Catholics and the Metaverse

By Kailash 

On October 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg released a Founder’s Letter explaining why Facebook the company changed its name to Meta in order to anticipate the next chapter of the internet called “the metaverse.” Zuckerberg describes the metaverse as, “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it.” He believes we will move beyond consuming the internet as we currently do via a web browser on an LCD screen with a mouse and keyboard. The next phase of the internet will instead be an immersive three-dimensional representation of data that we can interact with via our “hands” simulated in the environment. This effect will be achieved through a virtual reality headset and technologically advanced gloves as opposed to a mouse and keyboard.

How should Catholics approach this new frontier of internet technology? Fortunately, the Church anticipated this question more than 20 years ago on February 22, 2002, when She published a document called The Church and Internet. The framework presented still holds relevance for us today encountering the metaverse as the next phase of living online. In this article, I will first explore how these precepts help Catholics understand what the metaverse cannot change about Christianity. I will then investigate what opportunities the metaverse presents to Catholics and why it is important we engage new frontiers of technology to fulfill the commission the Church gave us in The Church and Internet.

What will the metaverse not change about our faith? In the October 2021 Founder’s Letter, Zuckerberg chooses a curious term to describe what he thinks the metaverse will achieve, “The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place.” Perhaps this vision will come true, but are there forms of “presence” human beings need that cannot be achieved through the internet? Amazingly this exact question is answered in The Church and Internet, “Virtual reality is no substitute for the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the sacramental reality of the other sacraments, and shared worship in a flesh-and-blood human community. There are no sacraments on the Internet, and even the religious experiences possible there by the grace of God are insufficient.” Whatever “presence” software developers are able to achieve in the metaverse, no human being can write software code that can approximate the presence of God in the sacraments. While the material affects the company Meta achieves may be profound, it can achieve nothing in the sacramental economy.

Despite this limitation, Meta and the secular world may sadly allocate billions of dollars of capital towards the metaverse primarily to enable entertainment and unnecessary consumption as both have already done on the internet. Still, Catholics must be ambitious to capitalize on important effects of the metaverse as it is being built. The Church describes this reality in The Church and Internet saying, “The Internet is not merely a medium of entertainment and consumer gratification. It is a tool for accomplishing useful work.” What does the Church consider useful work on the internet? On May 27, 1990, St John Paul II outlined three positive possibilities of the internet in “The Christian Message in a Computer Culture.” First, the internet provides “methods of facilitating communication and dialogue among her own members,” second it offers, “immediate access to information” and finally it allows the Church to, “enter into a continuous discussion with the world around her.”

This early on it may be difficult to pinpoint how the metaverse will affect these three forms of useful work. In the October 2021 Founder’s Letter Zuckerberg says, “In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute… You’ll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut downtime in traffic.” Surely if this is achieved it will affect at least dialogue among members of the church. At this point, we can only imagine how the metaverse could affect how information is accessed and how it could affect the discussion the Church has with the world. One thing we know for sure is that we cannot be afraid of these changes and must be present in the metaverse as it is being developed. The Church and Internet give us this guidance,

It is important, too, that people at all levels of the Church use the Internet creatively to meet their responsibilities and help fulfill the Church’s mission. Hanging back timidly from fear of technology or for some other reason is not acceptable.

Despite the difficulties presented by secular forces and the evils present on the internet, Catholics must find a way to use the Internet to help spread the Gospel message while maintaining our faith and principles. We must not be afraid of the metaverse.

In a February 2022 appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast, Zuckerberg was asked “what do you think is the meaning of life?” In a surprising answer, he says he conducted studies with a rabbi on the Book of Genesis in the Bible. Zuckerberg says it is instructive that the Bible starts by talking about how God “created everything.” He then says on the meaning of life there is a “compelling” argument he finds “meaningful and inspiring” that “what we should do is create.” Zuckerberg has taken this commission from God to devote his energies towards creating this new paradigm on the Internet. If the next frontier of the Internet does include a realistic metaverse, it will have profound effects on many aspects of society. However, these effects will not change the Catholic answer to the question, “what is the meaning of life?”

 The Baltimore Catechism explains “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.” A sacramental relationship with God is our ordinary means of fulfilling this purpose. These sacraments cannot be made present in the internet, but this does not mean that the metaverse is useless to Catholics. For too long the Catholic community has been on the sidelines in the Information Age, even though we have the most important information there is. The Church says “hanging back timidly” is not acceptable and she provides our task: to engage in new technologies and offer Catholic teaching to the greater population through the Internet. This will include the metaverse if Mark Zuckerberg has his way.

Kailash is a cofounder in Fidei. An email startup that is offering consumers technology made with Christian values.