ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concept of “third spaces” of digital religion, specifically examining the Brazilian Catholic “digital thirdness.” The analysis involves multiple case studies and semi-structured interviews in the Vatican and in Brazil, from three different levels of Brazilian Catholic networked practices: a macro-institutional level (Rádio Vaticano—Programa Brasileiro, the first page of an office of the Holy See on Facebook); a socio-institutionalized level (Jovens Conectados, a page of a digital Catholic youth project); and a minority level (Diversidade Católica, a page of a Brazilian Catholic LGBT+ group). Through these processes, society mediatically reconstructs the meanings, symbols, and practices on Catholicism, giving birth to “the Catholic,” i.e. a diverse and diffuse network of relationships between socially constructed beliefs linked to the Catholic religious experience, the historical tradition of Catholicism, and/or the Catholic Church institution. In conclusion, it states that these “third spaces” of digital religion empower new voices, forces, and sources of insight and meaning on Catholicism, especially from the practices of “lay-amateurs,” understood as emergent mediatic-religious subjects. In this religious polysemy, these inter-agents construct a communicational-religious system of values and practices based on their networked actions, in an autonomous manner in relation to their religious institution.
