Media Exec Says the Church Must Not Miss the Digital Missionary Moment
Emmanuel Tourpe argues that the Church must make communication and the digital world a priority in its missionary work. He says the Church should be ready to engage younger generations amid signs of a Catholic revival across Europe. Tourpe connects evangelization with a Christian understanding of love, which he describes as a foundation for rebuilding fragmented societies. His remarks came at the Zermatt Summit in Switzerland, where he presented ideas from his book on Christian social theory.
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Emmanuel Tourpe, a French philosopher and longtime media executive, says the Church should treat communication and digital media as central to evangelization, not as secondary tools. He links that task to proclaiming Christian love as a foundation for social life, arguing that Catholic institutions need to learn the formats and language used by the people they hope to reach.
Speaking at the Zermatt Summit in September, Tourpe described Christian love as a deliberate recognition of others’ dignity, rather than sentiment or emotion. He argues that love can help bind together fragmented societies and is an underlying thread in Catholic social teaching on the common good and subsidiarity.
Tourpe says Christianity has enriched philosophical traditions associated with Aristotle and Plato but has yet to fully articulate a distinctively Christian philosophy centered on love. He points to the statement “God is love” as Christianity’s central message and says thinkers including Jean-Luc Marion have helped develop a philosophy of love within Western thought.
Tourpe argues that the Church must adapt how it communicates as young people show renewed interest in transcendence and people spend hours each day on digital and media platforms. In his view, media and digital culture have become “the primary focus of the mission.”
He criticizes what he sees as a lack of readiness in much of the European Church, citing outdated parish websites, disconnected social-media efforts, and communications offices focused mainly on press releases. The Church, he says, needs not only to use media but also to understand how it works.
Tourpe names EWTN and the French Catholic channel KTO as examples of outlets that have adapted to changing media habits. He says EWTN recognizes that today’s media environment is based on video across multiple platforms, and that content must be tailored to each platform’s format and timing rather than simply republished unchanged.
He says these efforts remain isolated rather than forming part of a broader Church strategy, particularly in Europe. Tourpe compares the challenge to the early evangelization of Europe: just as the apostles learned Greek to reach their audiences, he says, the Church today must learn the language of digital media.
Digital evangelization and Christian love in rebuilding social communion
Digital evangelization rebuilds social communion when it does more than distribute religious content: it makes people present to one another through truth, attention, mercy, and shared action. The Church’s reflection on social media presents Christian love as both the manner of evangelizing and its goal: online encounters should help people move from isolation or division toward belonging, and, where possible, toward face-to-face life in the Church.
Digital platforms can bring people into contact across distance and cultural boundaries. Those contacts can be meaningful: they may open space for sincere conversation, solidarity, and relief for someone experiencing loneliness or pain. But a large number of connections is not the same as communion. The deeper question is whether people are treated as neighbours—with dignity and attentive care—rather than as profiles, audiences, or opponents.
The Dicastery for Communication frames this challenge through the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Christian response to social fragmentation is not indifference, nor the question, “How little must I do for another?” It is to take the first step, reject exclusion, and help rebuild community through mutual encounter. This changes the purpose of digital presence: the goal is not simply to be noticed, but to notice others and respond to their real needs.
That response requires recognizing suffering without turning it into spectacle or ammunition. The Dicastery describes a digital encounter as potentially becoming an encounter of mercy when the person on the screen is seen as a neighbour, brother or sister—and, in the light of Christ’s teaching, as someone to whom service is owed. It also acknowledges that Christians may themselves be wounded and in need of compassion. Christian communication, then, is not a posture of superiority; it is a practice of receiving and offering care.
Evangelization includes sharing personal stories of encountering Christ, but it cannot be reduced to testimony alone. The Church’s reflection notes that the early Church’s witness to the Resurrection drew people toward discipleship, while also affirming the importance of systematic explanations of the faith, including creeds and doctrinal teaching. Digital evangelization should therefore bring together personal witness and clear teaching: stories can make the faith tangible, while sound explanation helps people understand what Christians believe and why.
Yet the truth of the message must be joined to the manner of its communication. Benedict XVI applied St Paul’s warning about speech without love to social networks: engagement with people who are distant from the faith should deepen Christians’ prayer and practical charity, not merely their ability to argue. He also emphasized coherence between Christian witness in digital and physical settings. Love is not an optional decoration added after the “real” work of communicating doctrine. It is part of the credibility of the witness.
This does not mean avoiding difficult truths or treating every view as equally true. It means communicating in a way that respects the person, seeks understanding, and does not deliberately inflame hatred. The Dicastery’s image of the Good Samaritan is especially relevant where online discussion is polarized: Christian presence should “bear the pain of other people’s troubles rather than fomenting greater hatred and resentment,” and should strive to include and lift up those who are fallen or excluded.
A Christian approach to digital evangelization resists the idea that the ideal evangelist is a solitary influencer. The Dicastery instead calls Christians to become “weavers of communion”: to pool talents, share knowledge, and work collaboratively rather than acting only as individuals. It connects this shared work to the Church’s communion among the baptized and to Jesus sending disciples two by two.
That vision has practical consequences. Online ministry can support prayer, share stories of beauty and suffering, and help people seek the good together. It can also contribute to projects that serve human dignity, improve digital access and literacy, support poor and marginalized people, and give voice to those who are unheard. These are not distractions from evangelization. They can make the love proclaimed in the Gospel visible in concrete service.
Shared creativity matters as well. The Dicastery describes Christian communication as something formed through friendship and collaboration: different voices, gifts, backgrounds, and abilities can contribute to a common witness. This approach resists making digital ministry a contest for personal prominence. It instead asks whether the work helps people participate, contribute, and belong.
Digital evangelization can be a genuine part of the Church’s mission, but online contact should not be mistaken for the whole of Christian communion. Benedict XVI observes that a contact first made online may lead people toward direct encounters, community, and pilgrimage; digital networks can also invite people to gather for prayer and liturgy in particular places. The Dicastery similarly hopes that loving presence in digital spaces may open a path toward face-to-face encounter with the Church, where wounds can be healed through personal relationship.
This is not a dismissal of digital relationships as unreal. Rather, it recognizes that digital communication has particular strengths and limits. It can cross distance, initiate conversation, and help someone feel less alone; it does not automatically provide the embodied presence and shared life of a local community. The pastoral task is to welcome what digital encounters can offer while helping them lead, when appropriate, toward deeper participation in Christian community.
A useful test is not only, “Did this post reach people?” but also: Did it tell the truth with charity? Did it help someone feel seen rather than dismissed? Did it invite conversation instead of intensifying contempt? Did it build a bridge to prayer, service, or community? These questions follow from the Church’s emphasis on mutual encounter, practical charity, inclusion, and shared action.
Digital evangelization rebuilds social communion when it helps people move from mere visibility to recognition, from recognition to merciful encounter, and from encounter toward shared life. Its distinctive Christian style is love—not simply kind wording, but a willingness to listen, serve, teach truthfully, collaborate, and accompany people toward fuller communion.