We are not just a “number”

On June 29, 2022, a very online priest named Fr. Casey of the Order of Friars Minor (OFM) attempted to utilize a TikTok trend to, in his view, evangelize.

Instead, Fr. Casey perpetuated the undignified practice of assigning numbers to persons based on looks (via a tweet he later deleted), doubled down on his actions, and dismissed those who called him out.

Amid the backlash from this young priest’s imprudent actions, I became aware of a distant memory buried under the ground for decades.

During junior high at my Catholic school, the teacher found a note passed between two girls. It was a rating system of the males in my class. In a predominantly Mexican-American school, two White girls gave the lowest rating to two of the darkest male members of my class — John, who at that time recently came from Mexico, and me.

This was the only time in my history I was aware of being part of a rating system, and knowing how low I was valued — confirming all of the negative feelings I had about myself — could not be sufficiently be described as devastating. Rather, it destroyed my soul and sense of worth.

If just this one instance had such a profoundly damaging effect on me, this does not scratch the surface of the many women who have been subjected to such rating systems.

I admit, when I was in college I played the online “Hot or Not” game. I am not fully innocent or fully the victim. But I learned how destructive these practices are.

What Fr. Casey failed to see is doing what is trending might not be in line with following Christ — the very sign of contradiction.

Fr. Casey could have taken this trend to catechize that we all are created in God’s image, and because of the Imago Dei, we cannot be assigned a number. Our value is infinite and limitless. We are deeply and perfectly loved by God, brought into existence by God’s very desire for us.

Perhaps Fr. Casey could not see his error because of his privilege. As a White male, if he were in my junior high class, he would not have gotten a low rating. As a male, he likely was rarely, if ever, subjected to a rating system. And as a priest, he missed the mark in the ability to go beyond himself and understand how his actions impact others.

I invite Fr. Casey to go back in time and be in the classroom with me when I learned of my low rating. See the goodness in me trampled upon, the sense of trust evaporate, the sense of worth robbed. Fast forward to decades of depression, alcoholism, and desire for self-harm. Sit with this person. Then ask yourself, was this simply a trend? Is this simply a joke?

Because I assure you, the one being rated poorly isn’t laughing.