“I never thought that faith was boring because God is joy,” one reads when entering the TikTok profile of Fr. Pablo Jesús Panozzo Zénere, where his followers total 22,000, and his publications reflect what he says in his description: in a witty way and with a touch of humor and acting, in his videos he explains passages from the Gospel and shares reflections. In some of his publications, views reach 2 million.
Father Panozzo Zénere belongs to the Diocese of Concordia, Entre Ríos, and is one of the digital content creators who will meet this weekend in the city of Córdoba (Argentina) to participate in a new edition of the National Meeting of Digital Evangelizers (ENED), whose motto this year is “We cannot remain silent about what we have seen and heard.”
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The event, which has the endorsement of the Argentine Episcopal Conference and last year had its first edition in Buenos Aires, brings together influencers and content creators who use new technologies and social networks as a tool to make the message of Christ known.
In dialogue with ACI Prensa, the priest acknowledged that the purpose of this meeting is “to get to know each other and experience Jesus together, in the Church way, united with the Church, especially with the endorsement of the Episcopal Conference.”
One of the objectives is to be able to “think together about strategies and effective ways to carry out our mission in the digital world,” anticipated the Entre Ríos priest.
In that sense, he considered that “every land is a land of mission, and social networks are a new land, a new area of mission where the announcement of the Gospel must be present.”
“I like to think of it as a world that is not purely virtual, but rather there is a lot of reality there, it is a new reality,” he said. “There are many expressions of feelings, emotions, particular life situations, leisure, education,” she listed.
“It is a very important area where a lot of information circulates, accurate, false, but which has to be illuminated and supported by people from different areas. Evangelization, the message of the Gospel, also comes in there,” he added.
“Social networks have their own style, and what they allow us to do is transmit the message of the Gospel but always looking for a new way, an interactive way, a ‘fun’ way, so that it can reach different people”
The priest considers that the values that should be sought to be transmitted through social networks “are the values of the Gospel: peace, justice, truth, love.”
“If there is something that has impressed me about social networks, it is the amount of expressions of anger and ‘hatred’ we could say, known as ‘hate’, and they are really strong. Therefore, more than ever, the digital evangelizer is called to transmit this: messages of peace, messages of joy, of hope, of dreams, that transmit deep love, above all to make it known that God loves us,” he reflected.
On the other hand, he called to “try to build bridges, links, things that instead of distancing us from each other, unite us, help us value others.”
“If someone wants to encourage digital evangelization, they have to know that it is an area that is quite hostile in some points, and that in the face of this hostility one has to respond as Jesus tells us in the Gospel: turning the other cheek and betting on paths of love, sincerity, respect and reconciliation,” he concluded.
In addition to the participants of the first meeting, this year there are new guests, who will exchange experiences and knowledge about evangelization in the “digital continent”, within the framework of the synodal path called by Pope Francis.
Between the influencers Those who will meet in Córdoba include priests, nuns, Catholic singers and creators of humorous content, as well as lay people committed to different Catholic missions and projects.
One of the notable presences of this edition is that of the secretary of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See, Mons. Lucio Ruiz. On behalf of the Argentine Episcopal Conference will be the President of the Episcopal Communication Commission, Mons. Gabriel Barba, along with the Executive Secretary of said Commission, Vanessa Monzón.
This second National Meeting of Digital Evangelizers will have a space open to the public: a musical and solidarity festival, which will take place on Saturday from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the Paseo del Buen Pastor, with talks, live bands and testimonies . Those who wish to attend can contribute with non-perishable food to help community kitchens.
Juliet Villar
I am a journalist, with a degree in communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non-governmental organizations. Since 2016 I have been dedicated to Catholic journalism, first at the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as ACI Prensa correspondent for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.