Young Catholics are left with the two-edged sword of an exciting increase in the exploration of faith amongst peers, mixed with the risks of social media dominating their faith formation.

Despite the growing dissociation of young people from the Church, Gen Z are open to spirituality, with 46 per cent seeking weekly guidance on TikTok, according to data from a recent McCrindle Research report (Changing Faith Landscape in Australia).

Confusion rises, with some users knowing how to utilise TikTok for quality Catholic content, while others are unaware of how to sift through the vast range of opinions about Faith.

The pressing question is how the beauty of Christ is being shone into the ugliness of contradiction as we navigate the new landscape of mission.

Despite the growing dissociation of young people from the Church, Gen Z are open to spirituality, with 46 per cent seeking weekly guidance on TikTok, according to data from a recent McCrindle Research report (Changing Faith Landscape in Australia).

Good news

In a social media-dependent world, Catholic videos are helping to ground the Church's identity within apps and broader culture. Some Catholics currently use TikTok and Instagram as personal sources for faith formation, claiming helpful effects.

Prayer prompts, inspirational testimony, and Catholic answers for contemporary topics are some of the benefits accessible throughout one's day.

Generation Z recognises TikTok as an appropriate place for discussing spirituality according to the McCrindle report.

TikTok's potential reach for evangelisation is great, with the ability to spread the kerygma instantly.

TikTok is an opportunity for our modern age, allowing Catholics to meet peers where they currently stand with faith, and share truth in a familiar space.

Videos promoting Jesus's love and compassion are popular among those searching for faith online.

Data shows an increase in identification with Jesus and a decline in alignment with the ‘Church', reaffirming an openness to Jesus and ‘spirituality' without comprehension of the role of the Church.

Not so good news

TikTok is an uncensored platform with the potential for addiction, confusion, disordered secularisation, and uncontrolled opinion.

The app exists for entertainment and engagement without justification - populating fake news.

For the average person seeking clarity about Catholicism, there is little-to-no distinction between personal grievance towards the Faith and genuine Catholic teaching.

Some of the mixed and negative Catholic representations on the app are even found under hashtags #catholic and #priests.

These range from complaints and mockery of a personal Catholic experience, to outright slander or heresy regarding Catholic teaching.

Frequently, Protestant creators discuss apologetics without reference to what the Catechism says as they promote anti-Catholic views to gain traction.

These trends are contrasted with the more positive content associated with the hashtag #jesus, reinforcing how people may be open to ‘spirituality' and connect with Jesus, but do not resonate with anything ‘Catholic'.

Generation Z recognises TikTok as an appropriate place for discussing spirituality according to the McCrindle report.

And downright ugly

Comical videos of Catholic ‘in jokes' circulate on the platform and, although humorous and unifying for the formed Catholics, do not provide answers for the unchurched.

Other Catholic content is increasingly cringe-worthy and lacking in tasteful execution, reinforcing the perception of the Church as outdated. More complexities arise in bridging the gap between spiritual content online and participation in the life of Christ.

Shifting the culture beyond the parameters of TikTok's 10-second content duration and towards an active Catholic life may become a point to consider in the longevity of this digital evangelisation.

In a world thriving on relativism, the ability to navigate truth, beauty, and goodness is already difficult. With conflicting content, TikTok offers few favours to assist the searching mind.

Without comprehension for discerning between hurt and teaching, truth and lies, misinterpretation and trusted wisdom, TikTok lacks a pastoral regulation in guidance about Catholicism.

The silver lining and hopeful fact among such complexities is that Gen Z is searching for truth, purpose and God.

How are we representing Christ and His Good News in the digital world, whilst encouraging people to move beyond dependency on social media for prayer?

Are we encouraged to become creators ourselves, avoid the app altogether, or spread awareness for the better videos that already exist?

The landscape of digital evangelisation comes with all sorts of new questions and concerns, as the uncensored space has the potential to cause personal damage.

Yet, the Church has an opportunity to capitalise on the current openness and offer searching souls a witness and invitation to the good, the true, and the beautiful Church of Christ.

• Anna Harrison is a Youth Officer for Sydney Catholic Youth and holds a Liberal Arts degree
• First published in Catholic Weekly. Republished with permission.

The video-centric app is credited with popularizing the runaway hit "Stunnin'" by Curtis Waters.

In another instance, it exposed to millions of viewers a dance sequence known as "The Renegade" created by a 14-year-old girl in a suburb of Atlanta, resulting in teens mimicking the moves in school hallways around the country.

That TikTok's 15- to 30-second clips are perfect for making new songs and dances go viral is obvious, less so is its potential to #MakeJesusViral.

But the hashtag garnered 362 million views, proving bite-sized chunks of theology just as edible.

Similarly, #Christian has gotten 10.5 billion views #Jewish 1.1 billion and #Islam a whopping 23.7 billion.

To say that religion is big on the platform is an understatement.

These lessons aren't lost on young people hoping to build faith communities.

Christian, Muslim and Jewish creators alike are utilizing TikTok to spread the word — with evangelicals, in particular, embracing the platform as they historically have with new technology.

Religion's outsize presence on the app also calls into question the widely held belief that Gen Z, those born after 1996, is following the decades-old American trend away from religion.

Maybe TikTok isn't exactly bringing them into the fold — but some religious leaders say the proliferation of faith-related clips suggests the young are searching for something.

In search of the flock

Many TikTok creators making religious content use the same methods as other TikTokers —they ride the waves of the trending content to bring religion to the masses — to maximize attention to their posts.

Father Matt Lowry (@catholic.jacks 73.8K followers) is a Catholic priest who leads a church at Northern Arizona University.

He's not a Gen Zer but "Father Matt," as he's affectionately called, has a team of college students who help him create social media content to reach local students.

When Father Matt and his Gen Z advisers combined two trends — the song "Stunnin'" with the "What I'd wear" concept — he went viral to the tune of 3.7 million views and over 350,000 likes.

Father Matt was shocked at the success of the clip, which simply shows him in different robes for various holy days.

He was also surprised by the popularity of a clip in which he and young members of the church did the "COVID Slide" — a humorous, socially distanced version of the song "Electric Slide" that starts with putting masks on, continues with elbow taps, and concludes with washing hands.

"It got over a million views," he says.

Out of curiosity, he searched the app to see who else was using the same track.

It seemed to be mostly people between 14 to 21 — "a demographic that the church struggles with right now," says Father Matt.

"They're in TikTok. And if this is where the people are, this is where we want to go."

Using TikTok to reach out to Catholics, Father Matt says, is an "attempt to emulate Jesus, who goes in search of the flock." Continue reading