Pastoral Care at the Time of Lockdown: An Exploratory Study of the Catholic Church in South Tyrol (Italy)

What is it about?

Italy has been the Western country first and hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and has therefore probably suffered from the strongest sense of existential insecurity because of an unknown virus. Italy is also a very religious country, and the spread of the virus further increased among the faithful the need for solace and reassurance: a need that could have hardly been met, as the first national lockdown was imposed in early 2020. Traditional services and masses had to be canceled, and the Church was either forced to stop all activities or to become more creative, and find new (digital) ways to help people cope with the situation, maintain religious observance and social ties within the community. _x000D_ This paper looks at how parish priests and laypeople with an office within the Church have been engaging with digital media within their pastoral activities in South Tyrol (Northern Italy), before and after the spread of the pandemic. However, aim of our research was not only to understand the extent to which priests and lay people have been using ICT to maintain contact with their religious community despite the pandemic, but also to investigate whether the use of such media has the potential to permanently change the relationship between religious institutions and the faithful in a post-covid future._x000D_

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