Filipino Catholics Choose Videogame for “New Evangelization”

The Catholic diocese of Balanga, Bataan has turned to videogames in order to increase the Catholicism of its flock.

Paolo’s Journey targets kids—from third-grade through college age—and is said to be based on Pope Benedict XVI’s “Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” according to PhilStar.com. The game involves the travails of Paolo, who falls into well while looking for his lost kitten. Once in the water receptacle, Paolo is confronted by an angel who tells him “to collect the three keys he needs to be able to return home.” Throughout the game Paolo will have to anser 45 catechism questions while battling creatures called “Bloobas” and collecting scrolls.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas said that the game was “not for faith propagation, but to remind the faithful of the social teachings of the Church.”

Fr. Maximo Villanueva Jr. created the game after studying computer animation at the New York Film Academy and serving an internship at Nickelodeon.

1,000 copies will be distributed to local bishops for further dispersal within their flocks.


Picture of Archbishop Socrates Villegas playing the game via CBCP News