Creator’s Content
Parish Volunteer Coordinator Holly Nguyen creates social media content at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Keller. (NTC/Juan Guajardo)
For nearly two millennia, evangelists have shared God’s love through example, word, and deed. With July’s Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, Pope Leo XIV recognized a new form of evangelization taking root in the modern age — one that is drawing souls to the Church through the digital mission field: online evangelization.
In his address to Catholic digital missionaries and influencers, the first American pope stressed the need for disciples who “voice to the ends of the Earth the hope that Jesus gives us,” and he acknowledged, “Today, we find ourselves in a new culture, deeply characterized and formed by technology.” However, online missionaries, influencers, and the faithful alike must “ensure that this culture remains human.”
In the Diocese of Fort Worth, the faithful are using the power of digital media to grow closer to God in His Church and to share the Good News through this rapidly evolving medium.
A virtual call
Peter Nguyen now studies theology at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., but the fifth-year seminarian said he wouldn’t be discerning the priesthood if not for social media.
“The internet is the reason I’m here,” he told the North Texas Catholic.
Having grown up in a “very Protestant town with a lot of Protestant classmates,” the parishioner of Immaculate Conception of Mary Parish in Wichita Falls took to the web to learn about the faith in more depth.
“It drew me deeper into what it means to be Catholic,” Nguyen said. “Being able to really study that through the internet, I think, brought me only so far … but learning more about my faith drew me to go attend Mass more intentionally, partake in the sacraments more intentionally.”
His online searches introduced him to further study on praying the Liturgy of the Hours, understanding the Eucharist, and learning more about the saints, all of which supplemented his religious education classes.
After absorbing the Catholic content, he would log in to his Twitter (now known as X) account to express his thoughts, observations, and questions online. With time, Nguyen found and helped cultivate an online community of lay and religious faithful who were eager to encourage and extend his inquiries and exploration of the faith.
Drawn in by Nguyen’s musings on the faith, a priest he’d never met reached out to his account via direct message. “Judging by what you’re sharing and commenting, you should really consider going into the seminary,” he told Nguyen.
They had never met in person, but Nguyen felt seen, and the message stayed with him. After three months of prayer, he entered seminary.
“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him,” he said.
The seminarian continues to interact with his online community of religious supporters, both virtually and annually in person. His online activity has lessened since entering seminary, but Nguyen still periodically logs in to share his thoughts and appreciation for the faith with his 5,815 followers on X.
Every so often, he reminds his brother seminarians to resist the impulse to reject the internet entirely, thereby missing the beauty of how the network can call people to Christ, like it did for him.
“We have a mission from Christ to go preach to all the nations, and there are people from all across the world who look at social media,” Nguyen said. “There are huge opportunities to engage with the world, so I think the Church being out there on the frontier is very good. With moderation, of course — it has to lead back into face-to-face encounters with other people in a faith community.”
From views to the pews
The large corner room in the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish office used to be the pastor’s office and loft. Now, it’s home for the Keller church’s growing communications department.
There, sitting on a beanbag next to a spiral staircase that leads to a photo studio and storage area, you might find Parish Volunteer Coordinator Holly Nguyen wearing her hat as the parish’s social media content creator.
Having learned some tricks of the trade in her previous job, Nguyen began growing the parish’s online presence last December.
“Social media is not actually a part of my job, so it’s not a mundane task for me,” she said. “It can just be fun, and it gives me my creative freedom to just be silly and goofy but still honor the Church and tradition to share our faith with others.”
The parishioner of 13 years often brainstorms ideas with the parish priests, Father James Flynn and Father Benjamin Grothouse, as well as her fellow parish staff.
Spotlighting parishioners living out the liturgical year; rallying aid after recent Texas Hill Country floods; sharing meaningful moments from Mass or silly interactions with the priests have become a tool for building community and connection.
“You can come to Mass here every Sunday at the same time and still not know anyone that sits near you, so in that sense it’s been a blessing to see our community come together in some of the posts that we’ve had,” Nguyen said.
Earlier in June, she did some extra work to help advertise the parish’s Knights of Columbus daddy-daughter dance. The fruit of her work became clear at the event, when a father and daughter, who aren’t members of the parish or even Catholic, shared they had attended the dance after seeing Nguyen’s Facebook post appear on their feed.
“It was an opportunity to evangelize and invite them to come back. I thought that was a really cool way to reach our community in a different way,” she said.
Authentic Christian joy
Laura Nelson invites those learning to evangelize to look to Jesus for pointers first.
“He smelled like the people, right? He got in there and He lived alongside people in their real existence and showed them how to live a real life His way, which is, you know, the way, the truth, the life,” said Nelson, diocesan director of faith formation.
To be effective evangelizers, whether in person or online, one must be honest about struggles, unafraid of sharing authentic stories “because our struggles are what bring glory to God,” she added.
Since July 2020, full-time evangelist Ali Hoffman traveled the globe, visiting different Catholic communities to encourage others to live joyfully for the Lord. For the former youth minister of Colleyville’s Good Shepherd Parish, digital media is an extension of her ministry and evangelization.
“What I personally feel called to share is my own joy living a relationship with the Lord,” Hoffman said. Sometimes, what she chooses to share with her followers may be the result of prayer or something that made her giggle or pensive about the faith. Often, it's a view of her day-to-day life or a retelling of her experience and testimony of how the Lord has changed her.
Her message resonates. On Facebook, Hoffman has 49,000 followers; almost 13,000 followers on her personal Instagram; and about 19,000 Instagram followers on @theoodlesofdoodles account, which features her handmade Scripture letter art.
People are drawn to beauty, Hoffman said, and to authentic portrayals of everyday life of living with the Lord. “The pitfalls, the struggles, as well as the joys of life. I’m just trying. I’m a person who is living in the 21st century who is trying to balance all of the things to become a disciple of Jesus.”
Early in her time as an evangelizer and online creator, Hoffman posted a video of herself dancing with her father in the family’s kitchen while they were quarantined during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The video instantly went viral and currently sits at 3.3 million views on YouTube.
“The thing is, in this clip we did, we didn’t say anything. We were literally dancing to a song, and it was just a moment of joy that sparked something,” Hoffman said.
Recently, the former youth minister received gratitude from a follower on Facebook, who reached out to tell her about the personal impact that the three-minute dance video held in the heart of the follower’s mother.
“Her mom watched our dance video over and over again, literally just on repeat, because it brought her Christian joy,” Hoffman described. “When you’re just your true authentic self, living a life of joy in the Lord, the Holy Spirit will do what He needs to do and He’ll use that,” she said.
A medium to share
When Logan Koch realized many of his friends from Tarleton Catholic Campus Ministry wouldn’t be able to attend the 2025 SEEK Conference in Salt Lake City, he decided to create a social media channel.
“The idea was to bring SEEK to them by interviewing SEEK speakers and maybe some other people they might not have been able to meet,” Koch said.
Once there, he interviewed several of the speakers at the conference, including Bishop Michael Olson, Catholic speaker and influencer Paul Kim, and several religious men and women.
Koch was mindful that many viewers were not Catholic and tailored the questions accordingly.
“I was basically asking common questions that they might get from a non-Catholic, of why we as Catholics believe what we believe.”
Upon his return, Koch continued to create more content, drawing inspiration from the questions and continuing to address misconceptions of the faith.
“I’m looking to actually show what we believe and what we stand for as a Church,” Koch said.
As he begins his sophomore year at Texas A&M University in the fall, Koch plans to continue creating content for 8,000 total followers on TikTok and Instagram.
“I think it definitely is a way for me to express myself,” he said.
A new frontier
When used as a tool for evangelism, digital media can serve the flock in a multitude of ways. It can “reinforce the believer, help grow and nurture their faith, and in another sense, build and grow community,” said John Cuccaro, diocesan communications director.
Still, embracing digital media hasn’t always come easily.
The St. Philip the Apostle parishioner said, “As far as I can see, the traditional Church really got a little behind in embracing social media. In the beginning, as a lot of people did, they felt like social media was a little like the Wild West — it was a little unwieldy, unpredictable, and potentially harmful. … But I think over time, we realized that not only is it here to stay, but it can be a very valuable tool, especially if it’s managed correctly.”
Cuccaro oversees the diocese’s various forms of digital outreach, including its “Lights, Catholic, Action!” podcast, which has been watched or heard almost 9,000 times collectively in its 26 episodes; the North Texas Catholic newsmagazine, delivered to more than 78,000 subscribers; and 23 social media channels across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and X, amounting to 53,000 cumulative followers.
The different platforms highlight the Good News in the diocese, Cuccaro said. “We’re showing faith in action, and we’re showing faith in all its forms, meaning its manifestations through different types of people, walks of life, pursuits, activities — Christ abounds in all of that.”
The more positive content that is pushed, the higher the likelihood of reaching someone who needs to receive a nudge in the right direction, namely toward the Church.
“You’re not going to reach everyone, but you’re just hoping you’re giving an opportunity for people, and this is key. We’re actually doing all this so people and souls come to you, thus Christ. It’s giving them the invitation to come to Christ,” he said.
Dual Responsibility
When he considers his personal consumption of online content, Cuccaro acknowledges how easily a user can adopt a passive faith of “just absorbing, absorbing, absorbing. It can be distracting to the point of harming you, because it can freeze you and keep you from taking action.”
The consumer of social media must be intentional, Cuccaro insisted. People need to look for content that will “remind you you’re there to serve others, help others. That’s what being Christlike is.”
Seminarian Nguyen agreed, stressing the importance of personal responsibility to take the content you interact with online and letting it guide you to interact with the Church.
“We have the ability to gain so much knowledge about the faith, but that isn’t going to suffice for faith itself. We have to be drawn into the life of faith,” Nguyen explained.