Defrocking Justin

After Catholic Answers, a site devoted to evangelising for Catholicism, introduced the character to answer questions about the faith, Catholics on social media called the character a "scandalising mockery of the sacred priesthood".

It only offers "a substitute for real interaction," they said.

On April 24, Catholic Answers apologised for the experiment, and Justin was reintroduced as a lay theologian.

What's wrong with AI evangelisation

Catholics close to the Vatican's work on artificial intelligence say that Justin captures the possible problems with AI evangelisation.

He also captures the reasons for caution in Pope Francis's and other church officials' attempts to tackle AI, even as the technology is becoming an increasingly buzzy topic at the Vatican.

The Rev. Philip Larrey is a professor in the department of formative education at Boston College.

He said that while he thinks Catholic Answers are a good group, "they were a little bit too quick to enter into something which is extremely complicated, and that is interactive artificial intelligence."

San Jose, California, Bishop Oscar Cantú, who leads the Catholic faithful in Silicon Valley, said that AI doesn't come up much with parishioners in his diocese.

Nonetheless, as a leader in the computing capital of the world, Cantú said he has engaged with AI as a global and moral issue, even if he hasn't "delved into it too much."

Pointing to the adage coined by Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, "move fast and break things," the bishop said, "with AI, we need to move very cautiously and slowly and try not to break things.

"The things we would be breaking are human lives and reputations."

Inappropriate imitations

Experts agreed that Father Justin's imitation of the sacrament of confession was highly inappropriate.

Cantú said, "If we have some sort of a robot in the guise of a priest, it can confuse" people about the fact that the sacraments must be celebrated in person.

"Just because Father Justin recites the formula, that doesn't make it a sacrament," he said.

The bishop cautioned that AI chatbots should make very clear that they are AI.

"It's so critical that we be as transparent as possible, for the sake of the people we're trying to guide," Cantú added.

Even Justin introducing itself as a lay theologian is problematic.

"A person who may be incredibly knowledgeable of Scripture and of church teaching but is not a person of faith does not do theology, because theology begins with faith," the bishop said.

Noreen Herzfeld is a professor of theology and computer science at St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict and one of the editors of a book about AI sponsored by the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education.

She said that the AI character was previously "impersonating a priest, which is considered a very serious sin in Catholicism."

AI can be useful

The leaders don't dismiss the usefulness of AI when used properly.

Cantú said that AI can do "tremendous work" as "a tool that can be used for good for doing research."

But, he added, "A person of faith doing theology then needs to judge the credibility of each source and the authority of each source."

Larrey, who has worked closely with both Vatican and AI leaders on the ethical issues surrounding AI, emphasised that Pope Francis is interested in "person-centered AI,".

That means AI must be used "for the good of human beings" and "not the detriment of people."

The best example of AI being used for evangelisation, Larrey said, is Magisterium AI.

It is a chatbot developed by Longbeard, a digital strategy firm founded by a former seminarian named Matthew Harvey Sanders, a friend of Larrey's.

The bot explains church teaching in a format like ChatGPT.

It does this by drawing on official church teachings, as well as select writings such as the works of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, linking to the documents that informed its answer.

Larrey distinguishes such automated research from generative AI, which learns and experiments with its newfound knowledge.

"When you have a generative AI, if you're not careful, it gets out of hand," he said.

Accuracy is of concern

Accuracy issues, Herzfeld said, is one of many reasons it should not be used for evangelisation.

"As much as you beta test one of these chatbots, you will never get rid of hallucinations" — moments when the AI makes up its own answers, she said.

"The problem is actually built into how they work," Herzfeld continued.

"They work on statistics, on probabilities as to what words and phrases should follow, and they do not have internal mental models of the world. And without that, they will always get off track."

Herzfeld said that an AI is only as good as the data it is trained on.

On issues where the church is divided, she said, "I could see bots out there giving competing answers, for example, on the desirability of the Latin Mass or the role of women in the church."

Herzfeld expressed concern, too, that people who are not well-versed in technology may believe computers have a "certain level of infallibility,".

She also worries that turning to AI bots will lead to spiritual "de-skilling," convincing young people to think "religion is just about answers."

"When I was their age, I was shy, and if I'd had a bot to answer my questions, I'd have gone to a bot instead of going to my pastor or even going to my parents to ask questions about religion," Herzfeld said.

Forming relationships with AI instead of with other people or God could become a type of idolatry, she adds.

Larrey, who has been studying AI for nearly 30 years and is in conversation with Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is optimistic that the technology will improve.

He said Altman is already making progress on the hallucinations, on its challenges to users' privacy and reducing its energy use. A recent analysis estimated that by 2027, artificial intelligence could suck up as much electricity as the population of Argentina or the Netherlands.

Just chat with a real priest

Larrey understands that Catholic Answers' Justin was designed to "get people who would otherwise not be interested in the Catholic faith," but also thinks chatbots should not vie with real priests.

"Why don't you just go down to your parish and talk to a priest? They're not extinct, you know," he said.

For evangelisation, "I think you need people to contact and to attract other people," said Larrey. "We will never eliminate that step."

Cantú believes this is the ultimate lesson to be drawn from the ill-fated Father Justin.

"The faith is not just about answers. It's not just about information. It's about encounter, a personal encounter with Christ, with real people," he said.

Just as rank-and-file Catholics should exercise caution with AI for evangelisation, Cantú suggested similar care from priests who might turn to ChatGPT for an assist when writing their homilies.

While the AI's suggestion can be a good starting point for priests who are "pressed for time," Cantú said, the priest must make the homily his own.

"When anyone within the church, a person of faith, expresses the truth, to some degree, they're opening a window to the mind of God because God is truth." '

In the end, the bishop said, "It has to be my words and my act of faith.

"A robot can't do that because it's not an act of faith."

• First published in Religion News Service
• Aleja Hertzler-McCain is an author at Religion News Service.

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.