St. Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint, canonized on Sept. 7, 2025, is known for using technology to glorify God. St. Carlo seems to be a guiding force behind the growing young adult community in the Diocese of Phoenix, particularly through a WhatsApp group chat with over 1,300 members.
With vast numbers of Catholic young adults being transplants to the Phoenix area, a way to connect was needed. Giorgio Navarini, founder and director of Floriani, a sacred music men’s vocal ensemble, recognized this need and desired a Catholic online community that would bring people together in person. Young adults in the diocese used to connect via the Signal App. When it was becoming apparent that the app didn’t have the features needed for such a large group, Navarini suggested a switch to WhatsApp, which would provide a space to share upcoming events and also have other subgroups where young adults could connect based on shared interests.
Megan Umile moved to the Diocese of Phoenix at a time when she was stepping more fully into her Catholic faith and desired a young adult community to help her in her journey. She searched out parishes with young adult groups and formed friendships all across the Valley. Yet, she found herself desiring more.
“I was seeking … friends who I could relate to on a personal level, with other shared interests besides our faith.”
Umile’s desire for more coincided with Navarini’s creation of the WhatsApp chat. In her efforts to get to know young adults, Umile became friends with Navarini and asked to help him with this new undertaking.
“I was passionate about getting other young adults connected, and especially in an organic way where they could find things in common with each other,” Umile said.
Umile was appointed a community administrator along with four others.
Through trial and error, Navarini, Umile and the other community administrators discerned how to have a community that is not centered around heated debates on different liturgical forms, that so often take place online. Instead, they created a space that is welcoming and respectful, one that fosters real connections, not scrolling.
“Smartphones can be a useful tool, but it can be a dangerous tool,” Umile shared. “We don’t want people glued to their phones and wasting away idle time. We want to encourage fellowship and Catholic living, living out the virtues, meeting in person and having meaningful connections.”
Being part of this welcoming community has been a blessing to group administrator, Iggi Rodriguez. Because the community is respectful to different forms of Catholic liturgy, Rodriguez has found his prayer life deepening.
“Different types of ways that people pray open my eyes a lot. There’s … Novus Ordo versus the Traditional Latin Mass versus Byzantine and all the other ones in between. And the varieties of different churches that we have here in the Valley and how the Lord is working, in all of them and people’s faiths are growing through all of them.”
What is also encouraged in the chat is forming smaller communities based off of shared interests. Anyone in the larger group can suggest a subgroup with the caveat that they will be the one to oversee the subgroup. They are encouraged to invite members to in-person events.
Rodriguez oversees some of those subgroups like pickup games, social dancing and the charismatic group. Often seen on the dance floor, Rodriguez is able to foster community with others who enjoy dancing as much as he does.
Some of the other subgroups include Catholic run club, hiking, coffee enthusiasts, movies and cinema, prayer warriors (and requests), “wife life”, religious vocation discernment, Catholic cars club and more.
There are even parishes throughout the diocese that use the group chat to foster young adult community, such as St. Anne Parish in Gilbert, Ariz. If young adults are looking for roommates or housing, there is a group chat for that. There’s also a networking chat where job openings are posted, and an airport rides chat where members will freely take others to the airport upon request.
There are countless stories from these subgroups that show how present God is in this community. Navarini was trying to set up a campout to Havasu falls. He texted out the dates of the camping trip in the hiking chat and almost immediately had five men respond who he didn’t know, who all ended up coming.
The Catholic running club recently had 10 members of the chat sign up for the Phoenix marathon together. A young adult started a business from the WhatsApp chat called MonkWorks, which provides spaces for young adults who work remotely to come together to help battle loneliness and to foster community.
A memorable event was the recent pickleball tournament, where 80 young adult Catholics gathered for a healthy competition between teams from the East Valley and West Valley. Two young adults stepped forward to organize teams, the tournament also doubling as a fundraiser for St. Theresa Catholic Church’s Life Teen and school in Phoenix.
These subgroups also foster a space for young adults to meet organically and discern their vocation. There are several couples who met at these events.
As a recent wife and mother, Umile has found much-needed community in the Catholic wives chat and motherhood chat.
“When I was engaged, I was able to consult other wives and kind of like, bring up my fears. And I just felt like the wisdom of wives … It was like a sisterhood. And then we can send our wedding photos in the chat and be like, look, I got married, and everyone’s celebrating it.”
Niko Contreras has lived in the Phoenix area his whole life. He has formed friendships with young adults who he never would have met without this chat.
“There [are] so many different communities and people. I love just knowing people’s backgrounds and getting to know them as a person and what brought [them] here.”
In line with the overall goal of bringing young adults together in person, Contreras explained that non-active chats are oftentimes visited by a Darth Vader meme with the caption: It’s Time to Delete This Chat.
“We’re young adults, and we all have our jobs, our families and life going on. But we also still want our community be active,” continued Contreras.
“You don’t have to just go to your parish to find the young adults. It’s on social media. It’s on WhatsApp. And there will be groups of people that you find throughout the whole valley, whether it’s East, West, Central Phoenix, Scottsdale, Cave Creek, you just have to find us.”
With all of these events, God remains at the center.
“We make sure for a lot of these events … that the Lord is at the center,” Rodriguez said.
“Before the pickleball tournament, we took a moment to pray for the day and pray that nobody got injured, and really just consecrated the time over to our Lord.”
The Lord has been at the center during this whole journey of starting the WhatsApp chat, and Navarini has learned that it is the duty of the laity to make this community happen.
“We often look to the hierarchy to do things that [the laity are] actually supposed to do,” he said. “The bishop is busy doing all of his bishop duties, and you can’t expect him to be the one to form community. So it really falls down to the role of the laity to build that.”
