Colloquia Theologica Ottoniana

After the initial shock caused by the sanitary restrictions during the pandemic, parish communities quite quickly found their way into the digital pastoral realm. The creativity of the lay faithful and the clergy in this regard was extremely high. Sixteen categories of church-based online activities during the COVID-19 period can be identified: charity (including crowdfunding), theological research activities, evangelisation, funding (for missionary works, parishes, and other entities), information (news), catechesis/religion (school activities), culture, prayer, Masses and religious services, periodic pastoral meetings, pilgrimages, Holy Scripture, preparation for the sacraments, retreats, volunteering (including online management of real volunteering), and online management of Church entities. There were not many pastoral and liturgical guidelines from the Holy See or the Polish Bishops’ Conference during the pandemic. However, the teaching of the popes or the Pontifical Council for Social Media on the Church’s digital presence has been so abundant that the importance of the role that the Internet could and did play within the Church during the successive lockdowns cannot be doubted.