Preface: I have been remiss. I should have written and posted this months ago, but such is the state of things. Hopefully, it will inspire some latecomers to pick up the book themselves.
I’ve been listening to Fr. Roderick Vonhögen’s podcasts for more than eight years now, since his first recordings from St. Peter’s Square as Pope Bl. John Paul II lay dying in April 2005. Since then I’ve seen him start the Star Quest Production Network (SQPN), a network of Catholic podcasters; branch out into videos; become a nationally broadcaster in his own country of the Netherlands; and lately began working closely with him on the Catholic New Media Conference when we held it in Boston last year and started co-hosting a podcast with him about Star Wars.
In all that time, I’ve been struck by how very similar we are, almost like brothers from different countries. We were born just six months apart in 1968 and so we experience much of the same pop culture phenomena. We both became huge Star Wars fans in 1977, read the same science fiction and fantasy novels, watched the same scifi TV shows, and basically trod similar paths. Even our faith lives were remarkably similar, our Catholic faith blossoming around the same time in our teens. While Fr. Roderick’s vocational call took him to the priesthood, mine obviously went in the other direction.
So as I read his new book “Geekpriest: Confessions of a New Media Pioneer”, I can’t help but feel like I’m on familiar ground. So much of his life story sounds like mine that I can immediately identify with him.
But Fr. Roderick doesn’t just tell you his life story in the book or how he came to become one of the foremost authorities on Catholic use of new media in the world. He also includes some handy lessons we can learn about how to use new media in the Catholic context that he draws some the major themes in his life.
His Star Wars fandom–which led him to become one of the foremost Star Wars bloggers on the Internet– taught him lessons on finding common ground with people of all kinds; the importance of doing something based on what you’re passionate about; and more. He relates superhero comics and movies to the communion of saints and their origin stories and secret identities to his own quest to find his God-given vocation and then figuring out how to tell family and friends.
Similar stories and lessons emerge from Disney movies and vacations; his fitness and health regimen; going back to school at a pontifical university in Rome for a graduate degree in communications; using the popularity of Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, and even Dan Brown to connect with people from a Catholic perspective; and seven things he’s already learned from Pope Francis.
“Geekpriest” is an engaging and quick read and Fr. Roderick is a wonderful storyteller. This book is for any Christian who wants to connect with people in social media, to bring a “soul to the internet”, as Pope Benedict said, not by giving people the hard sell, but through connecting with them on a personal level about what they already love.
If you want to reach an audience, you have to make sure your message is relevant to them and corresponds to what they are searching for. If you want to pass on information about your faith, which, in itself, might not appeal to the people you try to reach, you need to wrap it in an attractive package.
This has been Father’s winning formula for evangelization. Don’t try to force the Gospel on them. Instead, find out what they love; talk about it with them with genuine enthusiasm; find the truth and beauty in what they love; show them how that truth and beauty connects with the Infinite and Divine Truth and Beauty.
Pop culture, social media, and the media-saturated world we live in doesn’t have to the enemy of the Christian life. It can be made to be a tool to serve it.
