Nearly 300 visitors to the experiment completed surveys, with many describing the experience as thought-provoking or emotionally impactful.

Most visitors were aged 40 to 70, with Catholics reporting more positive reactions than Protestants.

"What was really interesting (was) to see that the people really talked with him in a serious way. They didn't come to make jokes" said chapel theologian Marco Schmid, who spearheaded the project.

Schmid emphasised that the avatar was an artistic experiment, not a substitute for human confession or priestly interaction.

He was quick to point out that the "AI Jesus" — billed as a "Jesus-like" persona — was an artistic experiment to get people thinking about the intersection between the digital and the divine, not substitute for human interaction or sacramental confessions with a priest, nor was it intended to save pastoral resources.

The AI Jesus, modelled on GPT-4o, responded in multiple languages including German, English, French and Chinese. Visitors addressed issues ranging from solitude and suffering to questions about the Church's stance on sexual abuse and homosexuality.

The exhibit hosted at Peter's Chapel in Lucerne drew participants from diverse religious backgrounds including Christians, agnostics, Muslims and Buddhists.

Philipp Haslbauer, an IT specialist behind the project, explained "No specific safeguards were used, as GPT-4o generally handled controversial topics well".

Online criticism

While many visitors praised the initiative, some criticism emerged online. There have been accusations of blasphemy and concerns about AI's role in spirituality. Schmid, however, found value in the discussions the project sparked. He described it as a pilot initiative that helped engage people with questions about faith and technology.

Kenneth Cukier, an expert with the US-based nonprofit group AI and Faith, said that if "AI Jesus" helps people connect deeper to themselves and the world, it "has to be a good thing".

However "the risk is that it pulls people, ultimately, farther away from that which is more meaningful, deeper and authentic in spirituality" advised Cukier.

Pope Francis has urged the ethical use of AI and called for international regulations to address its societal impact. The Vatican has also explored AI's potential, appointing a Franciscan friar to study its implications.

Other parishes and researchers have expressed interest in the potential return of 'AI Jesus'. Schmid said the project's continuation requires reflection.

Sources

AP News

Reason

CathNews New Zealand

The project, titled Deus in Machina, aims to explore the role of technology in religious practices and will conclude with a discussion and presentation on 27 November.

St Peter's Chapel, the oldest Catholic church in Lucerne, launched the initiative in August before its centenary celebrations.

The AI hologram which speaks 100 languages and has been trained in the New Testament, engages visitors with phrases such as "Peace be with you" and invites them to share their thoughts and concerns.

While its placement in a confessional has raised questions, the parish has clarified that the hologram does not administer the sacrament of confession but offers a space for reflection and discussion.

"What we're doing here is an experiment" said Marco Schmidt, a theologian at the parish. "We wanted to launch the discussion by letting people have a very concrete experience with AI."

Others in the installation team suggested they want users to "think critically about the boundaries of technology in the context of religion".

Mixed reaction

The project has prompted mixed reactions. Supporters highlight its accessibility, particularly outside traditional pastoral hours, with some users reporting spiritual experiences.

Critics however argue that an AI hologram of Jesus cannot replace human pastoral care. Peter Kirchschläger, a professor of theological ethics, cautioned "We should be careful when it comes to faith, pastoral care and the search for meaning in religion".

Human staff are present at the installation to offer additional guidance and discuss the AI's responses.

Schmidt noted that the hologram's answers align with theological views but admitted that its replies can sometimes feel generic.

"I'm glad it still comes across as a technical object" Schmidt said. "At the same time, its responses provide a fascinating basis for discussion."

Sources

The Pillar

Greek Reporter

CathNews New Zealand

The AI, known as the Catholic CoPilot, is already in use across 146 schools and saves teachers up to 10 hours a week by automating lesson planning, marking and administrative tasks.

The chatbot was built using Microsoft technology and is grounded in Catholic theology. Leigh Williams, BCE Information and Technology Executive, said it is tailored to align with Catholic teaching and the curriculum.

"It will generate an answer based only on the things that you pointed it to, so we pointed it to our own curriculum, our own Catholic theology and Catholic teaching principles" Williams explained.

Unlike other generative AI tools, Catholic CoPilot avoids general internet sources, ensuring responses are specific and aligned with Catholic values.

BCE is also the first K-12 education system to sign the Vatican's Rome Call on AI Ethics, which promotes ethical AI usage in line with human dignity and Catholic teachings.

Faith-Integrated Curriculum

Williams emphasised that the chatbot doesn't promote a single religious perspective but integrates Catholic viewpoints within broader educational standards. For instance, history lessons explore events through a Catholic lens while legal studies incorporate Catholic perspectives on justice.

Ms Williams said teachers using the chatbot saved nearly 2 hours each day in administrative tasks and lesson planning. "It can be used for everything from planning their lessons, writing and curriculum content'' she said.

Catholic CoPilot could be used to develop assignment marking rubrics and give students feedback. Teachers retain control, with all AI-generated content reviewed before use. "Nothing goes back to the student without the teacher actually reviewing it first'' Willams said.

Ms Williams said the AI chatbot might also be used to write end-of-year report cards.

"If you tell it to give you a summary of how the student has performed, in less than a paragraph, it will be able to do that. Copilot is unbiased in the sense it's looking only at that student's data … so it's actually based on real evidence.''

Sources

The Australian

Microsoft

CathNews New Zealand

Priest Radek Rakowski's parish initially planned to build a traditional church, before opting for a more modern chapel installed on the ground floor of a residential building, with large windows, a striking neon light, and a cozy coffee corner inside.

Parishioners who visit the chapel gain access via an app, also used to operate the lights and order a drink from the coffee machine. At the lectern, visitors push a button to put their questions to the AI guide.

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Using advanced AI and photogrammetry, this project will provide millions of people throughout the world a virtual gateway to one of Catholicism's holiest sites. The launch coincides with preparations for the 2025 Holy Year Jubilee.

The initiative, known as "Petros Eni" (Greek for "Peter is here"), employs Microsoft's cutting-edge AI and Iconem's photogrammetry to produce a hyper-detailed, 3D digital "twin" of St Peter's Basilica.

Visitors to Rome will experience the exhibit in person, while an online version will make the basilica accessible to those who cannot travel. Additionally, schools worldwide will have access via Minecraft Education, the popular video game platform.

400,000 high-resolution images

Microsoft's president Brad Smith described the project as "the oldest organisation in the world collaborating with the newest technology".

At a press event, Smith highlighted the extraordinary scale of the effort. For three weeks, drones coordinated by AI from Iconem, a French startup, captured over 400,000 high-resolution images of the basilica's intricate architecture, art and structure. Laser scanning allowed precise location mapping and AI algorithms processed the data to create the replica, ensuring a model accurate to one millimetre.

Smith emphasised that Microsoft provided its services free-of-charge, underscoring the collaboration's significance.

The Fabric of St Peter, the Vatican institution overseeing the basilica's preservation, plans to use the digital data to aid future restorations, noting its value in preserving the site for generations.

According to Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St Peter's Basilica, the digital twin project will allow visitors "to see this basilica as no generation has seen it before" - from missing mosaic tiles to previously hidden architectural details.

Pope Francis affirmed the project's spiritual significance, seeing St Peter's Basilica as "a place where everyone, whether in search of faith or in admiration of art, feels welcome".

Sources

Religion News Service

Technical Master

Schneider and his team edited his own catechism, Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith, launched in Rome in 2023 and hailed as "the book of the century" for its doctrinal integrity and clarity on key Church teachings.

Now, after years of expert research, software development, and inspiring support from volunteers and donors around the world, his team is launching their Master Catechism—the most powerful Catholic catechism tool in history.

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Father Paolo Benanti, a member of the United Nations' advisory body on AI and adviser to Pope Francis on ethics and technology, visited the Microsoft campus on July 23 to speak with Brad Smith, the tech giant's president.

Seattle University President Eduardo Peñalver introduced the "unlikely pair," who met five years ago at the Vatican while working on developing the "Rome Call for AI Ethics," a document and commitment by entities around the world to embrace key principles in shaping technology.

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On the Telegram messaging service, for example, almost half the content linked to the genocide of the Jews was antisemitic. This was also true for one in five Twitter messages devoted to the subject.

Two years later, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, ChatGPT and Google Bard are being scrutinised by the UN body to assess their role in the contemporary understanding of the Holocaust.

Since they were made public at the end of 2022, the so-called "generative" artificial intelligence (AI) systems have been answering live questions from millions of users, including many pupils and students. These summaries are compiled without human control, using vast masses of data from the Internet.

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Francis is the first Pope to address the forum, bringing together leaders of the US, UK, Italy, France, Canada, Germany and Japan.

The Pope was invited to address the G7 by its host, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Meloni said that she hoped global leaders would benefit from the Vatican's ongoing ethical reflections on the usage of AI.

Balancing AI's potential and risks

In his speech, Pope Francis referred to AI as a "cognitive-industrial revolution" with the power to transform society. He acknowledged the benefits of AI such as democratising knowledge, advancing scientific research and alleviating labour.

However, he also warned of the significant risks associated with AI, including increased inequality and the erosion of human dignity.

Pope Francis introduced the "techno-human condition" concept, highlighting humanity's intrinsic connection to its tools.

He argued that this relationship opens humans to external realities and to God, fostering creativity and intellectual growth.

Emphasising ethical discernment, the Pope distinguished between human wisdom and algorithmic choices, stressing that critical decisions, especially those involving human life, should remain under human control due to AI's lack of moral judgement.

Ethical standards and global consensus

The Pope highlighted that AI algorithms are neither objective nor neutral, often leading to reductive judgments. He cited examples such as judicial decisions influenced by data points like ethnic origin and credit rating, warning against the risks of overlooking human potential for moral growth.

Expressing concern over students using AI to write essays, Pope Francis warned that AI-generated content lacks true creativity and undermines genuine educational experience. He emphasised the importance of fostering authentic reflection rather than merely repeating existing concepts.

Pope Francis called for developing "algor-ethics", a global set of principles to guide AI's ethical use.

Acknowledging the challenge of achieving consensus on social issues, he stressed the need for shared ethical standards across cultures and institutions.

"If we struggle to define a single set of global values" the Pope said, we can at least "find shared principles with which to address and resolve dilemmas or conflicts regarding how to live".

Sources

National Catholic Reporter

Vatican News

CathNews New Zealand

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess and Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said they were increasingly concerned about how AI was being "weaponised".

Commissioner Kershaw said he was particularly concerned about the increasing use of AI in creating "diabolic" child abuse material. He cited examples of how technology was "nudifying children whose clothed images have been uploaded online for perfectly legitimate reasons".

"We're increasingly seeing AI being weaponised, particularly in the creation of child exploitation material. Technology is being used to manipulate innocent images of children for nefarious purposes."

He said one thing parents could do to keep their children safe was lock down their social media settings. This will make it harder for others to access images and use AI to create abusive material.

He said the AFP was also talking to social media companies about how to help identify a "tsunami of AI generated abuse material we know is coming".

"There is no silver bullet and offenders are always looking at how they can beat technological countermeasure" Kershaw said.

AI advice on weapon building

Meanwhile, Mr Burgess highlighted the potential for AI to significantly enhance adversaries' capabilities.

"We're aware of an offshore extremist already asking a commercially available AI programme for advice on building weapons and attack planning" Mr Burgess said.

"And when the programme refuses to provide the requested information, the extremists will try, and have tried, to bypass ethical handbrakes" Burgess continued. "The internet is the most potential incubator of extremism. AI is likely to make radicalisation easier and faster."

When asked how concerned he was by the artificial intelligence threat of revenge porn or other instances targeting adults, Commissioner Kershaw said it depended on how "innovative and ingenious" criminals were.

"I have no doubt that they will weaponise AI to their advantage. So we will see more victims, more than likely, and perhaps more silent victims, which we won't know about" he said.

"And that's why we're really encouraging the community to contact police … to report it."

Sources

The Australian

CathNews New Zealand

The AI priest project, launched on April 23, aimed to provide users with accurate information about Catholicism.

However, the AI priest project quickly sparked controversy when users reported misleading interactions. Reports surfaced of 'Justin' claiming to be a real priest.

Screenshots shared online depicted instances where the AI priest purportedly conducted confessions. It also administered penance and offered absolution.

Moreover, it expressed staunch Catholic views on sensitive topics such as the condemning of masturbation.

Fr Justin AI also suggested baptising a baby with Gatorade.

Christopher Check, President of Catholic Answers, responded promptly to the outcry by announcing the removal of "Father Justin" from clerical duties.

The AI priest was rebranded as simply "Justin," emphasising its non-clerical status.

Check clarified that the project intended to convey knowledge and authority, not mimic real clergy members.

Despite the negative reaction, Check remains optimistic about the project's future. He acknowledged the need to address feedback and distractions hindering the app's purpose.

He also highlighted the organisation's commitment to leveraging technology for evangelisation and apologetics.

Controversial AI priest app

Chris Costello, the information technology director at Catholic Answers, highlighted the organisation's goal of providing accurate information and facilitating discussions on faith matters.

Costello told OSV News that he and his development team "knew that (the AI app) was going to be controversial.

"We know there's a lot of concern in the Catholic world about AI in general — how it's used, in fact, in not just the Catholic world, but in the world" Costello said.

Father Thomas Dailey of St Charles Borromeo Seminary commended Catholic Answers for their responsiveness to feedback. He acknowledged the interest generated by the AI project despite its challenges.

"The response to what happened shows people's interest in both the technology and its application for faith matters" Fr Dailey said. "Catholic Answers took all of that feedback and benefited from it or acted on it. And their interest in moving forward to help people is a compliment to them."

Catholic Answers has rebranded the AI as "Virtual Apologist Justin" with a disclaimer emphasising its educational purpose and advising users to seek guidance from human pastors.

Sources

OSV News

New York Post

CathNews New Zealand

The 47-year-old Briton was included on a list of experts named to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, alongside Nobel prize-winning physicists Andrea Ghez and Didier Queloz.

Founded in 1603, the academy is the Vatican institution that deals with science, technology, medical ethics and philosophy. Its members are not chosen on religious grounds.

Pope Francis, 87, published a six-page message in December warning of the dangers of AI and calling for a global treaty to ensure the technology is used ethically.

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That's especially true for "AI girlfriends" or "AI boyfriends," according to new research.

An analysis into 11 so-called romance and companion chatbots, published on Wednesday by the Mozilla Foundation, has found a litany of security and privacy concerns with the bots.

Collectively, the apps, which have been downloaded more than 100 million times on Android devices, gather huge amounts of people's data.

They use trackers that send information to Google, Facebook, and companies in Russia and China; allow users to use weak passwords; and lack transparency about their ownership and the AI models that power them.

Since OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT on the world in November 2022, developers have raced to deploy large language models and create chatbots that people can interact with and pay to subscribe to.

Mozilla research

The Mozilla research provides a glimpse into how this gold rush may have neglected people's privacy, and into tensions between emerging technologies and how they gather and use data.

It also indicates how people's chat messages could be abused by hackers.

Many "AI girlfriend" or romantic chatbot services look similar. They often feature AI-generated images of women which can be sexualized or sit alongside provocative messages.

Mozilla's researchers looked at a variety of chatbots including large and small apps, some of which purport to be "girlfriends." Others offer people support through friendship or intimacy, or allow role-playing and other fantasies.

"These apps are designed to collect a ton of personal information," says Jen Caltrider, the project lead for Mozilla's Privacy Not Included team, which conducted the analysis.

"They push you toward role-playing, a lot of sex, a lot of intimacy, a lot of sharing."AI chatbot

For instance, screenshots from the EVA AI chatbot show text saying "I love it when you send me your photos and voice," and asking whether someone is "ready to share all your secrets and desires."

Concerns mount up

Caltrider says there are multiple issues with these apps and websites.

Many of the apps may not be clear about what data they are sharing with third parties, where they are based, or who creates them, Caltrider says.

She adds that some allow people to create weak passwords, while others provide little information about the AI they use. The apps analyzed all had different use cases and weaknesses.

Take Romantic AI, a service that allows you to "create your own AI girlfriend." Promotional images on its homepage depict a chatbot sending a message saying,"Just bought new lingerie. Wanna see it?"

The app's privacy documents, according to the Mozilla analysis, say it won't sell people's data.

However, when the researchers tested the app, they found it "sent out 24,354 ad trackers within one minute of use."

Romantic AI, like most of the companies highlighted in Mozilla's research, did not respond to WIRED's request for comment. Other apps monitored had hundreds of trackers.

Lack of clarity

In general, Caltrider says, the apps are not clear about what data they may share or sell, or exactly how they use some of that information.

"The legal documentation was vague, hard to understand, not very specific—kind of boilerplate stuff," Caltrider says, adding that this may reduce the trust people should have in the companies.

It is unclear who owns or runs some of the companies behind the chatbots.

The website for one app, called Mimico—Your AI Friends, includes only the word "Hi."

Others do not list their owners or where they are located, or just include generic help or support contact email addresses.

"These were very small app developers that were nameless, faceless, placeless," Caltrider adds. Read more

• Matt Burgess is a senior writer at WIRED focused on information security, privacy, and data regulation in Europe.

Behind the imposing rood screen, about forty Benedictine nuns take their places in the choir stalls as their superior intones, Deus in adjutórium meum inténde ("God, come to my assistance").

Seven times a day, the sisters of the Abbey of Notre-Dame-de-Fidélité in Jouques, a small Provencal village in southern France, gather to pray the Divine Office in Gregorian chant.

For the past five years, all their liturgies have been recorded, and the audio recordings have been transmitted to the international team behind Neumz. This mobile application provides access to 7,500 hours of the Gregorian chant repertoire.

"At first, I couldn't help but think about the recording: every time a sister coughed, I jumped," smiles Sister Marie-Dorothée, who is overseeing the recordings at the abbey.

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A new code drafted by the industry giants at the government's request will require search engines to ensure that such content is not returned in search results, e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.

It will also require that AI functions built into search engines cannot produce synthetic versions of the same material, she said. Synthetic versions of the material are also known as deepfakes.

"The use of generative AI has grown so quickly that I think it's caught the whole world off guard to a certain degree," Inman Grant said.

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The Supreme Court has been harnessing technological advancements for a while, already establishing an AI-supported virtual centre disseminating precedents of the court, Akarca stated during the inauguration ceremony of the new judiciary year on Sept 1 in the capital Ankara.

Precedents play a significant advisory role in the Turkish legal system, aiding local courts in the litigation process and providing clearer interpretations of the open-to-interpretation sections of laws in practice.

Akarca stressed that to prevent external interventions, the AI system operates solely through the court's servers.

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The Australian Medical Association said in its submission to the federal government's discussion paper on safe and responsible AI, seen by the Guardian that Australia lags behind other comparable countries in regulating AI and noted that stronger rules are needed to protect patients and healthcare professionals and to engender trust.

Five hospitals in Perth's South Metropolitan Health Service were advised in May to stop using ChatGPT to write medical records for patients after it was discovered that some staff had been using the large language model for the practice.

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The developers of Magisterium AI trained an AI robot on a database of 456 Church documents.

These include: Scripture the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Code of Canon Law, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 90 encyclicals, seven apostolic constitutions, and 26 apostolic exhortations.

The result of all that training, according to Matthew Sanders of Longbeard, a digital marketing and design agency connected to the project, is that the Magisterium AI:

"doesn't hallucinate (make stuff up), and it also provides citations so you know where its answers were generated from."

The project, which Sanders says can prepare homilies, is backed by Fr. David Nazar, rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, who serves as chair of the AI's "scholarly advisory committee."

Sanders said by email that while "there is a great deal of fear around AI … there are many who feel it could be a powerful tool to share truth."

The Magisterium AI project is available online, but in a beta-testing form at present.

At The Pillar, we wondered just how good it really is — and whether it could answer questions as well as a seminary professor and a working canon lawyer.

So we put it to the test.

For theology, we asked Magisterium AI to answer the same questions as Angela Franks.

She's a professor of theology at St. John's Seminary in Boston, with specializations in "theology of the body, the New Evangelization, the Trinity, Christology, and the thought of John Paul II and Hans Urs von Balthasar."

For canon law, we asked the robot to answer the same questions as Timothy Olson, JCL, who is chancellor of the Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota, and an instructing judge in Fargo's diocesan tribunal.

We asked each expert to spend less than an hour answering the questions we gave, while the Magisterium AI answered each question in usually 1-2 minutes.

We told both the machine and the experts to answer each question in just 4-5 sentences.

We'll show you how the machine and the experts answered the questions, and give you a few notes to ponder. (Nota bene: We are not including the machine's footnotes, but we note that it has given us 3-5 footnoted references on at least every question.)

But is the machine up to snuff? Should theologians and canonists be excited for a new tool — or worried about job security? Is the AI on the right track?

Well, we'll tell you what we think, especially about who answered each question better. But we admit our own biases — we're old fashioned, and we're probably pulling for the people here.

So are we right?

You'll have to decide that for yourself.

Theology

What is baptism, theologically?

The machine:
Baptism, theologically, is a sacrament that signifies the forgiveness of sins and the cleansing of the soul. It is a participation in the paschal mystery of Christ, where the believer is configured to Jesus Christ and becomes a new creation.

Through baptism, one is incorporated into the Church, receives the promised Holy Spirit, and is justified.

Baptism is the sacrament of faith par excellence, where faith and baptism are intimately linked. It is a gift from God that is received through the Church, and it marks the beginning of a new life in Christ.

Dr. Franks:
CCC 1213 tells us: "Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: ‘Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.'"

Pillar verdict:
The machine gave a pretty good answer here, and mentioned more things - like the Holy Spirit - than did Dr. Franks. But the machine also seemed to do a strange bit of question begging: saying that baptism is the sacrament of faith, where faith and baptism are intimately linked. Baptism is, indeed, the sacrament of faith — but does the AI's sentence mean anything?

Dr. Franks' answer is a straight excerpt from the Catechism, and a pretty clear one. We hope on future questions, she'll answer in her own words, but we'll give her this one. Read more

• First published in The Pillar. Republished with permission.

Indeed, programs like ChatGPT, that can produce a sermon in seconds, might seem attractive to busy clergy.

But several religious leaders, including rabbis serving Jewish congregations as well as Christian Protestant pastors, have conflicting feelings about utilising chatbots in preparing sermons.

There may be several reasons for being cautious.

From my perspective, as a specialist in Catholic liturgy and ritual, the most important critique has to do with true intent of preaching - to offer insight and inspiration on the human experience of faith.

Historical practice

In the early centuries of Christianity, preaching was largely reserved for bishops, considered to be the successors to Jesus' apostles.

During the Middle Ages, priests were also allowed to preach, although their chief responsibility was to say the Mass - ritually consecrating the offerings of bread and wine - especially on Sundays.

In some religious orders, priests became famous traveling preachers, although much of the time they were preaching in other settings, not during Mass.

The Franciscan and Dominican orders, for example, would send priests to preach on the streets and in city centers, traveling from town to town in fulfillment of this ministry.

During the next few centuries, preaching brief sermons or homilies became increasingly important during the celebration of Sunday Mass.

The Second Vatican Council, convened in 1962, took a fresh look at all the Church's rituals and stressed the role of preaching at worship, especially at Mass.

These principles have been reaffirmed in more recent documents that guide Catholic preachers when writing a sermon. In essence, preaching was always believed to be a human activity grounded in faith.

Insight and inspiration

Preaching as a human activity has a special meaning for Catholics - and most Christians.

This is because they believe that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God, who came into human life to save all of humanity from their sins and gave his apostles the commandment to preach the Gospel about this "good news" to people of all nations.

In the decades since Vatican II ended in 1965, preaching in the Catholic tradition has been emphasised as a "primary duty" of all priests.

The sermon is meant to inspire people in their ordinary lives of faith.

The preacher must spend time in preparing the sermon, but this does not just mean compiling theological quotes or doing research on the history of the Bible.

A good sermon is not just a classroom lecture. In fact, several contemporary popes have stressed that the language of sermons should avoid technical or obscure terminology.

In 1975, Pope Paul VI wrote that the language of preaching should be "simple, clear, direct, well-adapted" for the congregation in the pews.

And in 2013, Pope Francis echoed these same words in his observation that "simplicity has to do with the language we use."

But preaching is not just about offering pious mottoes or generic religious formulas. The preacher's experience, insights and emotions all come into play when composing the homiletic text.

The preacher is not simply offering good advice, but speaking out of personal reflection in a way that will inspire the members of the congregation, not just please them.

It must also be shaped by an awareness of the needs and lived experience of the worshipping community in the pews.

Use with caution

In practice, chatbots might help clergy save time by finding sources and compiling relevant facts, but the results would need to be checked for errors.

Chatbots have been known to make some factual blunders or invent sources completely.

Above all, I believe chatbots, as of now, are not capable of preparing a text suitable for being offered as a sermon. From what we know about chatbots, they cannot know what it means to be human, to experience love or be inspired by a sacred text.

Perhaps Baptist pastor Hershael York, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has put it best.

He has noted that the ultimate failure of a chatbot's sermon lies in the fact that it "lacks a soul."

Without that empathetic consciousness, a chatbot-composed sermon cannot include genuine insights based on personal spiritual experience. And without that essential element of embodied human awareness, true preaching is simply not possible.

• Joanne M. Pierce is a Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

The pope asked the academy on Feb. 20 to "ensure that scientific and technological growth is reconciled more and more with a parallel development … in responsibility, values, and conscience."

The rapid acceleration of new technologies can produce significant consequences for human life and the environment "that are not always clear and predictable," Francis said.

"It is paradoxical, for example, referring to technologies for enhancing the biological functions of a subject, to speak of an ‘augmented' man if one forgets that the human body refers back to the integral good of the person and therefore cannot be identified with the biological organism alone. A wrong approach in this field actually ends up not ‘augmenting' but ‘compressing' man," he said.

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