PAUSE

The 2024 National Catholic Social Communications Convention held last August 5-8 at the Aquamarine Recreational Center in Lipa Batangas gathered more than 300 delegates around the Philippines. With this convention’s focus on Artificial Intelligence, social communicators were then dubbed as AUTHENTIC INFLUENCERS, thus playfully changing the acronym of AI.

The DADITAMA Subregion had 20 delegates: 5 from Davao, 6 from Digos, 3 from Tagum and 6 from Mati. Sessions were jampacked with insights from renown speakers from in and out of the country. Dr. Peter Monthienvichienchai from Thailand shared a heart-warming and thought-provoking presentation which reminded everyone that AI is not our problem but the value that we have because we’re the ones who put the prompts to it.

During the second day was a talk show among famous Catholic influencers which was graced by: Bro. Enrico Macrohon, Rev. Fr. Fiel Pareja, Rev. Fr. Edong Dantis and Rev. Fr. Roy Bellen and was moderated by Rev. Fr. Roniel Sulit. These individuals have a large following on social media, some of them even have millions of followers on Tiktok and Facebook.

As I had the chance to prompt the first question, “does it get to you, the fame?” All of them answered humbly. Fr. Fiel said, “huwag post ng post, magpause.” The overarching theme of their answers was to go back to the mission. It must always be clear to influencers, to communicators, to Catholic content creators what their mission is, who their main character is.

It was good to be reminded to pause, pray and reflect when bashers start to recognize you and mostly when people start to praise you.

As authentic influencers, our mission transcends beyond the digital realm. It calls us to embody the values we preach, to pause and reflect on our purpose, and to consistently anchor our actions in faith and humility. In a world driven by algorithms and metrics, let us remain true to our calling, guiding others not by the number of followers we have, but by the authenticity of our witness to the Gospel.