On my way to Mass this past Mother’s Day, I received this startling text message: “Did ya’ll change your Facebook page to ‘Heavenly Horizons’? I was notified this morning. Just wanted to make sure the page wasn’t hacked.”
My heart sunk and my head raced as I quickly went from enjoying the ride with my family to logging into all of the Catholic-Link social media accounts.
At around 2 am that morning, Catholic-Link’s Facebook page had been hacked.
In the blink of an eye, all that we had been growing, building, and working for through our Facebook community of over 200,000 followers had been taken away. Millions of people throughout the world found inspiration and grew in their understanding of the Catholic faith because of the content that Catholic-Link shared daily since 2012.
A random imposter from the internet stole this community from us and I’m embarrassed to admit how upset I was.
As my family of four sat down in the old wooden pew for Mass, I realized that on Mother’s Day, so many were grieving the loss much more. Then, I thought of Mother Teresa’s prayer, which includes the line, “What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway.” These words struck me to the heart. Though I’ve read this prayer many times, the words had never felt so real.
As the Social Media Director of Catholic-Link, I spent Mother’s Day, typically a day off of work, frantically trying to contact Facebook. We immediately notified them of the security breach on Catholic-Link’s Facebook page. For months prior to this, we had been working to fix other issues impacting our social media with no response from Facebook, and it was no different now that our page had been hacked. Each phone call, message, and email sent us in circles, resulting in a dead end.
We’ve Sent In All The Data To Prove It Was Ours…But Facebook Doesn’t Care
We have sent in all the data and paperwork needed to prove that Catholic-Link is the rightful owner of this Facebook account. Yet, to date, our only response from Facebook’s Meta Support is that our account has NOT been compromised…
We are stuck, but as we know, God prevails. He will see us out of this and open new doors so that the Holy Spirit can continue to work powerfully through the ministry of Catholic-Link to reach followers all over the world with the good news of Jesus Christ.
Catholic-Link will not give up and we will move forward!
Will you join us?
We need your help to spread the word that our original Facebook page has been hacked and that we are starting a NEW Facebook page for Catholic-Link. This will be all of the same content – articles, videos, infographics, quotes, podcasts, and more – that you have loved for the past twelve years. Catholic-Link.org is committed to keeping our content FREE for you to use and share in your home, parish, or ministry.
Like, share, comment. Let’s show Facebook that digital evangelization will not stop just because they refuse to help our cause! Let them know the importance of pages like ours that deserve better because our audience deserves better.
Follow, like, and share with everyone to help us grow this new community from the ground up!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
– 2 Corinthians 5:17
