Bishop seeks to organize ‘online missionaries’

December 8, 2023 - 10:13 AM
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Bishop Marcelino Antonio Maralit, chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Social Communications (ECSC), speaks during the 12th Catholic Social Media Summit (CSMS) at the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu in Mandaue City on Dec. 3, 2023. (Jay Mangussad/CBCP News)

A Catholic bishop has announced a plan to organize Catholic online influencers, vloggers, and other social media personalities as ‘a community of faith’.

Bishop Marcelino Antonio Maralit, chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Social Communications (ECSC), said the aim is to strengthen collaboration among digital missionaries.

“And maybe to encourage and inspire each other, and to help in amplifying the message,” said Maralit, who is also the bishop of Boac.

“We are coming into this as a community of faith, a community of God, and a community of charity,” he said.

He made the statement during the 12th Catholic Social Media Summit (CSMS) held at the Sacred Heart School – Ateneo de Cebu in the city of Mandaue on December 2 to 3.

In a separate press briefing, the bishop also said they aim to establish a kind of code of ethics for Catholic social media content producers.

The current practice, according to him, seems to follow a “you do yours, I do mine” mentality.

“So what do we bring here? My suggestion is to put up a Catholic social media network,” he added.

Maralit was among the speakers of the CSMS that was attended by more than 350 participants.

Organized by YouthPinoy, a group of “online missionaries,” in partnership with the Cebu Archdiocesan Digital Communications (Cadcom), this year’s summit theme was “Hybrid: Create, Collab and Commune”.