With more than 82,000 followers on its Facebook page, Catholic Memes is leading the way in evangelizing the flocks through Catholic wit and humour less than a year after its founding.
Creator Ryan Scheel, from Ohio, manages other web sites and Facebook pages such as uCatholic, Ask A Catholic Priest, Ask A Catholic Nun and Saint of the Day. And Catholic Memes is the latest in a line of projects designed to “use Internet pop culture to help evangelize the digital generation,” said Scheel.
“Catholic Memes... takes the popular Internet phenomenon of ‘memes’ and uses them for the purpose of the New Evangelization. An Internet meme is, for lack of a better definition, an inside joke among Internet users. They typically consist of an image that gets passed from one user to the next with an overlaid formulaic text that, to those versed in Internet culture, carries with it (an) immediately recognizable meaning.”
Memes in general are continuously liked and shared on Facebook daily; subsequently this type of online phenomenon has become a medium for the dissemination of facts and viewpoints.
Relating to his use of memes for the propagation of the Catholic faith, Scheel says that “I did what Catholics have historically done throughout the ages — appropriated a secular concept and refashioned it for a higher use. If memes are the language of the Internet, the Church’s teachings need to be translated into them just as they would for any other culture.”
Catholic Memes came into existence, according to Scheel, as “reactionary more than a stroke of brilliance on my part.” He also has a “sense of ironic enjoyment that the term ‘meme’ was coined by the atheist author Richard Dawkins, and that I use them to promote belief in God and fidelity to the Church’s teaching,” he said.
Catholic Memes has encountered its share of anti-Catholic resistance.
“Anybody who has spent any length of time on the Internet will invariably encounter the one or more persons who feel compelled to post an anti-Catholic message for no apparent reason but to denigrate the Church,” said Scheel. “Most atheists and anti-Catholics who come to the page are seeking ‘something.’ You don’t rebel against something unless you see it as an authority. Seeing that they find themselves on a Catholic page is telling.”
Catholic Memes does not operate by itself. Rather, it engages its audience by posting memes created by followers.
“While I create around half the items that are posted personally, the other half comes from users from all over the world, from all cultures, ages and vocations,” said Scheel.
As Catholic Memes gains more followers, Scheel expects it will continue to develop and redevelop its methods of evangelization.
“I anticipate Catholic Memes continuing to grow and being part of the New Evangelization for the foreseeable future,” he said. “But as trends shift or change, it may be another method being used instead of memes, but I know humour and joy will always have a place in sharing the Gospel.”
(Olaer, 18, is a Grade 12 student of St. James Catholic High School in Guelph, Ont.)