With its videos on the Gospel, this Catholic collective has hundreds of thousands of views

This is their latest feat to date: “In around ten days, our video dedicated to representations of God had 395,000 views on TikTok”. That evening, from their 24 m2 studio installed under the Notre-Dame-des-Foyers church in Paris (19th century), the twenty young people aged 16 to 25 who launched the Porta Fidei site in September 2023 (“ The Door of Faith”, in Latin), can be proud of having reached its target audience on the Internet: “13-20 year olds”, according to Curtis, 25, cybersecurity engineer and coordinator of the collective. But their record, 445,000 views, they owe to the video entitled Who is Jesus?

To “make the teaching of the Catholic Church accessible on social networks”, according to Javloo, a business management student. These boys and girls from the four corners of Paris and its suburbs have few resources: two cameras, a computer, a few microphones and a metal structure to hang the studio spots, equipped with acoustic foam panels. . Not forgetting two sofas to receive guests. An investment of 20,000 euros, financed thanks to the network of patrons of the parish priest, Father Jérémy Rigaux.

All-purpose fire

These limited means do not prevent them from exploiting all vectors of communication. From articles dedicated to Jesus, to the mass… to read on the site portafidei.fr to private messages sent in response to questions asked to them on Instagram, including videos posted on TikTok or “live”, large format interviews (two hours) of a personality broadcast live on TikTok and YouTube, they are firing on all cylinders! At the microphone, the choice of guests is very eclectic, whether it is the exorcist priest from Paris, Jean-Pascal Duloisy, or Benoît Stemler, vicar at Saint-Michel des Batignolles, who came to talk about the blessings of homosexual couples.

On the threshold of the church built in the 1960s in a neighborhood plagued by drug trafficking, Curtis asks: “Is this a place where you didn't expect such an initiative? » Faced with our doubtful look, Clément responds: “And yet Jesus is here, at the Stalingrad metro station. »