2026-04-17T19:12:26Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:20.500.14342/6352025-05-15T13:17:04Zcom_2072_482405com_2072_183628col_2072_482410

urn:hdl:20.500.14342/635 Coronavirus-Driven Digitalization of In-Person Communities. Analysis of the Catholic Church Online Response in Spain during the Pandemic Sabaté Gauxachs, Alba Albalad Aiguabella, José María Diez-Bosch, Miriam COVID-19 (Malaltia) Pandèmia de COVID-19, 2020- Espanya Església Catòlica Comunicacions digitals COVID-19 has driven several global offline communities to go online. Restrictions to the free movement of people in response to the coronavirus pandemic triggered a profound rethinking of jobs, products and services, and among them, the activities of religious communities, which are well consolidated in the offline sphere. In Spain, since the lockdown established by the government in March 2020, the Catholic Church has reinvented its activity, as all the churches and other places of worship have been closed. This constituted a considerable challenge, considering the history and dynamics of the institution. This paper aims to analyze how Catholicism, as one of the most consolidated offline communities, reworked its communication, going online in a matter of days. With this objective, researchers surveyed each and every one of the 70 Spanish dioceses, taking them as representatives of the global Catholic community in the country. Their responses are complemented with an in-depth interview with the Director of Communications at the Spanish Conference of Bishops. The results highlight the huge and unprecedented step towards the digitalization of the community through consistent, creative and efficient action. New methods, platforms and languages have been implemented, even broadening community membership. Despite an offline essence that is still detected in some decisions, this pandemic has brought a new communicative paradigm to the Spanish Catholic community. Digitalization has been consolidated whilst preserving the best aspects of direct contact and action 2021 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14342/635 https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050311 eng Religions, vol. 12, núm. 5, 2021 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Attribution 4.0 International © L'autor/a MDPI