IMAGE: CNS photo/Matt Palmer
By Matt Palmer
AUSTIN,
Texas (CNS) — McDonald’s, Apple, Starbucks and ‘ the Catholic Church?
In
terms of recognizable organization names, the Catholic Church has to rank near
the top. But, does it view itself as a brand to be marketed?
That
was among several questions raised by attendees during a March 12 panel titled
“Compassionate Disruption” at the annual South by Southwest Festival in Austin.
The panel was one of the festival’s first steps to address faith’s place in secular
discussions. Bishop Paul Tighe, adjunct secretary for Pontifical Council for
Culture, was on the panel with Catholic communicators Helen Osman, Michael
Hertl and Christoph Krachten at the Hyatt Regency.
The
concept of branding has become more prevalent than ever, thanks to the digital
age. All around the festival, commonly known as SXSW, companies marketed their
brands via experiential booths and events.
Activist
groups trying to attract young people to affect social change also were
present. Faith-specific booths appeared few and far between at the Austin
Convention Center, but that could be changing, thanks to the “Compassionate
Disruption” panel. The festival runs through March 19.
Bishop
Tighe told the large crowd inside a Hyatt Regency ballroom that the Vatican would
not likely play a centralized role in defining a Catholic brand online. The church’s
real strength, he said, comes from the local level.
“I
say, let’s look around the world and the dioceses that do this well,” he said.
“Starbucks is Starbucks wherever you go. McDonald’s is McDonald’s wherever you
go. Churches are different in the different parts of the world you go and
that’s the richness of liturgy, the music, the language and everything else.
“I
think we have to be very careful about not trying to be overly uniform,” he continued. “But, I do
think there’s value, at the same time, in saying, ‘Let’s define standards and
language that would work together.'”
Bishop
Tighe helped lead a digital revolution at the Vatican during his eight-year
tenure as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, which
ended in 2015.
He
jokingly acknowledged that the Catholic Church is an unconventional place to
turn to when it comes to communication.
Referring
to how the results of papal elections are revealed, he said, “Here we are
talking about, we’re talking about social media, digital media and new
technologies, in the Vatican and in the church, our biggest communications
moment is delivered by smoke.”
Hertl
and Krachten, who work in digital media for the church in Germany, stressed
that quality content, on YouTube and social media channels, is a must for
Catholic communicators.
“I
think we have to connect with the young generation where they are,” Krachten
said.
Bishop
Tighe told attendees that social media is marred when there is acrimonious
discussion. Catholics, he insisted, must be good citizens there and avoid
giving in to trolls, a term for social media users who aim to solely deride people
online.
He
added that Catholics, and the Vatican, must keep a mission in mind.
“One
of the things we were very clear about from the beginning was that that we’re
not going into social media as a brand trying to measure performance,” he said.
“We’re ultimately in social media as an agency that is speaking of something
other than ourselves, which is trying to share the good news of the Gospel.”
That’s
not to say that the church can’t learn lessons from social media analytics.
“We need to be
professional in what we do,” he told the crowd, before adding that key performance
indicator data shouldn’t “block what God is trying to do.”
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