Scholar Spotlight on Miriam Diez Bosch: Catholicism in the Digital Age

For religious organizations, the implementation of digital media has greatly expanded their horizons, specifically for the Catholic Church. Through social media profiles of religious figures, such as the Pope, Catholicism has vastly stretched its reach around the world.

Miriam Diez Bosch, PhD, director at the Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture discussed how global Catholic organizations have used tools of digital media in the research article, “Open Wall Churches. Catholic Construction of Online Communities.” This article explores the shift from the past Catholic focuses on liturgical limitations, to its current emphasis on participation, social justice and avenues to reach new targets.

Bosch is a journalist, specialized in religion, as she has been covering the Vatican for 10 years. Her research focuses on 3 prominent areas: Leadership and Authority in Religion, Community Creation on the Catholic World in the Digital Age and Youth, Religion and Technology. This specific study analyzed how Catholic websites engage with audiences and “how they try to evangelize using the digital sphere.” However, the digital sphere has created difficulties including difficulties in authority and accessibility.

An important insight is that the biggest Catholic portals have 3 commonly shared sections, content, services and community. According to Bosch, this is “not a new community, but an offline community “put” into the Internet.” Because of this, there is not much interaction. Out of 19 websites observed, only 1 was digital and had a live policy regarding social media.

In conclusion, Bosch believes that their research brings insights in trends of Catholicism and highlights the websites observed in 5 different languages in the Catholic “web sphere.”