Social media and the Catholic Church: A scoping review
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Abstract
The growing presence of Catholic priests and nuns on social media reflects the increasing importance of this social practice, which has interdisciplinary implications in religion, media communication, and education. To help determine new research directions to aid in deepening the understanding of this phenomenon, this scoping review explores what is known so far about the intersections of social media and the Catholic Church’s evangelical mission. Adopting the PRISMA-ScR reporting framework, 43 English-language journal articles published in selected research databases from 2014 to 2024 were systematically selected and reviewed. The research questions, contexts, frameworks, methods, data and social media platform sources, and key findings were extracted in an Excel matrix to map patterns in the literature, major evidence gaps, and future research directions. Findings show that studies are predominantly situated in European contexts, focus on Facebook and Twitter, use qualitative modes of analysis, and examine practices, purposes, products, and prescriptions of the Catholic Church in relation to social media. To broaden scholarship, future research can explore contexts outside Europe and emerging social media platforms like TikTok, employ mixed method approaches, and probe various critical issues arising from prevailing social media practices. Extending research in these directions is essential to deepen understanding of the complex discourse on religion within the digital sphere.
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