Religious celebrities: theoretical framework and empirical study in Italy, Germany and Poland

This article presents empirical research on religious celebrities that was gathered through individual interviews at Catholic universities in Italy, Germany and Poland between 1 September 2025 and 30 January 2026. Religious celebrities are primarily clerics or consecrated persons whose activities in the social media environment are strongly related to the institutional Church. The respondents view their religious authority and celebrity status as two separate stances. The interview participants confirmed the validity of Olivier Driessens’s conception of religious celebrities, namely that the forces shaping religious celebrity are mediatisation, personalisation and commodification. According to the respondents, the influence of religious celebrities on the image of churches and their leaders is ambivalent: on the one hand, they can promote faith and foster religiosity, while on the other, they can contribute to the creation and perpetuation of stereotypes about ecclesial institutions.