The Vatican Governatorate has released a new official mobile application. The app is dedicated to St. Carlo Acutis, recognizing his skills in information technology. It provides quick and intuitive access to the official website's content, including news, announcements, and official communications. Key features include push notifications for breaking news, simplified navigation for mobile devices, and links to other Vatican institutions. This release supports the Governorate's ongoing digital innovation efforts to enhance transparency and information dissemination.
2 months ago
The Vatican City State Governorate has released a new official mobile app dedicated to St. Carlo Acutis, providing quick access to content from its institutional website, www.vaticanstate.va.1 2 3
This free app enhances user experience with intuitive navigation for news, announcements, and communications on smartphones and tablets.1 3 4
The app honors St. Carlo Acutis (1991-2006), the first millennial saint known for his IT skills and use of technology for evangelization.1 3 4
It reflects his "computer genius" and serves as a tribute timed around his canonization.3 5
Users access sections like saint of the day, news, interviews, videos, and links to Governorate institutions including Vatican Museums, Pharmacy, Post Office, Pontifical Villas, Observatory, Central Library (CFN), and Gendarmerie Corps.1 2 3 4
Additional features include push notifications for updates and optimized accessibility, with more enhancements planned.1 3
St. Carlo's parents, Andrea and Antonia Acutis, generously contributed to the app's creation and development around his canonization, earning thanks displayed upon download.4 5 6
This collaboration underscores the app's personal tie to the saint's legacy.4
Governorate President Sister Raffaella Petrini, appointed March 1, 2025, leads this effort distinct from Vatican News or vatican.va.2 4
The initiative promotes transparency and participation via modern tools, following vatican.va's redesign after Pope Leo XIV's May 2025 election.4 5
The app launched around January 3-5, 2026, and is free on App Store and Google Play for iOS and Android.1 2 3 4
It builds on the Governorate's digital renewal path.1 3
Digital evangelization: how the Catholic Church employs technology to disseminate truth
The Catholic Church views digital technologies not merely as tools for broadcasting the Gospel but as vital arenas for encounter, dialogue, and the new evangelization, adapting to each era's communication culture while proclaiming Christ's saving truth with mercy and authenticity. From papal messages on computer culture in the 1990s to recent reflections on social media amid global crises, Church teachings emphasize an active, sympathetic presence online to foster unity, heal wounds, and invite all to Christ.
The Church's engagement with technology for evangelization traces back decades, building on the conviction that failing to use these "powerful means" would be a dereliction of duty before the Lord. As early as 1990, Pope John Paul II highlighted the advent of "computer telecommunications and computer participation systems" as opportunities to strengthen ecclesial unity, deepen dialogue with the world, and proclaim knowledge of Christ across barriers. He invoked prior teachings like Evangelii Nuntiandi, which stressed that media enable the Church to proclaim the Gospel "from the housetops," and Gaudium et Spes, noting God's accommodation to each culture's modes of expression.
This momentum continued in 1992 with Aetatis Novae, which called for media to serve re-evangelization through the "see, judge, act" principle, prioritizing audiovisual methods while integrating the Christian message into the "new culture" of communications with its languages, techniques, and psychology. By 2002, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications extended this to the internet, describing it as offering "unique opportunities" to carry religious teaching "beyond all barriers and frontiers," urging Catholics to "throw open the doors of social communications to Christ." Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 echoed this, portraying the digital realm as a sea to navigate fearlessly, where believers act as "digital witnesses" to humanize media through caritas in veritate, promoting dignity and fraternity. These foundations established technology as the "first Areopagus of the modern age," demanding cultural immersion rather than mere transmission.
Central to Catholic teaching is the principle that digital evangelization requires full presence—not superficial use, but bold citizenship in digital spaces to accompany people toward Christ. Pope Francis has repeatedly framed this as a missionary vocation: the Church must be a "bruised" institution venturing onto digital highways teeming with the hurting, keeping "doors open" online so the Gospel reaches "the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Communication becomes a "balm" like the Good Samaritan's oil and wine, merciful and gladdening, stirring hearts rather than relying on effects.
The Dicastery for Communication's 2023 document Towards Full Presence synthesizes this evolution, noting World Communications Day messages since the 1990s on computers and digital culture. Popes Benedict XVI and Francis portray social media as "spaces" for proclaiming the Good News, fostering "a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship" amid everyday digital life that reshapes knowledge, information, and relationships. Integration is key: "It is not enough to use the media simply to spread the Christian message... It is also necessary to integrate that message into the 'new culture' created by modern communications." Proclamation demands "testing everything" online (1 Thess 5:21), discerning opportunities amid illusions, always prioritizing authentic human relationships that culminate in encountering the Lord. Technology alone suffices not; it must convey a Church that is "home" to all, warming hearts like Jesus on the Emmaus road.
The Church's digital apostolate shines in real-world applications, demonstrating technology's power to unite and evangelize. A poignant example is Pope Francis's 27 March 2020 prayer in an empty St. Peter's Square during the COVID-19 lockdown: live-streamed globally, it embraced millions in isolation, extending Bernini's colonnade "to an embrace" and fostering communion despite physical distance. This "transformative global experience" affirmed digital media as indispensable for ministry in crisis.
Annual World Communications Day messages provide ongoing models, from John Paul II's embrace of satellite tech to Francis's 2014 call for a Church "at the side of others" on social networks, discovering faith's beauty. In 2013, Francis challenged communicators to immerse in the "great digital continent" of real people with hopes and sufferings, sharing evangelical stories without surrogate online encounters replacing person-to-person bonds. Recent addresses urge "heart-to-heart" storytelling focused on the poor, migrants, and peacemakers, risking immersion without absorption by tools. Benedict XVI envisioned the web as a "Court of the Gentiles" for the uninitiated, preparing paths to God's word. Lay faithful, priests, and religious are all called, with formation essential for this "invaluable mission."
While enthusiastic, teachings address pitfalls: digital spaces can oppose the Gospel, demanding discernment to avoid false coins or seduction by illusions. Pope Francis warns against self-absorption, favoring a venturing Church, and stresses ethics, education, and law in a "digital anthropology" via initiatives like the Rome Call. Proclamation must reflect universal values, truth winning "with gentleness and power" (Dignitatis Humanae, 1), never imposing but inviting love for the Gospel. Human experience is now "an experience of media," so evangelizers must dwell online with a "believing heart" giving soul to the web's flow.
In summary, the Catholic Church employs technology for digital evangelization through principled presence, cultural integration, and merciful encounter, from computer pioneers to social media spaces. This fulfills her mandate to proclaim Christ universally, adapting boldly while rooted in truth, charity, and authentic relationships. Recent sources like Towards Full Presence (2023) reaffirm earlier wisdom, prioritizing heart-stirring witness amid digital transformation.