DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — When most people walk into a church, they might pause to light a candle or admire a stained glass window. Adam Llorens, a Fox9 News host in Minneapolis, sees something else entirely: A story waiting to be told — and recorded.
Armed with nothing more than his phone, his trusted tool for evangelization, and a deep love for the Catholic faith, Llorens touched down at LaGuardia Airport on July 18 from Minneapolis and headed straight to the Cathedral Basilica of St. James.
His goal? To share its sacred beauty with the thousands of followers he has on Instagram, where he runs the growing account NYC Catholic Church Tours (@adam_llorens).
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The Tablet got a chance to follow in his footsteps, quite literally, to learn what makes the cathedral so special, starting with St. Pope John Paul II.
“He was at the ticker tape parade in Manhattan [in 1979] and then made an unannounced visit to the cathedral on a rainy afternoon and blessed the church,” Llorens said. “This is a very important church for Brooklynites and for those who live in Queens as well, and so it was a real honor to go there and visit and walk the same grounds that Pope John Paul II himself walked.”
Since launching his project in September 2024, he has utilized some of New York’s churches to create viral content, garnering over 15,000 followers and posting more than 60 video profiles. What began as a creative response to an unexpected layoff has now become a mission.
Walking through the Cathedral Basilica of St. James, Llorens carefully recorded five-second clips of everything from paintings to the decanter used to hold the figurative blood of Christ. One highlight was the umbraculum, a red and gold umbrella at the front of the church.
“The red and gold umbrella gives it designation as a basilica, meaning the pope has designated this place personally as an elevated church,” Llorens said. “It kind of unites all the different cathedrals together.”
He also had a chance to step into the back of the cathedral, where plaques commemorate early Catholic leaders in Brooklyn.
“You feel the history of the Church in that space,” Llorens said. “Some of these people were some of the real forefathers of Catholicism in Brooklyn, so being able to just be around all of that history was a really meaningful experience that I know not a lot of people get to have.”
Storytelling is at the heart of Llorens’ project, which he said he started with a simple goal: to get a new job in media after facing an unexpected layoff. His first video featured his once-home parish’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Within 10 months, Llorens was heading on a journey to success, which he said came with a lot of persistence and passion.
“I’ve learned that if you make stuff that you’re passionate about, people will respond, follow, and interact with you, and that’s what’s been happening,” Llorens said. “Fifteen thousand is a lot, but there’s so much more to uncover.
“There are so many different stories to tell from across the country, and quite frankly, there are places I am probably never going to get to see, but that’s what keeps me going — that there is always more out there that is just waiting to be discovered.”
Although Llorens will be missing from the lineup of influencers for the July 28 Jubilee of Catholic Influencers in Rome, he said he is excited about its existence.
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For him, young Catholics on social media act as a “welcome mat” to those returning to the faith, making Jubilees like this essential. Llorens added that, with the first American pope — being “from Chicago, and a baseball fan” — young U.S. Catholics may feel more connected to the Church, making this an ideal moment to reach them through platforms they are familiar with.
“I do think that Catholicism here in the United States will have an uptick of interest among young American Catholics because we do have a pope that we can relate to,” Llorens said. “So I think … now is the time to lean in and get people more excited and more involved.”
