VATICAN (SE): “You are not only influencers, you are also missionaries,” Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle said in his homily at the St. Peter’s Basilica on July 29, CBCP News reported.
“Jesus is not the face or a voice generated by a digital programme. He is the image of the invisible God,” Cardinal Tagle told those gathered for a special Jubilee Mass for Catholic influencers and digital evangelists, urging that they reject manipulative tactics and instead allow the love of Jesus to shape their mission in digital spaces.
“Love cannot be generated by an algorithm. Only a divine person with a human heart can love divinely and humanly, effecting profound and enduring change,” the pro-prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelisation said.
Reflecting on the Latin root of the word “influence”—influere, meaning “to flow in”—Cardinal Tagle described influence as a fluid, warning that in today’s world, some flows are “poisonous” and come from “dangerous stars.”
Love cannot be generated by an algorithm. Only a divine person with a human heart can love divinely and humanly, effecting profound and enduring change
Cardinal Tagle
The cardinal said, “To influence consumers so that monetary profit may increase, some resort to false advertising—even using deep fakes or fabricated endorsements,” sharing that he himself had been used without consent in videos falsely promoting arthritis medication.
CBCP News reported that he cited other examples of corrupted influence: candidates bribing voters, blackmail in financial dealings, ideological coercion, and nations waging war to bend others into submission.
“The Jubilee invites us to scrutinise the intention that fuels the influence our contemporary world wants to effect,” Cardinal Tagle said. “The change we desire is often connected to the means we use to influence people and situations.”
The cardinal said digital evangelists must ground their work in prayer, humility and love.
“Will we let the water and blood of Jesus, poured out for love of us, be the true fluid of influence that washes away iniquity, falsehood, injustice, prejudice, manipulation, and violence?” he asked.
“Dear digital missionaries and Catholic influencers, Jesus loves you. Do not doubt him,” he said. “Accept him as the greatest influence on your life—and through you, may his truth, justice, love, and peace flow into every human and digital space.”
