More than 100 Catholic digital missionaries, communicators, content creators, and influencers from across Asia convened from September 10 to 13, 2026, at Radio Veritas Asia (RVA) in Quezon City, Philippines, for the inaugural Asian Catholic Digital Missionary Assembly. Among the participants was Fondacio Asia, represented by Jhimus B. Barrios, Regional Communication and Project Coordination Officer, who joined the four-day program focused on formation, encounter, discernment, and collaboration on the Church’s mission in the digital sphere.
The event, organized by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences Office of Social Communication (FABC-OSC) and Radio Veritas Asia in partnership with the Vatican Dicastery for Communication through the Fully Present Network, featured the theme “Influencers to Witnesses: Synodal Way for Digital Mission in Asia.”
Inspired by Acts 4:20— “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard”—the gathering urged participants to look beyond content creation and digital influence toward authentic Christian witness. Over four days, a recurring message emerged: digital mission is not ultimately about followers, likes, visibility, or algorithms, but about encounter, truth, human dignity, communion, and pointing people toward Christ.
Pointing Beyond Ourselves
The assembly opened on September 10 with a Welcome Mass celebrated by Fr. Felmar Fiel, SVD, general manager of RVA. Drawing from the Filipino gesture of pointing with one’s lips, Fr. Fiel challenged attendees to consider where their digital presence leads others.
“If we point only to ourselves, we remain influencers,” he said. “But if our lives, our stories, our creativity and digital platforms point people toward Jesus, then we become witnesses.”
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle echoed this invitation in a video message during the assembly’s orientation. Before digital missionaries can influence others, he said, they must first recognize what influences their own lives.
“My appeal to you, dear digital missionaries, be aware of what and who influences you,” Cardinal Tagle said, encouraging participants to allow Jesus to become the strongest influence in their lives.
The first day also offered delegates from various countries the opportunity to meet, share expectations, and explore the diversity of Catholic digital mission across Asia. Participants arrived with different languages, cultures, platforms, ministries, and experiences, yet shared a desire to learn from one another and consider possibilities for collaboration.
From Content to Encounter
On the second day, discussions delved deeper into the requirements of authentic digital witness.
During the opening Mass, Archbishop Gilbert Garcera, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, urged communicators to “whisper Jesus in Asia”—an approach rooted in drawing close to people, listening to their realities, and communicating with truth and compassion.
“Verify before you publish, listen before you judge, understand before you interpret, give context before you condemn,” he told the digital missionaries.
Bishop Marcelino Antonio “Junie” Maralit Jr., chairman of the FABC Office of Social Communication, expanded on this call in his keynote address, “From Algorithm to Altar: Weaving a Synodal Network of Witnesses in the Digital Peripheries of Asia.”
He challenged participants to transition from content to encounter, audiences to communities, virality to fidelity, competition to collaboration, and influence to witness. Rather than letting algorithms and the attention economy dictate the direction of digital mission, he encouraged communicators to create spaces where people can encounter one another—and ultimately, Christ.
“The digital highways are waiting,” Bishop Maralit said. “Go with the wisdom of the heart, stand up for human dignity, and tell the beautiful stories of faith in Asia.”
Fr. Columba Jordan, CFR, explored the personal dimension of authentic witness. In his session, “From Ego to Authentic Witness,” he invited digital missionaries to let God work through their personalities, experiences, and gifts—rather than turning digital ministry into self-promotion or shying away from using their gifts.
“The Gospel always speaks through somebody,” he said.
For Fr. Jordan, authentic communication begins by asking how the Gospel has first changed the communicator. Only from that personal encounter can digital missionaries credibly speak about a living Christ.
Weaving Communion Across Asia
The call to move beyond individual influence also resonated in the remarks of Dr. Nataša Govekar, director of the Theological-Pastoral Department of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication.
Govekar encouraged participants to see themselves not simply as influencers, but as “weavers of communion.” She emphasized that Christian communication cannot be separated from relationships, collaboration, and accompaniment.
“It’s urgent then to learn this together, as a community and not as individuals,” she said.
Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, similarly urged participants in a video message to use digital platforms “not simply to gain followers, likes or visibility, but to proclaim Christ, to serve others and to build bridges of communion.”
Discussions also highlighted Asia’s diversity. Communicators from India, the Philippines, and South Korea shared how language, culture, technology, religious diversity, and local realities shape digital mission in their contexts.
Fr. Cyril Victor Joseph presented India’s experience developing Catholic Connect to bridge linguistic and cultural divides, while Fr. Felmar underscored the importance of telling stories rooted in local communities and communicating in languages people recognize as their own.
Dr. Anna Jihyun You of South Korea stressed the need for “high tech” to be balanced with “high touch,” reminding participants that technological connectivity cannot replace genuine human encounter.
Three case-study discussions later put these principles into practice. Participants reflected on the need for “holy detachment” when popularity and algorithms threaten to reshape a missionary’s identity, the movement from “I” to “them” by centering the stories and needs of others, and the duty to ensure that artificial intelligence serves human dignity and authentic relationships.
A Mission That Begins Here and Now
On September 12, Archbishop Rex Andrew Alarcon, chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Social Communication, described the digital sphere as a new mission territory where people already live, interact, form opinions, and search for meaning.
“The new mission territory is not the seas, not the air, but the digital sphere,” he said. “Not a parallel world, but a world where we live in. We are already there.”
The day’s discussions also looked ahead to World Youth Day Seoul 2027 as an opportunity to put the emerging Asian digital missionary network into action.
Fr. John Mi Shen, RVA program director and executive secretary of FABC-OSC, outlined a vision to bring 40 digital influencers to Seoul as “40 pairs of eyes,” capturing stories and experiences beyond the major events and allowing young people across Asia to experience World Youth Day through their perspectives.
Stephanie Sun, head of global communications for the WYD Seoul 2027 Local Organizing Committee, similarly challenged digital missionaries to help bring the experience to young people unable to travel to Korea. Local digital missionaries, she emphasized, can communicate through the languages, cultures, and realities of the communities they already serve.
For Fr. Mi Shen, however, the mission does not begin in Seoul.
“Mission does not really start next year during the World Youth Day,” he said. “Mission starts here and now.”
Bringing the Mission Home to Fondacio Asia
For Jhimus, attending the assembly as Fondacio Asia’s Regional Communication and Project Coordination Officer brought many of these discussions directly into his own mission of communicating the stories and realities of Fondacio communities across the region.
“As a communicator, the Assembly reminded me that fidelity to the mission means constantly asking not only how far our stories can reach, but where they are leading people,” Jhimus reflected.
He acknowledged that one challenge of digital communication is the pressure to continually produce content, maintain visibility, and measure success through engagement. The assembly offered a different perspective, calling communicators to remain grounded in listening, truth, human dignity, and the people behind every story.
“Moving forward, I hope to bring this perspective more intentionally into my engagement with Fondacio Asia by telling the diverse stories of our communities across Asia, creating spaces for encounter, and using communication not simply to inform, but to help build connection and communion,” he said.
This reflection aligns closely with Fondacio Asia’s regional communication mission, where stories from different countries, cultures, programs, and communities come together through a shared commitment to human development, encounter, and mission.
Sent Forth as Digital Missionaries
The four-day journey concluded on September 13 with a Commissioning Mass at Good Shepherd Cathedral in Quezon City, presided over by Cardinal Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David, Bishop of Kalookan and vice president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.
Cardinal David reminded participants that the digital world has become a culture and a place where people meet, search, struggle, and sometimes look for God. Their task, he said, is therefore not merely to enter that space as content creators.
“Go there as missionaries,” he told the delegates.
He called on them to listen before reacting, uphold the dignity even of those with whom they disagree, and pay attention to people whose voices are often ignored.
“When others spread anger, answer with courage. When others spread contempt, answer with dignity. When other people close the door, become a bridge,” Cardinal David said.
At the conclusion of the Mass, participants made a solemn commitment to serve as digital missionaries and authentic witnesses of faith in Asia. They pledged to walk the synodal way, listen deeply, collaborate across borders, share the diverse stories, joys, and challenges of the Asian Church, and transform their digital presence into encounters with Christ.
The commissioning brought the assembly back to the invitation with which it began. Across different countries, cultures, platforms, and ministries, the challenge facing Asia’s Catholic digital missionaries is not simply how effectively they can communicate, but how faithfully they can witness.
For Fondacio Asia, that mission continues through the stories of its communities and people across the region, carrying into the digital space the same call heard throughout the assembly: to listen, encounter, build communion, and allow every story to point beyond itself toward a greater mission.