The online space will be decisive in people's lives for a very long time, so there is no other choice, the church, priests, monks, and communities must be present where there is an opportunity to carry out our missionary mission - Father Gergő Bese told Magyar Nemzet in relation to that the Catholic Church launched its Instagram and TikTok pages in November. According to social media expert Melinda Klausz, compared to traditional media products, social media provides much more effective, faster and more effective communication, however, it is worth looking around the interfaces and consciously planning each step of communication.

The central Instagram and TikTok page of the Hungarian Catholic Church was launched at the end of November. As it was written in the relevant announcement, visitors will find the news, events, and announcements of the church on the social media pages, and they will also promote the teaching of the Gospel to the readers with spiritual guidance. They added: the revolutionary step is expected to make communication between the church and the faithful more direct.

- The church is a two-thousand-year-old institution, a spiritual community. During the several centuries, it experienced many innovations, witnessed the creation of countries, the conversion of peoples, the rise and fall of empires. This time taught him to be careful and considerate. You don't have to jump into everything right away, let's first see in what direction its development and popularity are going - father Gergő Bese told our newspaper. The newspaper asked the parish priest about the reasons for the presence of the Catholic Church on TikTok.

As he said, the rise of social media in the 21st century. the great achievement of the 20th century, which absorbs people.

It can be said that anyone who isn't on one of the platforms doesn't even exist. - Social changes show that the online space will be decisive in people's lives for a very long time, so there is no other choice, the church, priests, monks, and communities must be present where it is possible to carry out our missionary mission - believes Bese Greg.

According to him, the church has many important messages for today's people. - God did not entrust these things to us to listen.

We have to talk and write about it, if it's suitable, if not. In any case, the soul blows where it wants, if a TikTok video touches the heart of the searcher or a blog post, it doesn't matter, the point is that you managed to meet someone who would have had a hard time getting to the church or religious class. To put it more simply: by entering its gadget, we deliver the good news - explained Father Gergő Bese. When asked whether a social media platform can attract the younger generations to the church, according to Gergő Bese, the answer is clearly yes.

Community building is the central task on social media platforms. This is also the task of the church, which is not necessarily easy - social media expert Melinda Klausz has already talked about how successful churches can be on online platforms, especially in reaching the younger generations. As he said, in addition to new technology, a traditional church must compete with new communication styles and solutions if it really wants to reach young people, if it wants to create a real community.

Source: Hungarian Nation

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