Passing yourself off as religious just to make views. In the last year there has been an explosion of the phenomenon of social priests and nuns so much so that at the end of July, Pope Leo XIV within the Jubilee he announced a day dedicated to those who have been rebaptised Catholic influencers and digital missionaries. Secular and otherwise. A trend that has created some problems within the church itself: from Don Roberto Fisher criticized for its contents deemed not to be in line with the doctrine, up to Don Ravagnaniwho ended up at the center of a fuss for promoting supplements that have little to do with the Holy Spirit. Here you can find his interview with Fanpage.it.
However, the phenomenon also emerged outside the circle: in fact, several have come to light in recent weeks profiles of fake religious people who, perhaps to ride the wave, have decided to wear collars and veils just to interact. Not only to pump interactions but also to achieve illicit profits. The most striking case was reported by the Spanish magazine New Lifewho reported the questionable actions of an eponymous “Mother Teresa.” Chilean, the woman passes herself off as a sister of the “Samaritan Carmelites of the Heart of Jesus” in the “Episcopal Church of Chile”: there is a small detail, however, in the narrative that the alleged nun gives her followers, namely that she belongs to a Catholic order but serving an Anglican church.
In his accounts TikTok “grutasantarita” and Instagram “taller_santa_rita” the woman would use the veil to carry out small scams. Not only that, according to local TV this Mother Teresa until recently went out on the streets pretending to be a religious person, Alejandro del Santísimo Trino de los Laicos Dominicanos y de la Blessed Teresa de Calcuta. Behind this sort of religious superhero, capable of transforming himself if necessary, there would be Andrés Alfaro Arayaconvicted in 2016 of fraud.
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The case of the Vita Da Suore account
In Italy the case of the account caused a sensation Life of nuns: It’s been talked about on TikTok for days. Born in autumn, the profile was apparently supposed to be the story of the daily life of two nuns, Sister Paola and Sister Felicetta. However, if the recipes they show to their followers such as the very viral “Panzerotto del Papa” seemed relevant to such a profile, the ability to intercept certain trends started making some people stand up.
Thus, it turned out that there was no one behind the strategy of the most well-known nuns of TikTok Italy very capable social media manager: that of Life of nunsin fact, is an editorial project. It is an appendix of the film “All Together at the Abbey”, a sort of remake of “Sister Act”, which had greater success today than when it was released. The three faces in that profile are not real nuns, but actresses. Among the clues that made it possible to understand him, there is certainly the dress. The three nuns, in fact, say they belong to the abbey of Fossanova, unfortunately the – real – nuns who live in that abbey wear a different habit.
But it’s not over. Faith on social media pulls as much as dogs and babies. For this reason, we often try to combine these three elements to create one explosive recipe of likes. An example? The video of a sleeping baby dressed as Saint Therese of Lisieux: circulated on various accounts, it attracted hundreds of thousands of interactions including likes, comments and prayers. And again: the dog who “recites” the rosary, or the child dressed as Pope Leo on a mobile micro pope. In short, if there is a space in which the Church still has appeal it is that of social media, so much so that even those who do not belong to the category take advantage of it to engage. The difficulty now is for those on the other side of the screen: to distinguish true religious creators from fake ones requires an act of faith.
