The Effect of COVID-19 on Social Media and Technology in the Catholic Church
As a Catholic blogger, columnist, and President of CatechismClass.com, I’ve seen the transformative effects of COVID-19 on the Catholic Church firsthand. This article focuses exclusively on the Catholic Religion and its readiness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. In conducting research for this article, I consulted over 20 articles and interviewed 10 individuals in the Catholic Church about how COVID-19 has impacted their apostolates.
Summary:
Today’s Catholic priests are asked to do more in their days than at any point in history. Due to widespread parish closures imposed by Church officials or government authorities in response to COVID-19, Catholic priests have needed to be resourceful in order to continue ministering to the faithful. In particular, the usage of social media, which the Church as a whole had not broadly adopted, has allowed priests to reach their parishioners in a way that beforehand would not have been possible. However, online services have also revealed the limitations of social media and the jury is still out on what future social media usage will look like post-COVID-19.
COVID-19 Led to Unprecedented Mass Suspensions and Church Closures
For the first time in the lives of most Catholics today, the COVID-19 pandemic led to the widespread suspension of Masses, Confessions, Baptisms, and religious education classes.
On March 8, the Diocese of Rome, the heart of the Roman Catholic Church, canceled all public Masses until April 3. That prohibition was later extended until May 18, including Holy Week and Easter, the most important religious days in the year. For the first time since the legalization of Christianity in 313 AD, public Catholic worship was prohibited throughout Italy.
Within one week, Every Diocese in the United States Suspended Public Masses. Eric Sammons, a prominent convert to Catholicism and active social media use, put together a series of graphics illustrating the quick suspension of public Masses throughout the United States on a diocese-by-diocese basis.
Within a single week, all public Masses across the 177 territorial Dioceses in the United States were prohibited. Rather than merely dispensing Catholics from the obligation to attend Mass, bishops went further by prohibiting priests from offering public Masses (i.e., Masses at which the faithful may attend). Instead, priests were asked to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass privately with only the necessary servers and sacred ministers and, if possible, to live stream or record the Mass so that the faithful could participate at least digitally.
Diocesan Restrictions Often Exceeded Civil Requirements
Pew Research published the above graphic depicting the state of religious exemptions in executive orders as of April 24. Notice, these prohibitions include both political spectrums, with governors and state legislatures from both Republican and Democratic majorities. And even Dioceses in states which allowed religious services to continue during lockdowns nevertheless still unilaterally prohibited public Masses.
Some Dioceses went further, prohibiting even Confessions and Baptisms, even when done while observing social distancing limited to small groups. The Archdiocese of Chicago ordered all churches closed, even for personal prayer time by the laity.
As of April 1, 30 Dioceses prohibited Confessions, even in states that exempted religious services from stay-at-home orders. Wyoming, for instance, the state with one of the fewest numbers of cases, still prohibited both Confessions and public Mass. By contrast, San Francisco, under Archbishop Cordileone, one of the more traditionally-minded bishops in the United States, allowed Confessions as long as appropriate steps were taken to safeguard the health and safety of all parties. As of May 15th, San Francisco County had 1,999 confirmed COVID-19 cases in its 46.9 square miles while the entire state of Wyoming had 688.
The Bishop of Lubbock had gone so far as to instruct priests to “not make themselves available to hear Confessions,” in one extreme example. He later rescinded this prohibition, which would seemingly have applied even to the dying.
Some locations have gone even further by shutting down and prohibiting the faithful from visiting places of pilgrimage renowned for their healing powers, such as the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, the site of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s apparitions in 1858. The same could be said for dozens of other places around the country. Yet all the while, the pandemic continues to call souls back to God. Researchers indicate that “26% of Americans say their sense of faith or spirituality has grown stronger as a result of the outbreak. Just 1% say it has weakened.” Will these wayward souls find a Church with open or closed doors?
Priests Implement Resourceful Approaches to Continue Providing the Sacraments
As of March 25, according to the BBC, over 50 priests have died globally from COVID-19. Since then, a variety of American priests have likewise died across America in Texas, New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and elsewhere. In response to the suspension of the Mass, public devotions, Sacraments, in-person religious education, and social gatherings have been canceled. Many individual priests have taken to using a variety of tools to connect in real-time to their parishioners while remaining at a distance for their safety. With the average age of priests over 60, most priests are at a history risk to die from COVID-19, thus necessitating a change not only for the needs of the faithful but also for their personal safety.
In some locations in the country, priests were offering drive-through Confessions where they would sit in a chair and allow those needing Confession to drive up and receive Sacramental absolution while remaining over six feet away. Other priests are taking to the streets to bless their parishioners or to offer public prayers against the plague. And some are offering “drive-in” Masses so that the Faithful could watch Mass from their cars. The Archdiocese of St. Paul — Minneapolis implemented a text message notification system to alert Catholics to join in prayer when a priest was sent to anoint someone dying from COVID-19.
Some noteworthy Catholics have mentioned that clandestine “underground” Masses are taking place across the nation for Catholics to be able to avail themselves of the Sacraments at a time when the majority of bishops are silent and absent.
Amidst Unprecedented Economic Uncertainty, Lower Mass Attendance Leads to Fewer Donations
With decreased donations due to church closures, a majority of American Catholic parishes have resorted to applying for PPP loans from the federal government or laying off their staff members due to the economic repercussions. The Diocese of San Jose has reduced the modest salary of its priests by 10%, laid off some diocesan employees, and reduced its hours. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which has been particularly hard hit by COVID-19, has guaranteed employment for the archdiocesan staff only through June.
Ignatius Darren Gozali, the founder of CatholicER, which owns Mercy Wallet, an app designed to allow individuals to contribute to parishes easily, noticed a decrease in donations during COVID-19. Likely due to the economic impact of the crisis, contributions to churches, even on digital platforms, have decreased.
Fr. Vincent of St. Cyprian Catholic Church in Sunnyvale and a promoter of Mercy Wallet, noted a 30% drop in donations due to COVID-19. Even with the advent of mobile apps and websites that allow the parish to accept donations, he noted that many parishioners who are not donating are not tech-savvy and would not know how to give using apps or via social media.
Yet, charities and religious orders that focus on apostolic outreach in the community are experiencing some of the most challenging circumstances in their histories. The Mission of Our Lady of the Angles, run by Franciscan religious sisters in the economically depressed West Humboldt Park area of Chicago, has seen unprecedented demand. On April 28, they served 643 families in need, the highest record in their pantry’s history. They have taken to Facebook to share their stories and elicit donations to help them in their outreach.
The Effect of Previous Pandemics on Catholics in America
The last time that widespread Masses were suspended in the United States was during the Spanish Flu of 1918. Yet, the closures were often more isolated and did not span coast to coast.
San Francisco was hit particularly hard by the second wave of the Spanish Flu. They mandated the closure of the city, including all public venues, and required masks. Churches could continue services but only if done outdoors. The Archdiocese of San Francisco, for instance, offered Mass outside near the entrance to the former cathedral, and the faithful attended in droves. The critical distinction between 1918 and 2020, at least in San Francisco, was the government’s orders; California permits no religious exceptions to the shelter in place orders during COVID-19, yet such exemptions existed in 1917.
In 1918, with a population of 687,000, the city of St. Louis was the fourth largest city in the nation. On October 7, 1918, the city ordered the closure of numerous buildings and banned gatherings of 20 or more people. The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Max Starkloff, closed churches for the first time in the city’s history, against the wishes of Archbishop John Glennon. Archbishop Glennon, though, obeyed the closures and dispensed the faithful from attending Mass.
The closure of churches and the suspension of public Masses occurred throughout the country but did not affect every Diocese. The closures in 1918, however, were often the result of government mandates as Bishops generally viewed suspending the Sacraments as a last resort.
James Cardinal Gibbons, one of the leading figures in the Church in the era, argued, “It would be a much-needed relief to our church-going population if they could be allowed to attend brief morning services… I am told that a number of calls upon our physicians are simply the result of nervousness, or the consequence of alarm. This might be considerably allayed by the reassurance of religion, and discreet words from our priests given the people in Church.”
Catholic Demographic Trends Today
The Ratio of Priests to Parishes is at an all-time low.
The Catholic Church reached one of its highest levels in America in the 1950s with the number of men wishing to become priests hitting such a high level that dioceses would often have to turn men away for lack of space and resources. However, since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Catholic Church has, except for a few metrics, experienced an ongoing decline.
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) by Georgetown University studies various demographic trends in the Catholic Church. From 1970 to 2018, the Catholic Church in the United States experienced:
● A reduction in the number of priests from 59,192 to 36,580 ( -38.2%)
● A reduction in the number of men studying for the priesthood from 6,602 to 3,553 ( -46.2%)
● A reduction in the number of religious sisters from 160,931 to 44,117 ( -72.6%)
● A reduction in the number of Catholic parishes from 18,224 to 17,007 ( — 6.7%)
● An increase in the number of parishes without a resident priest serving as the pastor from 571 to 3,363 ( + 489%)
As a result, the responsibilities of any single priest since the 1970s has significantly increased. In 1970, the ratio of priests to parishes was 3.2, yet in 2018 the number had fallen to 2.1. Before the Second Vatican Council, which took place between 1962 and 1965, it was common for parishes to host a number of Sunday or daily Masses along with extra devotions such as the Rosary, Benediction, and Eucharistic Adoration. Catholics would regularly meet for both prayer and social functions.
Additionally, The Number of Catholics Attending Sunday Mass Has Significantly Declined, falling from 71.3% in 1970 to 45.3% in 2018, according to survey estimates from CARA. The reduction in Mass attendance is significant since the Catholic Church requires a Catholic to attend Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation unless a grave reason or illness prevents them — failure to do so is a serious sin that must be confessed. During periods of crisis or severe weather, Bishops may also dispense the Faithful in their dioceses from the obligation. The decline in Mass attendance has also led to both decreased parish donations as well as to less religiously-centered social gatherings.
Priests Today Also Serve a More Ethnically Diverse Congregation Than in the Past. Half a century ago, most parishes typically only served Catholics of a specific nationality. While Mass was always celebrated in Latin, parishes would often be situated close together in a city and serve different communities. It was common to see an Italian neighborhood with its parish within walking distance of the German Catholic’s parish or the Polish Catholic’s parish.
As cities became more ethnically diverse and with the importance of nationality diminishing over the generations, some parishes fell into disuse and were sold, leading in part to the decline in the number of churches. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for a priest to celebrate Mass in multiple languages and conduct the other Sacraments (e.g., Baptism, Last Rites, of Confession) in various languages.
Therefore, the priests of today are asked to do more for a more diverse congregation with less resources than at any point in our nation’s history.
The Rise of Social Media and Technology
Historically, the Catholic Church has been reluctant to embrace newer technologies. The printing press, the telegraph, and the radio were not widely used by the Church until their gradual adoption by a more substantial portion of the populace. While the Church does not, in theory, oppose technology, as some groups like the Amish famously do, She does tend to reluctantly embrace newer technologies, allowing for sufficient adoption before embracing them. Since most priests and parish staff tend to be older, the generational reluctance to try new, sometimes confusing technologies, has likely contributed to the slow adoption of social media.
For example, the Majority of Catholic Parishes Lack A Social Media Presence. Between 2016 and 2020, I helped compile a list of over 13,000 churches in the United States in a downloadable Excel format made available on CatholicParishDirectory.com. As part of the research, I reviewed the diocesan listings of all Catholic Churches in America and reviewed their websites and social media presence. The vast majority of American Catholic Churches did not have a Facebook page that was claimed and actively managed. Of the 13,227 parishes that I recorded in the directory, 12.7% of churches did not have a single email address and relied on the telephone or a fax machine exclusively for communication. For the 11,547 parishes that had email addresses, not all of them had websites. And of those, only a small subset had an active social media presence.
Pope Francis Offers an Extraordinary Example in Livestreaming
On March 27, 2020, in an extraordinary rare Urbi et Orbi address, which is usually only given twice a year on Easter Sunday and Christmas, Pope Francis presided over an hour-long ceremony where he read from the Scriptures, offered a prayer and reflection, and concluded with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. For the first time in history, a Pope gave a live-streamed Urbi et Orbi to an empty St. Peter’s Square with cameras carrying his blessing to all watching digitally or listening over the radio. Unlike Mass attendance, which requires a Catholic to attend in person to fulfill their obligation, certain blessings and devotions (e.g., the Rosary) can be prayed using pre-recorded tapes or on live streams. By contrast, the Sacraments (e.g., Confession, Baptism, Last Rites) or the Mass must be performed in-person for them to validly occur and produce an actual result in a person’s soul.
In addition to live-streamed Masses, parishes have taken to Facebook to promote devotions. The Archdiocese of San Francisco has been advertising a daily event on Facebook for the faithful to join in a 7 PM Rosary Rally by calling in on the phone.
Some parishes have gone further than live streaming only Sunday Masses and began to live stream the weekday Masses, which most Catholics do not ordinarily attend. In a piece published on WGN Chicago, Monsignor Dan Mayall commented on the novelty of live streaming Masses by saying: “It has opened up the door for a lot of people, more people are watching the daily Masses, we are doing this every day not just on Sunday and I’m astounded by how many people are saying I watch it every day.”
Other parishes have shifted to live stream all their devotions and public prayers, in addition to the Mass. St. John Cantius Church in Chicago is live streaming on both Facebook Live and YouTube their entire devotional schedule and making the videos available for playback. With higher-end camera technology, they have been able to live stream beautiful liturgies that have attracted viewers from around the world, outside of Chicago. Across the four publicly live-streamed Sunday Masses for May 10, over 16,000 viewers have watched their Masses on YouTube either live or for playback. Even Twitter has hosted various live streaming Masses and devotionals.
Live Streaming Has Made Niche Catholic Traditions Accessible to Significantly Larger Audiences
Beyond live streaming the typical Sunday Mass that most Catholics would be accustomed to attending (the Novus Ordo Mass), live streaming during COVID19 specifically allowed lesser-known Catholic traditions to have a significantly larger audience.
For instance, most Catholic parishes that celebrate the Traditional (Tridentine) Latin Mass have live-streamed all of their Masses, including daily masses. The Tridentine Mass is the manner that all Masses were said before the changes in the late 1960s. This changed in 1969. While Mass is still sometimes said in Latin, it is much more uncommon. And in addition to the language changing, the very format of the Mass — its prayers, rituals, gestures, and practices — was arguably altered in the most significant way in history.
Most of these priests, aside from a few specific cases, did not live stream or record their Masses beforehand. A directory of some of these Masses illustrating their geographic dispersion across both the United States and globally can be found at A Catholic Life.
A subset of these priests during Holy Week celebrated the Mass using the rubrics that existed before the changes to the Church’s Liturgy (i.e., Her public prayers and rituals) by Pope Pius XII in 1955. In 1955, Pope Pius XII significantly changed the prayers, readings, and rituals for Holy Week. Those changes were embodied in the 1962 Catholic Missal, which most Tridentine Masses follow. In the past few decades, there has been a call for a return to the pre-1955 Holy Week ceremonies.
In response to these calls, the Vatican permitted the pre-1955 ceremonies on a three-year trial period starting in 2018. In 2018 and 2019, they were attended by self-proclaimed liturgy nerds and some of the most traditional Catholics. The number of Catholics who witnessed these pre-1955 liturgies in either 2018 or 2019 numbered likely 5,000 or less.
By contrast, the YouTube channel Sensus Fidelium, which as of May 13, 2020, has 144,000 subscribers, live-streamed these older pre-1955 liturgies from just three different chapels in the United States. Across those three locations only, the channel’s organizer, Steve Cunningham, said that these older liturgies generated over 100,000 page views: “Many non-Catholics saw it and love it.” Over a dozen other pre-1955 Masses were live-streamed from chapels that had beforehand not live streamed their services. It is realistic that live streaming has at least quadrupled the number of Catholics who saw the pre-1955 Liturgy this year. Steve added in referring to Tridentine Masses offered on other Sundays outside of Holy Week, “Many [average Catholics] saw a [Tridentine Latin] High Mass for the first time.”
The impact of niche traditions reaching a wider audience was made possible entirely through social media by parishes that otherwise would not have live-streamed or recorded their worship. Rather than merely providing a means for older Catholics to reconnect with the traditions from their youth, college students have found solace and spiritual enrichment from these traditions made accessible through social media.
The Rise of Online Learning in Religious Education Has Accelerated Due to COVID-19
The unique challenges presented by COVID-19 have further illustrated the need for flexibility in religious education. The pandemic has led to both the layoff of paid teachers and the inability for in-person student meetings.
The online religious education course provider, CatechismClass.com, for which I am the President, has been around since 2004 and provides a variety of self-study Catholic religion courses for children and adults. While the number of students we serve has consistently increased over the years, a particularly noteworthy increase occurred in April 2020. In April of this year, we sold more adult and children courses than we did in any April in our history. I expect continued increases in the adoption of e-learning in the Church at an accelerated pace due to COVID-19.
Some teachers and catechists have taken to keeping their current curriculums while turning to video conferencing software to facilitate and lead student discussions and class sessions. Both RCIA classes — classes for adults converting to Catholicism — as well as children’s catechism classes turned to new, innovative platforms due to the crisis.
Since religious education schedules typically follow the secular system of beginning around September and ending in the spring, most parishes have already canceled the remainder of the 2019–2020 academic year. Some churches in harder-hit areas are expected to delay or even suspend all in-person classes initially scheduled to start in Fall 2020.
A Slow Reopening of Parishes Begins
At the end of April, public Masses started being reintroduced — even though attendance was limited due to both ecclesiastical and government mandates against large gatherings. The first five Dioceses to restore public Masses in some form (e.g., Dioceses of Helena, Great Falls-Billings, Omaha, Las Cruces, and Lubbock) still dispensed the faithful from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass attendance while encouraging live-streaming of Masses to continue.
On April 27, the Dioceses of Boise and Lincoln joined the first five.
Within a week of the first Diocese to suspend Masses, public Masses vanished from the entire country. Yet as of May 1, more than a week after the reintroduction of Mass in the Diocese of Las Cruces, the first Diocese to reintroduce public Masses, the number of Dioceses reinstating the principal act of worship in the Catholic religion remained limited.
As of May 1st, 18 dioceses have so far announced the resumption of public Masses. However, as Eric Sammon states: “Note that they may not have begun public Masses yet but have at least announced a specific date to resume.”
As of May 13, the number had grown to 58 dioceses. However, Mr. Sammon noted on his Twitter release of the graphic: “All dioceses with public Masses have imposed many restrictions on the celebration of Mass, some quite onerous; none are back to ‘normal.’”
Online Mass “Attendance” During COVID-19 So Far
Decreased Attendance of Live stream Masses After Lent and Easter Sunday has led to concerns that many individuals may simply drift away from religion. However, digital media has made it possible for wayward Catholics to easily access the Faith, for the homebound including the sick and elderly to unite themselves to the Sacrifice of the altar spiritually, and for classes of both adults and children to continue learning Catholicism.
Mercy Wallet, which put together a webpage hosting live-stream Masses, noticed a decrease in viewers within the weeks after Easter Sunday (which this year was April 12). St. Thomas More Darien CT live-streamed their Masses during the pandemic and noticed declining viewership week-over-week. In two months, the attendance of those attending the live-streamed Masses has declined from 617 on March 29 to 158 on May 10.
For comparison, on a typical Sunday before COVID-19, the parish would welcome roughly 1,500 people through its doors. Yet, even with the decline in parishioner attendance, Fr. Clark notes: “I think live-streams certainly have the potential for someone who is not Catholic to investigate our liturgy without any commitment.”
While social media and digital tools cannot replace an authentic, in-person encounter with God in the Sacraments, they can make religion available to a broader audience and reach those whose circumstances make them unable to attend a parish physically.
The Pontifical Council on Social Communications on the Church and the Internet published a document in 2002 that states in part: “Virtual reality cannot substitute for the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, nor the sacramental reality of the other Sacraments, nor the worship shared in a human community of flesh and bones….Sacraments on the Internet do not exist….Even religious experiences that are possible there through the grace of God are insufficient if they are separated from interaction in the real world with other persons of faith.”
For a Catholic, there is no digital substitute for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments. While participating virtually in the Mass can lead to benefits for one’s own spiritual life, digital tools do not replace an in-person encounter with God that for a Catholic can only happen in person. Theologians have raised the question of how these widespread and lengthy closures will ultimately affect the people of God.
Tools may make it possible to remain united, at least imperfectly, with our priests and parishes. Yet, digital tools cannot replace the ability to receive the very Body and Blood of God in Holy Communion or receive actual forgiveness for sins in the Confessional. The divide is even more profound for catechumens (those studying to enter the Catholic Church) whose Baptisms, which are traditionally performed at the Easter Vigil, have been indefinitely postponed.
In Summary
As shown throughout history, while the Church has been reluctant to embrace new technologies, social media adoption will likely only increase by parishes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, while such tools will never replace in-person religious worship, they can be used to reach more people.
St. Paul himself, writing to Corinthians, wrote, “To the weak, I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I became all things to all men, that I might save all” (1 Cor 9:22, Douay Rheims Translation). For today’s priests, the use of new technologies will similarly allow them to better reach souls.
While the jury is still out on the future usage of social media in a post-COVID-19 world, early indicators are illustrating both the benefits of social media yet also its limitations.
