by Dave Plisky
“Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.”
As a marketer for most of my career, I’ve been obsessed with data, metrics, and analysis. I brought this passion to DeSales Media nine years ago — my first time working for the Church.
A few years ago, when we started exploring what Catholic app to build, we conducted a landmark study on Catholic discipleship in partnership with Vinea Research. The data informed our work, leading to the creation of our podcast “Religion to Reality.” I’m proud of using data as a foundation in our formational work.
But there were pitfalls. I began to believe that more and better data could solve everything in the Church.
I turned our study questions into a discipleship self-assessment tool — a fine, though perhaps narrow, approach. Then I imagined it as an app that tracks spiritual progress over time. I even wondered if spiritual directors could use it to assess other Catholics, aggregating the data anonymously.
I got excited about behavior scoring for Church life — the same technique marketers use to track customer journeys. Imagine scoring parishioners on their interests, event attendance, ministry involvement, tithing frequency, and sacramental participation to determine their spiritual stage and guide pastoral outreach. Sounds incredibly useful, but also dystopian. It’s precisely what the most prominent companies do with your data.
Why does this data-driven thinking seem so crass in the Church? It disrespects human dignity. It treats scientific discovery as the only way of learning. Worst of all, it disregards the Holy Spirit.
How did I shift away from this misuse of data? Several factors converged.
Studying theology, I learned that before original sin, there was original goodness — God created humanity in God’s image, giving us undeniable dignity.
Through Alpha, a 10-week parish evangelization course, I heard them say repeatedly: “It’s designed to fail unless the Holy Spirit shows up.”
Over and over, they prayed, “Come, Holy Spirit.” That’s true trust.
Romano Guardini’s “Letters from Lake Como” taught me there are “two ways of knowing” — one that “sinks into a thing” through intimate relationship, another that “unpacks, tears apart, arranges in compartments.”
He notes: “It is very doubtful whether we can apply standards of measurement to life and spirit.”
Zohar Atkins recently published “Truth is not the same as Fact” on his Substack “Second Voice.” We live in a world of “correspondence truth” approached scientifically, losing our sense of “disclosure truth” — how reality reveals itself through openness and understanding rather than mere correctness.
So: Humans have undeniable dignity, there are important truths that can’t be captured in surveys, and we must trust the Holy Spirit. Yet we’re called to be good stewards of our resources and the environment.
How do I negotiate this tension? Like many “virtue contests” between two good things, it comes down to intention.
Why did I desperately want to measure the spiritual journey? Control.
I wanted to own the process, operate independently of God’s help, and avoid surrender.
Ultimately, it comes down to trust — trust in the Holy Spirit, trust that God knows what God is doing, and is doing it.
I’m not abandoning data analysis completely, just putting it in its place.
We’ll measure the indicators (rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s) while praying to recognize where the Holy Spirit leads us (rendering unto God what is God’s).
That’s what we seek to explore each week on “Religion to Reality.”
Join me, Father John Gribowich, and guests like Father Joe Gibino and Friar Rick Ricciolo at religiontoreality.org, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Dave Plisky is the director of marketing and digital for DeSales Media.