RVA to Bring 40 “Pairs of Eyes” to WYD 2027, Program Director Says at Asian Digital Assembly

Radio Veritas Asia (RVA) plans to bring 40 digital influencers to the 2027 World Youth Day in Seoul, South Korea, envisioning them as “40 pairs of eyes” that will capture the experiences of young people and communities and share them with Catholics across Asia, said Fr. John Mi Shen, RVA program director.

Fr. Mi Shen, who also serves as executive secretary of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences Office of Social Communication (FABC-OSC), presented the vision during the morning session of the first Asian Catholic Digital Missionary Assembly on September 12 at the Pope John Paul II Auditorium on the RVA campus in Quezon City, Metro Manila.

The four-day assembly, held September 10-13, brings together more than 100 Catholic digital missionaries, communicators and influencers from across Asia under the theme “Influencers to Witnesses: Synodal Way for Digital Mission in Asia.” It is organized by FABC-OSC and RVA, in partnership with the Vatican Dicastery for Communication through the Fully Present Network.

Fr. Mi Shen said the Seoul initiative would be the first concrete mission of the emerging network of Asian digital missionaries.

“We have a wild plan to bring 40 digital influencers to the World Youth Day 2027,” he said, adding that some of the participants at the assembly could become part of the group.

He stressed that the 40 would not go to Seoul simply as mainstream media covering the major World Youth Day events, Masses and talks.

Instead, he envisioned “40 pairs of eyes” moving among the many places where young people experience the event, local communities, classrooms, accommodation centers, streets, places where pilgrims share meals, football courts and homes of Korean families welcoming young people from around the world.

The goal, he said, is to see and share the people and experiences that might otherwise remain outside the main coverage of the international Catholic gathering.

The initiative would also express the FABC vision of dialogue with cultures, religions and the poor, including people who are least visible or may be forgotten by society.

The 40 digital missionaries would bring these experiences back to their respective countries and communities, allowing young people who cannot travel to Seoul to participate virtually in the celebrations, stories, struggles and moments of joy of World Youth Day.

At the same time, Fr. Mi Shen described the 40 digital missionaries as “40 pairs of windows” through which the Korean Church could see the realities of young Catholics from other parts of Asia.

He pointed to countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and China, whose young Catholics would bring different languages, cultures and experiences to the World Youth Day gathering.

“Those 40 pairs could become 400 pairs, 4,000 pairs and 40,000 pairs of windows that we can open to each other,” he said.

Fr. Mi Shen said this vision reflects the synodal approach promoted by Pope Francis, in which the Church is called to walk and work together.

He emphasized, however, that the mission of Asian digital missionaries begins before the 2027 gathering.

“A missionary is someone who is called before he was sent,” he said.

Digital missionaries must first spend time with the Lord and become grounded in the Word of God before communicating the Gospel, he said.

He also stressed that the Asian assembly should not become a one-time event. Rather, it should continue as a network in which digital missionaries return to their countries, carry out concrete initiatives, share their experiences and eventually gather again to discern and learn from one another.

For Fr. Mi Shen, the diversity of Asia should become a strength of this mission.

Despite differences in languages, cultures and backgrounds, he said, Asian digital missionaries share one faith, belong to one Church and follow one Lord, Jesus Christ.

He urged participants to return home and share what they have seen, heard and experienced during the assembly.

“Mission does not really start next year during the World Youth Day,” he said. “Mission starts here and now.”