‘Ministry in an AI Era’ conference at Sacred Heart offers a shallow entry point for lay ministers, priests on artificial intelligence
DETROIT — In the wake of Pope Leo XIV's groundbreaking encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, clergy and lay leaders gathered to grapple with questions surrounding Catholic ministry and artificial intelligence during a June 11 conference at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.
The conference, "Ministry in an AI Era," was hosted via a partnership between the Archdiocese of Detroit and Magisterium AI, the world’s leading Catholic artificial intelligence chatbot, and sought to equip ministers with a better understanding of AI — and, perhaps more importantly, what it means to value the inherent dignity of God’s creation in light of the release of Pope Leo's encyclical.
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John Brahier, director of partnerships at Longbeard, the company that powers Magisterium AI, delivered the opening keynote. Artificial intelligence, Brahier said, can no longer be considered something that will affect ministry “soon,” but rather is something that’s affecting ministry now.
Many popular apps and websites already use AI, so it’s important for people to understand what artificial intelligence is, and perhaps more importantly, what it’s not, Brahier said.
“The Church reflects that AI is better thought of not as a different form of intelligence itself, but rather as a product of human intelligence,” Brahier said. “I think that’s the right orientation that, as Catholics, we bring to this conversation. It’s not an entirely different form of intelligence, but it's a product of our God-given human intelligence.”
Brahier addressed Pope Francis’ comments and later Pope Leo’s encyclical on AI, noting both pontiffs have taught that AI — like other forms of technology through the ages — is ultimately a tool for human use.
“Whether those are simple tools like a knife or an incredibly complex digital tool like a cellphone, computer or AI, the point is that for all of human history, we’ve been doing this kind of discourse about how to use and leverage these tools,” Brahier said.
The central theme of the conference was to dispel false notions about artificial intelligence as either “artificial” or “intelligence,” and how the faithful can think about AI through a Catholic context.
Breakout session speakers included Brendan Newell, principal engineer at Microsoft who specializes in cybersecurity for AI; Darren O'Brien, a licensed psychologist and mental health professional with more than 27 years of experience supporting at-risk youth and families; Paul Spankie, director of data and technology strategy for the Archdiocese of Detroit; Edmundo Reyes, founder and partner at Digital Continent, a media production and creative services agency and former director of communications for the Archdiocese of Detroit; and Stephanie Quesnelle, senior research analyst and project lead at Data Driven Detroit, a local data intermediary, who is the author of the forthcoming children's book "Created, Not Coded: A Catholic Family's Guide to Artificial Intelligence."
Marcus Peter, Ph.D., director of theology for Ave Maria Radio and the Kresta Institute, spoke about Pope Leo’s encyclical, noting that while many have defined it as an encyclical "about AI," it's actually a document about human dignity.
“It’s not a document on AI; it’s an anthropological document,” Peter said. “It’s an updating of the language of the Church, a continuation of the tradition of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Pope Leo is trying to address this new industrial age, this new machine age in light of the human person.”
In the encyclical, Pope Leo lays out only a few "absolutes" for Catholics to consider, Peter said, such as a condemnation of the use of artificial intelligence to wage war, its use in perpetuating human trafficking and modern forms of slavery, and the dangers of unlimited and unsupervised smartphone access for children.
Rather, the bulk of the encyclical gives broad principles for how to speak and think about artificial intelligence in light of human dignity, Peter added.
While the world needs technological experts, doctors, legal scholars and economists speaking and thinking about AI, the "primary" voice that should be leading the way is the Church, Peter said.
“We’re the only Church, the only agency, the only single institution within which we have these structures to think about the dignity of the human person, and then by virtue of that, how the human person ought to flourish is obvious,” Peter said.
Criticism of Pope Leo’s encyclical from some in the AI industry misses the mark when it focuses too heavily on the technological understanding, Peter said.
“This is a document by a spiritual father who sees the confusion of his children. He’s sitting them down and saying, ‘I don't know where this is going to go,’” Peter said. “He actually makes that clear. He says it’s really hard to pinpoint a single definition for artificial intelligence, and he’s right. ... It’s neither artificial nor intelligent, and Leo is considering the way we think about it.”
Jeffrey Quesnelle, co-founder and chief technology officer of Nous Research, the creators of Hermes Agent, an open-source autonomous AI agent, spoke on the topic “The Next Year of AI – Where We’re Going.”
Quesnelle said AI isn’t something for Catholics to fear, but rather is part of the universe that God created.
“In some ways, artificial intelligence is borrowing upon the logos, the inherent rationality that was already there within the world,” said Quesnelle, a parishioner at the National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak. “We know the Church tells us that God in His rationality infused that into the universe, and this machine — whatever you want to call artificial intelligence — is borrowing that rationality in some capacity.”
Artificial intelligence is only as good as the data and information it’s fed by rational actors, Quesnelle said, but because of its computational power, it will surpass the processing power and capacity of human beings.
“If something is empirically verifiable and quantifiable, and you are a human who does it, there is a likelihood that within the next year and a half, these AI models will be able to outperform you at that particular work,” Quesnelle said.
However, that does not mean AI is “better” at reasoning than humans — in fact, it’s not really “reasoning” at all.
This is where Catholic social teaching comes in, Quesnelle said: The Church proclaims the inherent dignity of a person isn’t based on their productivity, but in their God-given identity.
“The Holy Father says in paragraph 51 (of Magnifica Humanitas), ‘I consider it particularly insidious this ideology that suggests that every person must earn or justify his own worth, attributing greater value to those who are more efficient or effective,’” Quesnelle quoted. “The value of a person does not depend on what they can produce in the world. It doesn’t really matter that the AI is better at that particular job. The real dignity you have comes grounded in the dignity that was given to you by God, as you were made in His image and likeness.”
