Young adults pray for their attackers during ‘Zoom bombing’

A peaceful spiritual event in Vancouver became a traumatizing one when at least a dozen people hijacked an online prayer group with shouting and obscene images.

“We were praying the Rosary,” recounted Sabrina Siojo. The 20-year-old joined Vancouver’s “Virtual Parish” a few weeks earlier to stay connected with her faith and other young adults during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The group of about 70 Catholics prays the Rosary every evening over the Zoom video conferencing site. On April 1, the group invited young adults from Australia, the U.S., and Honduras, expanding the call to about 300 Catholics praying together online during the health crisis.

“We got into the third mystery and Honduras was about to start their turn. It was all in Spanish and quite beautiful. Suddenly, we hear someone saying the N word over and over again,” said Siojo.

She thought she had a virus on her computer until she realized everyone else in the call was experiencing it, too. An estimated 15-20 people had joined the video conference and began shouting obscenities, writing Satanic messages, and using an annotation function to draw on the screen.

“I was really scared,” said Siojo. She and many others fled by turning off the video call.

Father Paul Goo, the Vancouver archdiocese’s vocations director and host of the Virtual Parish, described the attack as coordinated, chaotic, and verbally abusive.

But he was also surprised by the responses of some of the Catholics. Though many fled, others stayed online, covered their screens with their hands, and continued to pray aloud.

In a letter a few days later, he wrote to the participants: “Your example is a witness to the power of Christ’s love which casts out all fears.”

After he removed the offenders and locked the video call so they could not re-enter, the group continued the event with diminished numbers.

One of the group’s members told him it was a profound experience just before Holy Week.

“The incident is helping us reflect on how Jesus was persecuted,” said Father Goo. “We prayed together and asked for God’s healing and prayed for the attackers, too.”

Siojo said after the attacks began, a line from Scripture immediately came to mind: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Now, Father Goo said the community is recovering from the attack and he has put security measures in place to prevent future hijackings.

“Undoubtedly, what we had envisioned and achieved together was something special. The attack does not take anything away from that,” he said. “I thank the Lord for giving us such a unique opportunity to connect with one another.”

Siojo said the Virtual Parish and its Rosary prayer group have been a source of joy and hope for her during the COVID-19 crisis.

The church “is not just a building. It’s really the people and the community,” she said.

Gathering online “allows me as a young person to worship God and to pray to God with these other young people who have their hearts set for him, especially in this pandemic. It’s really a confusing time to navigate through but having these people by your side and standing firm with them, just praying, breaks down those barriers, breaks down that frustration and all those anxieties that may arise.”

The Virtual Parish is not alone in experiencing “Zoom bombing,” where hijackers use weak spots in Zoom security to jump into calls and spread offensive messages and images. The B.C. Catholic’s technology columnist, Peter Vogel, said it’s an international issue Zoom is being forced to address.

Zoom has become a popular tool for reaching the faithful in the Archdiocese of Vancouver during the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 3, a two-hour Lenten Retreat hosted by Father Juan Lucca logged 954 participants, without incident.

Meanwhile, online viewership of Masses in the Archdiocese of Vancouver was up more than 60 per cent from last weekend, with about 52,000 computers, smartphones, and other devices logged on to watch Palm Sunday Masses streamed by two dozen parishes.

Masses are streamed online using Facebook and YouTube, but not Zoom. More information about the Virtual Parish and livestreamed Masses is available here.