,000 followers. His content addresses Catholic teaching, prayer, holiness, and the ordinary struggles and imperfections involved in trying to live a faithful life. 1
Rather than presenting overtly religious messages in every post, Sansone said he tries to incorporate Catholic ideas subtly into everyday subjects. His aim is to make the faith approachable to people who did not grow up Catholic or who do not yet understand it. 1
Sansone said producing Catholic content has also affected his own religious life. Interacting with people who possess greater knowledge of Catholic history and teaching has challenged him to deepen and improve his faith. 1
His work recently brought him to Peoria, Illinois, where he joined other Catholic content creators ahead of the beatification of Venerable Fulton Sheen. He described the gathering as an important learning experience that increased his awareness of how much further he still had to grow in his faith. 1
Sansone identified Sheen’s ability to communicate Catholic ideas in relatable terms as an example for contemporary Catholic creators. He emphasized that Sheen’s messages could be applied by people who were not Catholic, and said he tries to follow a similar approach online. 1
Sansone said he hopes his audience will come to understand Catholicism more accurately. His stated goal is to use the visibility gained through entertainment and social media to encourage others in faith while presenting Catholicism in terms that connect with everyday life. 1*
How does social media shape contemporary Catholic identity?
Social media shapes contemporary Catholic identity by becoming a major place where Catholics learn, express, debate, and embody their faith. It does not merely transmit Catholic identity; it helps form how Catholics understand belonging, authority, community, and Christian witness.
For many people—especially younger Catholics—the digital world is part of ordinary identity and daily life. The Church therefore cannot treat social media as an optional accessory to evangelization; the question is how Christians should inhabit it as a genuinely human environment.
This has expanded Catholic identity beyond parish buildings and formal Church institutions. Individuals, religious communities, movements, universities, and local Churches now communicate the faith online, sometimes reaching people more extensively than official ecclesial channels. Catholic identity is consequently expressed through livestreamed liturgies, personal testimony, apologetics, Catholic commentary, prayer networks, and public engagement with social issues.
Social media allows Catholics to make faith visible through personal narratives. Stories of conversion, suffering, vocation, charity, and prayer can create solidarity across geographical boundaries. Online users can encounter Catholics from different countries and traditions, discover shared experiences, and pray together.
This can strengthen the Church’s sense of universality. Catholic identity is not simply membership in a local congregation or adherence to a private set of beliefs; it is communion among the baptized. The Dicastery for Communication therefore encourages Catholics to act less like isolated “influencers” and more like “weavers of communion”—people who connect others, share gifts, and build up the common good.
Social media also changes how Catholics encounter moral and spiritual leadership. Many people seek direction from influencers—figures whose visibility and following give them persuasive power. This can make Catholic teaching more accessible, particularly when priests, religious, theologians, and lay people explain the faith clearly and charitably.
But popularity is not the same as authority. Algorithms often reward confidence, controversy, speed, and emotional reaction rather than fidelity, wisdom, or ecclesial accountability. The result can be a Catholic identity centered on personalities or factions rather than on Scripture, the sacraments, the Magisterium, and communion with the Church. The supplied material raises this danger indirectly by contrasting individual influencers with communal, synodal participation.
Social media can deepen Catholic identity in a defensive or adversarial form. Filtered bubbles may lead users toward indifference, polarization, and extremism, especially when people are reduced to opinions rather than recognized as persons. Catholic groups can then become “digital tribes,” united less by love of Christ than by opposition to an ideological enemy.
This is particularly damaging when groups presenting themselves as Catholic use social media to foster division, hostile “clickbait,” or contempt for other Catholics. The Church’s digital identity should instead make disagreement an opportunity for dialogue, conversion, and reconciliation.
Contemporary Catholic identity is also shaped by active participation. Catholics are not merely receiving information from the Church; they are producing, interpreting, sharing, and contesting religious content. Digital platforms can become “co-created spaces,” provided that users accept responsibility for the kind of culture they build.
A mature Catholic presence therefore includes listening, fact-checking, resisting rash reactions, protecting human dignity, and supporting concrete works of mercy. Social media can promote digital literacy, reduce inequality, give voice to marginalized people, and mobilize resources for the poor.
The decisive question is not whether Catholics use social media, but whether their use reflects Christian communion. The Church’s pastoral reflection calls for a “culture of encounter”: online relationships marked by attention, respect, friendship, and peace rather than isolation and hostility.
Thus, social media shapes Catholic identity in two opposing directions. It can produce a more missionary, visible, globally connected, and participatory Catholicism. Or it can produce a Catholicism defined by celebrity, outrage, factionalism, and ideological self-protection. The Christian standard is whether digital presence helps people recognize the dignity of others and move from isolated opinion toward genuine community.