World Youth Day organizers in Seoul and the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) are building a network of Catholic digital missionaries to bring the 2027 gathering to young people across Asia who cannot travel to South Korea.
The network could involve sharing local-language content, identifying digital voices in different countries, and helping shape how World Youth Day Seoul 2027 reaches communities beyond those attending in person.
“We’re building a network of Catholic influencers and digital missionaries with a particular focus on Asia,” said Stephany Sun, global communications manager of the Committee for Communications of the Archdiocese of Seoul.
Sun spoke during the Asian Catholic Digital Missionary Assembly (ACDMA) 2026 in Manila on Sept. 12.
She said most young Catholics in Asia would remain in their home countries during World Youth Day, regardless of how many pilgrims attend the gathering in August 2027.
Sun said digital missionaries could provide forms of accompaniment that livestreams and official coverage could not.
“A live stream can stream a holy mass. It cannot sit with a struggling teenager late at night. It cannot answer them in their own language. You can,” said Sun.
“That is the difference between reach and witness,” she said, reminding the crowd that an “influencer is followed” but a “witness is trusted.”
Sun said organizers in Seoul want Asian digital missionaries involved in developing the strategy rather than simply distributing material prepared in Korea.
“We’re not arriving from Korea with a finished strategy looking for someone to carry it out for us. We’re asking you to help design it,” she said.
The network could also help organizers identify voices they may not otherwise reach and understand what works in different countries and communities across Asia.
Said Sun, organizers hope to begin meeting online early next year.
The initiative follows efforts at recent major Church gatherings to give Catholic digital creators a role beyond conventional media coverage.
At World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023, a Mass was celebrated specifically for Catholic influencers and digital missionaries, with time set aside for them to meet. The Jubilee of Catholic Influencers and Digital Missionaries in Rome later held its own program and festival.
“This was no longer simply about a media role. The church was recognizing a mission,” said Sun.
World Youth Day Seoul 2027 plans a dedicated gathering for digital missionaries and a festival during World Youth Day week, although Sun said organizers were still working on the date and venue.
Registration for World Youth Day Seoul 2027 will open in October.
The FABC is also looking to World Youth Day as a concrete mission for the emerging network of Asian digital missionaries.
Father John Mi Shen, executive secretary of the FABC Office of Social Communication and program director of Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), said RVA plans to bring 40 digital influencers to the gathering.
He described them as “40 pairs of eyes” who would move beyond covering major Masses and formal events to document encounters in local communities, classrooms, gyms, streets and homes hosting pilgrims.
Mi Shen said the digital missionaries could connect people in their own countries with the experiences of young people gathering in Korea.
The priest also described the participants as “40 pairs of windows” through which Catholics in Korea and elsewhere could encounter the realities of communities across Asia.
Mi Shen linked the initiative to the FABC’s emphasis on dialogue with cultures, religions, and people on the margins.
World Youth Day will return to Asia in 2027, 32 years after Manila hosted the gathering in 1995.
According to Sun, Seoul will also be the first World Youth Day hosted in a culture where Christianity has never been the majority.
World Youth Day Seoul 2027 carries the theme from the Gospel of John, “Take courage, I have overcome the world.”
Sun said the Church in Korea has drawn three forms of courage from the passage: seeking truth, practicing love, and building peace.
For Mi Shen, the work of Asian digital missionaries should begin well before pilgrims gather in Korea. “Mission does not really start next year during World Youth Day. Mission starts here and now,” he said.
