What is digital evangelization?

Digital evangelization is the work of sharing the Gospel and accompanying people toward Christ in the online spaces where they already spend their lives. It is more than posting Catholic content. The goal is to meet a real person, walk with them over time, and help them arrive at a parish and the sacraments. At Evangelization Lab, we call this carrying Christ's mission online.

What is a digital missionary?

A digital missionary is a Catholic who goes onto the internet not to build an audience but to lead real people toward Christ and His Church. The work is relational: being present where people already are, turning attention into genuine conversation, and accompanying someone all the way to a parish.

How is a digital missionary different from a Catholic influencer?

An influencer is measured by audience and attention. A digital missionary is measured by whether a real person is drawn closer to Christ and His sacraments. One gathers a following, the other accompanies a soul toward the parish.

What does the Church mean by the digital continent?

The digital continent is the Church's way of describing the internet as a real place where people live, not merely a tool they use. Pope Benedict XVI named it in 2009. If it is a continent, then it is mission territory, and someone has to be sent there.

What is Evangelization Lab?

Evangelization Lab is a Catholic organization that helps the Church carry Christ's mission online. It reaches people searching for God on the internet and accompanies them from a first search to the sacraments, through research, the virtual-to-sacramental arc methodology, and the formation of digital missionaries. It is a project of Juan Diego and Friends Inc., a Texas 501(c)(3).

Does the Catholic Church support evangelizing online?

Yes. For more than thirty years the popes have called the Church onto the internet for mission. Saint John Paul II the Great spoke of the new Areopagus, Benedict XVI of the digital continent, Francis of the digital world as a place to live, and Leo XIV charged digital missionaries to mend the nets and put out into the deep.

The Evangelization Lab | Digital Missionary Initiative

Q: What is the virtual-to-sacramental arc?

The virtual-to-sacramental arc is Evangelization Lab's methodology for moving a real person from online life into the sacramental life of the Church. It has five movements: Presence, being truly there where people already are; Encounter, where attention becomes a real meeting; Accompaniment, walking with someone over time; Bridge, crossing from online life into a real parish; and Sacramental life, the destination the screen was always meant to lead to.

Q: Who founded Evangelization Lab?

Evangelization Lab was founded by José Manuel De Urquidi González. The Holy Father appointed him a non-bishop voting delegate to the 2023 and 2024 Synod on Synodality. He advises dioceses, Catholic organizations, the USCCB, and CELAM on digital evangelization, accompaniment, and AI.

Our reason for being

Christ did not wait for the crowds inside the synagogue. He went to the well, the roadside, the lakeshore, wherever people already were. And He never only reached them. He stayed, He listened, He walked with them, He led them on. The lakeshore is digital now. We help the Church do there what He did everywhere: we need to meet people where they are, and walk with them towards the Truth.

We exist for the person scrolling at 2am, looking for meaning without knowing the name of what they are looking for. We exist for the parish, the diocese, the university, the ministry, the company, and the missionary who want their online work to end at the altar, not at an audience.

The papal mandate for the digital continent

1990 — Saint John Paul II the Great: named the media a new Areopagus where the Gospel must be proclaimed.
2009 — Benedict XVI: named the internet a digital continent, a real mission territory.
2014 — Francis: called Catholics to live in the digital world as a place where people actually live.
2025 — Leo XIV: charged digital missionaries and Catholic influencers, "Mend the nets. Put out into the deep."

"Mend the nets. Put out into the deep." — Pope Leo XIV, to digital missionaries & Catholic influencers, 2025

The virtual-to-sacramental arc

Our methodology for carrying a real person from a first search to the sacraments, in five movements: Presence, being truly there where people already are; Encounter, where attention becomes a real meeting; Accompaniment, walking with someone over time; Bridge, crossing from online life into a real parish; and Sacramental life, the destination the screen was always meant to lead to.

Who we serve

Dioceses: bringing scattered digital work under one missionary strategy, and forming teams who can carry it from a first encounter to the Sacraments.
Ministries and apostolates: giving people seeking a path forward, from first contact in social media to in-person activities, instead of just one more online follower.
Religious orders: reaching the young who are quietly discerning online, and accompanying them toward a real encounter with the particular charism as they discern their vocation.
Universities: developing missiological thought in this era and promoting research, as well as forming students who can carry the faith into the spaces they already live in.
Media organizations: moving their audience past consumption toward encounter, accompaniment, and a real next step into the life of the Church.
Digital missionaries: formation, community, accompaniment and relationship with the institutional Church so there is no celebrity or influencer mindset, but a missionary one accompanying online followers to the Sacraments.

Projects

Current initiatives include the Virtual-to-Sacramental Hackathon, the Journey Research, missionary cohorts, the Unpacked narrative podcast drawn from the U.S. Digital Mission Outlook, and the free Substack with research, field guides, and case studies for Catholics serving Christ's mission online.

Our founder

Evangelization Lab was founded by José Manuel De Urquidi González. For fifteen years a financial lawyer turned restaurateur and craft brewer in Monterrey, Mexico, he accepted his call to evangelize today's youth. His online work led the Holy Father to appoint him a non-bishop voting delegate to the 2023 and 2024 Synod on Synodality in the Vatican. He advises dioceses and Catholic organizations, as well as the USCCB and CELAM, on digital evangelization, accompaniment, and AI. He and his wife Cecy and their three children are based in Dallas, and often return to Monterrey.

Play the challenge

Seven quotes from the last four popes on Christ's mission online, from Saint John Paul II the Great to Leo XIV. Can you tell who said what? It takes two minutes.