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16 January 2017
A Possible Study on the Impact of Catholic Online Presence to the Doctrinal Formation
In considering what I want to work on for my thesis, I have thought of doing a study
which involves two of my passions: the Catholic faith and education. As other organizations of
influence, the Catholic Church has evolved in terms of communication, and more recently, it has
made efforts to become more present online. With the continuous emergence of new media and
the prominence of the Catholic church, a study of whether the Churchs influence extends to
those who spend much time online, like students. In this paper, I am to discuss what I intend to
In one Pastoral Instruction, Communio Et Progresio, the view of the Church towards
The constant improvement in the media puts them at the disposal of more and more
people who in their daily lives make increasing use of them. More than ever before, the
way men live and think is profoundly affected by the means of communicationThe
Church sees these media as "gifts of God" which, in accordance with His providential
design, unite men in brotherhood and so help them to cooperate with His plan for their
In Evangelii Nuntiandi, Pope Paul VI said that the Church would feel guilty before the
Lord if it fails to use media for evangelization. Henceforth, over the course of history, the
Churchs efforts of reaching its flock through varied media forms has been evident.
While more traditional forms of evangelization through the media are still present, one
with the widest reach is through the Internet. The Church and Internet by the Pontifical Council
for Social Communications acknowledges what Saint John Paul II, in his message the 35th World
Communications Day to consider the reach of the Internet as it carries out religious content
through all parts of the world. The saint, in the same message, also expresses how such wide
audience would be beyond the wildest imaginings of those who preached the Gospel before us
(The Church and Internet, 4), and even emphasizes that Catholics should be open to these
modern forms of communications, so that the Lords message may be heard from the housetops
Anywhere in the world, one only has to type the word Catholic in search engines or
search tabs of social media to gain access to a wide array of contents about the Catholic Church.
However, these links provide information both for or against the Church. In effect, some people,
because of what they see online, choose to deviate from the faith either by converting to another
The Philippines has one of the highest digital populations in the world. According to a
study done by the Rappler Team in partnership with Globe Telecom, there 47.13 million Internet
users in the country, with a mobile Internet penetration growing at a rate of 1.5x or 30 million
users every year. In the same study, the average Filipino spends 3.2 hours on mobile and 5.2
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hours on desktop and tablet. These statistics are high compared to the rest of the world,
considering that the Philippines being 21st out of 22 Asian countries in terms of Internet
For a country that is dominantly Catholic, the Church in the Philippines has long
ventured into using various media forms to spread the Good News. The Church and its
supporting groups increase their online presence by being active in the Internet, especially
through social media. Given the context above, my future research would concentrate mainly on
the impact of Catholic online presence to the doctrinal formation of high school students,
At least online, I have not found studies that have targeted Catholic online presence and
how it affects the lives of students. There are studies regarding perceptions of educators on
Catholic identity, but none so far on the impact of the Churchs media presence on people, let
alone teenagers. This may not be quite a new topic. There may be existing researches regarding
the effectiveness of Catholic influence in various media forms. Unfortunately, I do not have
institutions. Given that the results of this would-be study are accurate, content providers of
Catholic websites or social media pages can fine tune their contents and vary their approach for
Currently, St. Paul College of Makati has doctrinal formation programs for students and
employees alike. These include regular masses, and catechism sessions recollections, Basic
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Ecclesial Communities and activities in collaboration with Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, such as
the Parish Renewal Experience. At least in my locale, there are no programs which involve
utilizing Catholic Church content online. With this research, changes to this current system may
be done, beyond constantly posting in social media about parish activities to, who knows, even
A weak spot of this research is the limitedness of the available online material that is of
the same concern. However, there are a lot of research opportunities. As mentioned, this research
would focus on the high school students of St. Paul College of Makati, which, at present, receive
regular subscriptions on Catholic reading materials, but are practically clueless in searching for
reliable Catholic material online. The output of this research would be helpful in addressing
concerns of spirituality that has to do with surfing the net. Simply put, this future research could
be a building block for future researches, as its intended steps are replicable and can be tailor-
Works Cited:
"A Profile of Internet Users in the Philippines." Rappler. Rappler, Globe Telecom, n.d.
GMA News and Public Affairs. "LIST: Philippines Ranks 21st of 22 Asian Countries in Internet
San Martin, Ines. The Philippines is increasingly secular, but still deeply Catholic.
"The Church and Internet." The Church and Internet. Vatican.va, n.d.