Concerns have arisen as Catholics express their intention to leave ‘X’ (Twitter) due to the platform’s Adult Content Policy changes which state that “Adult Content covers our approach to sharing consensual sexual content and adult nudity”.
While globally there is a wave of faithful people contemplating deleting their ‘X’ accounts, Fr Paddy Byrne PP of Abbeyleix, Co. Laois, who is coming up to 33000 followers on the platform, has shared his thoughts on this reality: “I think that the Church has a fundamental call to spread the good news. And that in terms of evangelisation, it’s very important that we are part of the conversation of social media.” Fr Byrne continues, “It would be foolish just to not engage, but I think we must do it in a professional manner. We have a responsibility in safeguarding our young people and ourselves around our use of social media.”
Fr Byrne expects every local parish to “engage with every vehicle possible to communicate even the simple things like our parish newsletters. What’s going on. Put them out on the various media networks. I find by using those at a parish level you engage, and you can attract people, even to Mass on Sunday by just putting out that invitation every week on social media. It’s very surprising how people do respond…The great benefit of our reality as the Catholic Church is that one of our strengths is communication.”