Evolution of Catholic Media Outreach

Imagine this: you come home after work and turn on your TV. Instead of scrolling through endless options of streaming platforms and cable channels, you have three channels to choose from. And on one of those channels is a Catholic bishop in his vestments giving a sermon to alive audience. This may sound like a fictitious story, but Catholics who lived through the early days of television remember the work of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the first Catholic leader to effectively use television as an evangelization tool. His evening program, Life Is Worth Living, was regularly the top-watched show of the three options—quite the feat when you consider that a large portion of the American audience, Catholics and non-Catholics, were watching a Catholic bishop preach for an hour on television instead of watching other more traditional entertainment programs. Archbishop Sheen’s unprecedented work to use the new medium of TV to reach a large audience with God’s word was influential in how Catholics have continued to use new media technologies both to evangelize and to maintain the Catholic community.

Archbishop Sheen’s embrace of television fits into a larger tradition of Catholics and other Christians seeing media as gifts from God that can be harnessed for positive outcomes. Going back to the invention of the printing press, Christians believed that this was a way to spread God’s word further and to solidify Christian teachings for future generations to come. Significantly, the first printing press in the American colonies was set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to print religious materials, such as a Bible printed in 1663 in the Algonquian language.

Later religious revival movements were often propelled by printed materials, both advertisements for upcoming preacher visits and printed copies of the sermons that would circulate after the fact. One preacher, George Whitefield, became one of the first celebrities in the colonies because of how he used theatrical techniques in his sermons and the publicity around his travels.

Nineteenth-century America saw the explosion of new religious movements and ideas that were circulated through printed materials. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spread the Book of Mormon, the Christian Science Church circulated the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, and Jehovah’s Witnesses shared their faith through printed pamphlets.

While printing was a way for new religions to spread and solidify their teachings, Catholic immigrants to the United States in the 19th century often used printed newspapers to maintain strong faith communities and to help immigrant communities adapt to American life. Catholic diocesan newspapers, along with radio programs, have a similar role today of spreading news about the local and international Church.

The development of broadcast radio and later television offered new avenues for religious groups to reach followers and maintain connections with members at a distance. Particularly for people living in rural communities, radio marked the first time when they could listen to a religious service or sermon simultaneously with people within a wide broadcast range. Archbishop Sheen initially hosted a radio program in the 1930s and 1940s, but his television shows, Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957) and The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968), were what made him a household name. His success was due to how adeptly he used the visual platform of TV to develop a personal connection with the audience through his charismatic personality and down-to-earth preaching style. He would begin each show with several light-hearted jokes, and his sermons focused on widely applicable topics in an easy-to-digest style. Archbishop Sheen became a national celebrity and a source of pride for many Catholics at the time to see a bishop representing their faith in such a bold and positive way.

Television expanded its reach beyond the broadcast signal in the 1970s and 80s with the development of cable and satellite technologies. In the midst of an explosion of religious programming in the 1980s from an evangelical angle or what became known as televangelism, an American Catholic nun, Mother Angelica, started the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a cable network to provide around-the-clock Catholic programming. This channel allows for Catholics to maintain their faith at home and spread the word to people who might be curious about the Catholic faith.

Along with television, Catholics have also embraced film as a medium that allows for a deeper exploration of elements of faith. Films have depicted the lives of saints, going back to an early silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), to the recent film Cabrini (2024) about Mother Frances Cabrini’s missionary work in New York City. Films have also depicted deep spiritual struggles and moral choices, such as Silence (2016), Martin Scorsese’s film about Jesuit missionaries in Japan, and A Hidden Life (2019), Terrence Malik’s film about an Austrian Catholic who refused to fight for the Nazis. Other more recent films like The Way (2010) and Father Stu (2022) portray Catholics in contemporary times. Catholic priests have also been involved in the production of the wildly popular streaming series The Chosen, which tells the story of Jesus throughout multiple seasons. The Chosen is distinct from other streaming shows because it is funded through viewer support and available for free on several platforms.

The Vatican has long recognized the power of the media. Pope Paul VI established World Communications Day in 1967 in an effort to consider both the positive ways that media can be used to promote the Gospel and social justice and the risks of new media technologies to drive us apart from each other and from the teachings of Jesus. On the Sunday before Pentecost each year, the pope issues a message about communication with topics ranging from entertainment media, journalism, mobile technologies, social media platforms, misinformation, and artificial intelligence.

While Pope Francis was known for his outreach to people through active social media accounts, it was Pope Benedict XVI who sent the first official papal Tweet in 2012 and wrote about the need to use digital media to spread the truth. Pope Francis continued this digital ministry by sharing prayers and words of guidance on Twitter accounts in multiple languages. When Francis joined Instagram in 2016, the account broke the record as the fastest growing account. Francis was adept at authentically using social media to share God’s word and images of the faithful from around the world. Pope Leo XIV has continued these digital ministries with a particular focus on the effects of algorithms and artificial intelligence and the need to celebrate the distinctions of humanity, such as empathy, ethics, and justice.

Pope Leo XIV hosted a meeting in Rome in July 2025 for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers. Everyday young Catholics are using social media platforms to share relatable content about their families, relationships, faith life, and Catholic traditions. On TikTok, the Daughters of St. Paul share their joy and love of God through fun videos of the sisters singing hymns, sharing teachings from Scripture, answering questions about life as a sister, and even participating in TikTok trends. Catholic priests like Father Mike Schmitz are continuing the tradition of Archbishop Sheen by effectively using digital media platforms to create engaging content about the faith, whether that’s through his popular Bible in a Year podcast, YouTube sermons, or catchy short videos on Instagram. And Archbishop Sheen has even found his way to digital media, as Catholics are rediscovering his videos online and posting clips of his sermons on social media.