US TikTok ban will not impede social media evangelisation, say priests

‘The Lord led our ministry to TikTok, and if TikTok goes away, He will lead us elsewhere.’

Priests across the United States have claimed their social media evangelisation will not be threatened by the potential ban on TikTok.

TikTok, a social media app designed to create and share short videos, has been used increasingly by Catholic priests both to evangelise and to offer glimpses into the life of the American clergy through the use of viral internet trends.

Fr Simon Teller OP ­– Dominican chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry at Providence College, Rhode Island – is known for his ASMR Mass preparation videos, and has amassed views upwards of 11 million.

Fr Teller told The Tablet: “In the grand scheme of things, I hope it gets banned. It is a tool that in itself is good, but requires intense discipline to use virtuously.

“Although I would not use it as a consumer, I do use it as a preacher, in part because of its incredible reach, and in part because that is where people are.”

Speaking to the National Catholic Register, Fr David Michael Moses – who is known for his youthful and engaging style towards an approximate following of 325,000 on TikTok – said: “Every bad neighbourhood should have a Catholic church and a priest there. Just like in a bad neighbourhood [such as TikTok], there are souls that need to be ministered to.”

Fr Moses’ content addresses common questions people have about Catholicism, and he said he was not willing to let go of the “lost sheep”.

“There are a lot of lost people of TikTok, and the more lost they are the more we need to bring them back to the Church. Wherever the souls are, that is where we are going.”

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Fr Matt Lowry – chaplain and Director of the Phoenix Holy Spirit Newman Centre, Northern Arizona University – also uses social media trends to the advantage of evangelisation and was similarly undeterred by the proposed TikTok ban: “Media is a medium for what we put into it. Regardless of what medium is available, we desire to share the best news available – that God is present, loves us, and thinks we are worth dying for.”

When asked about how they see social media evangelisation moving forwards in the United States, both Teller and Lowry were hopeful.

“Evangelisation is always guided by the Holy Spirit,” said Fr Teller. “The Lord led our ministry to TikTok, and if TikTok goes away, He will lead us elsewhere.”

Fr Lowry said: “Just as we used other methods before TikTok, we would utilise other available means to help share the joy of the Gospel.”

The app recently came under legal pressure in the United States because its Chinese parent company refused to sell the service to an approved American buyer.

After briefly suspending its services on 18 January in America, President Donald Trump granted a 75-day extension to TikTok upon his inauguration, despite the Supreme Court unanimously ruling to ban the app.

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