Digital missionary: The bane of hate-filled speech on social media

Given the prominent role that social media has come to play in daily life, Father José Juan Montalvo, known as “Padre Borre,” has called for reflection on the impact that criticism, mockery, and hate speech can have on the emotional well-being of young people.

In an interview with EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, the founder of digital ministry for the Archdiocese of Monterrey in Mexico acknowledged that virtual platforms “are already part of our lives; they are yet another space where we interact, relate to each other, and seek to feel part of something.”

The priest from the Archdiocese of Monterrey also noted that these spaces offer “good things” such as receiving messages of support and finding communities that provide companionship, but he warned that “today, it has become all too easy for us to criticize on social media.”

This happens, he explained, because behind a screen, people can “write things that we would likely never dare to say to someone face-to-face,” without fully grasping “the harm we might cause.”

Learning to place less weight on social media According to Montalvo, one of the primary risks in digital interaction arises…