The church of Roblox: How young Filipino Catholics are building more inclusive spaces

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the Roblox Filipino Catholics, a community of young Filipino Catholics who have created virtual replicas of Catholic churches on the online gaming platform Roblox. The group mirrors the real-world Catholic Church hierarchy, with members role-playing as bishops, priests, deacons, and monks, and even having an online seminary to train role-playing priests. The article explores how this community provides a space for young Catholics to express their faith and connect with each other, particularly those who may feel excluded from the traditional church.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The Roblox Filipino Catholics Community

1. What is the Roblox Filipino Catholics community?

• The Roblox Filipino Catholics is a community of young Filipino Catholics who have created virtual replicas of Catholic churches on the online gaming platform Roblox.
• The group mirrors the real-world Catholic Church hierarchy, with members role-playing as bishops, priests, deacons, and monks.
• The community has an online seminary to train role-playing priests for the virtual churches.

2. What is the purpose of the Roblox Filipino Catholics community?

• The community provides a space for young Catholics to express their faith and connect with each other, particularly those who may feel excluded from the traditional church.
• The virtual churches allow the community to preserve the memory of real-world churches that have been destroyed, such as the historic St. Ferdinand Parish church in Ilagan city.
• The community also uses the platform to engage in theological debates, discussions on religious matters and church doctrine, and to share prayer requests.

3. How does the Roblox Filipino Catholics community differ from the traditional Catholic Church?

• The members of the Roblox Filipino Catholics community are not actually ordained priests, and their virtual sacraments and masses have no sacramental value.
• However, the community strives to ensure that all their activities are in accordance with Catholic tradition.
• The community also provides a more open and welcoming space for members, including those who identify as queer, which may not be the case in the traditional church.

[02] The Popularity and Significance of the Roblox Filipino Catholics Community

1. How popular is the Roblox Filipino Catholics community?

• The Roblox Filipino Catholics community has around 5,000 members on the gaming chat platform Discord.
• Similar Catholic communities on Roblox, such as the Roblox Vietnamese Catholics and the Polish Catholic communities, also have large followings, with hundreds sometimes lining up to attend their virtual masses and memorials.

2. What is the significance of the Roblox Filipino Catholics community in the context of the declining faith among the youth?

• The Roblox Filipino Catholics community is in contrast to the trend of declining faith among the youth around the world, as Roblox has over 70 million daily players, and nearly two-thirds of users are under the age of 16.
• The community provides a platform for young Catholics to connect with each other and deepen their faith, which could be a genuine opportunity to explore vocations to religious life or priesthood.

3. How does the Roblox Filipino Catholics community view its role in preserving Filipino heritage?

• The community has recreated virtual versions of churches that have been destroyed, such as the historic St. Ferdinand Parish church, in order to preserve the memory and heritage of these important religious sites.
• The community sees its online presence as a way to more easily preserve and archive these churches, which would be more difficult in the physical world.