Angelus News | April 8, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 7

manipulating users without reference
to their good — the metaverse is
going make its way into our lives because
of the shift to remote work and
the popularity of the gaming universe,
resulting in an even more expansive
commercialization of our data.
While Catholics might worry about
materially cooperating with a system
that is increasingly evil, Vera said
that the deeper question is, “Can I
hack these platforms in a way so that
it doesn’t affect the rest of my life?
Can I engage it in a way that breaks
the deeper rules of behavior that the
Tech companies like Microsoft,
Google, and Apple are betting
big on the future popularity of
the metaverse.
platform is presenting to me?”
For guidance on doing this, Vera
points students and readers to Pope
Francis’ 2014 Message for World
Communications Day, in which he
compares the “digital highways” to the
road that the man was left on, beaten
and broken, in the parable of the good
Samaritan.
“First-century roads were dangerous
places,” Vera said. “Precisely because
[it’s] a bad place, we need to be there.”
Vera wonders whether participating
in the metaverse can itself be a “form
of resistance.”
“We should be thinking less about
evangelizing through media and more
evangelizing because of media.”
The signs of the times seem to
indicate that people are going to need
help putting virtual and augmented
reality in their rightly ordered place
and will need guardrails to help cultivate
silence and practice charity.
In the age of the metaverse, this
might be the most important work the
Church has ahead of her yet.
Elise Italiano Ureneck is a communications
consultant writing from Boston.