Pope Leo XIV and the embodied faith we need
Monday, November 17, 2025
*Fr. Richard Vigoa
When Pope Leo XIV posted on X recently, his message struck a chord far deeper than a passing comment about social media. He wrote, “In recent years, many young people have approached the faith through social media, successful programs, and popular online Christian witnesses. The danger is that a faith discovered online is limited to individual experiences, which may be intellectually and emotionally reassuring, but never ‘embodied.’ Such experiences remain ‘disembodied,’ detached from the ‘ecclesial body.’”
There is something profoundly prophetic in those words. At a time when so many are discovering faith through online platforms, the Pope is not dismissing those encounters but reminding us that faith cannot live as an abstraction. Christianity is not an idea; it is an incarnation. To know Christ is to know Him in the flesh, in the community of believers, in the Eucharist, and in the faces of those who walk beside us. The Holy Father’s warning is not about technology itself but about the danger of isolation masquerading as connection. Faith cannot be downloaded; it must be lived, breathed, and shared.
We live in a moment when countless people first meet Jesus through a YouTube testimony or an Instagram reflection. For some, it’s a podcast that opens their heart; for others, it’s a series like The Chosen that stirs something deep within. I know someone personally who told me that after watching The Chosen, they felt something shift inside, they said, “I don’t know what happened, but I suddenly wanted to take my faith seriously.” That’s the power of storytelling and the reach of grace: God can enter through any doorway, even a digital one. These experiences matter. They awaken curiosity, reignite hope, and plant seeds of conversion in hearts that might otherwise remain untouched. But if those encounters never take root in a parish, if they never lead to the sacraments, to a pew, to confession, or to prayer shared in community, then something essential is missing. As Pope Leo reminds us, a “disembodied faith” risks remaining only emotional or inspirational, never fully maturing into discipleship.
The Church has always understood faith as communal. From the very beginning, the disciples were sent out two by two. The Acts of the Apostles tells not a story of solitary believers but of a living community, breaking bread, praying, forgiving, and growing as one body. Christianity was never meant to be “Jesus and me”; it has always been “Jesus and us.” And yet, our digital habits often pull us in the opposite direction. We scroll alone. We comment alone. We even pray alone before a screen, mistaking content consumption for communion.
Pope Leo’s phrase “detached from the ecclesial body” should give us pause. The Church is not a virtual network of followers but a body, the Body of Christ. And bodies need presence. They need voice, touch, gesture, and the shared rhythm of human life. When faith becomes an online experience alone, it loses what makes it Christian: its sacramentality, its rootedness in the flesh. Ours is the faith of the Incarnation, the proof that God works through what is tangible, visible, and human.
For those of us called to shepherd souls, this message carries real pastoral weight. How do we engage digital platforms without letting them replace real community? How do we reach the generation that lives online while calling them back to the altar, to the confessional, to the parish hall? The key, I believe, is to keep the hierarchy of encounter clear: digital spaces can introduce someone to Christ, but only embodied spaces can sustain that relationship. Online content can spark faith, but it cannot replace the sacraments. Livestreamed Mass is a blessing, but it is no substitute for the Eucharist received in communion with the Body of believers. A homily on a podcast can inspire, but it cannot absolve.
As a pastor, I wrestle with this daily. I’m constantly asking how we can reach our people, how we can nurture their faith, and how we can help them encounter Christ amid the noise of modern life. Like many priests, I’ve tried to think creatively, to use social media wisely, to make the Gospel accessible to those who might never step into a church. And yet, what the Holy Father reminds us so wisely is that while creativity is valuable, the essence of our mission never changes. His message is not a critique of innovation; it is a call to stay rooted. We can and should use every tool available to us, but those tools must always lead people home: to the altar, to the parish, to the living Body of Christ where faith becomes flesh.
Our task as pastors and lay leaders is not to reject the digital world but to sanctify it, to make it a threshold, not a destination. The goal is to invite people from the glow of their screens back into the warmth of human fellowship. The next step after watching a talk online should be joining a Bible study, volunteering at a service project, or sitting down at a parish dinner. Faith flourishes not in isolation but in belonging. And belonging always leads to mission. Our faith was never meant to be static or private; it’s meant to be shared, to be lived in relationship. Every authentic encounter with Christ sends us outward, toward the other, toward the wounded, toward the world in need of grace. A Christian who lives the faith alone risks missing the heart of discipleship. Connection may happen through pixels, but communion happens through presence.
Pope Leo’s message is both a warning and an invitation: a warning against disembodied belief, and an invitation to rediscover the faith that lives in the Body, the Church. And perhaps that is the most urgent call for us today: to remember that the faith we profess is not meant to live on a timeline, but at the table of the Lord, where hearts, not algorithms, are changed.
That brief X post from the Pope struck me like lightning. It was one of those rare moments when a single sentence can reorient an entire ministry. It reminded me, and I hope it reminds all of us in pastoral life, that our mission is not to build audiences, but to form disciples. May his words take root in us, shaping not only what we do, but how we live, love, and lead the people God has entrusted to our care.
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