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AI tools like ChatGPT are making research faster. Can they also help make Catholic colleges more Catholic?
For Catholic colleges, artificial intelligence (AI) provides both a powerful tool and a reason for caution. Powerful because of its ability to analyze massive amounts of information and produce useful summaries and descriptions in seconds. Caution because of its ability to help students cheat on assignments and otherwise turn off their minds. But most scholars accept that it’s here to stay and are hopeful the pluses will far outweigh the minuses. “We have to make sure that we’re not making this into a spiritual enemy. It really isn’t,” Ryan Schaaf, an associate professor of education at Notre Dame University of Maryland, told the Register. “When it comes to artificial intelligence, I see it as becoming really a companion that’s going to help humans see their potential,” he continued....
Swiss Bishop Issues ‘Formal Reprimand’ But Says He Found ‘No Serious Liturgical Violations’ in Viral Video of Woman ‘Concelebrating’ Mass…
By Kevin J. Jones Denver, Colo., Sep 11, 2023 / 14:45 pm A viral video showing two priests celebrating Mass with a Swiss laywoman at the altar has resulted in a formal reprimand of the pastors by Bishop Joseph Bonnemain of Chur, Switzerland, but there will not be a canonical proceeding. “Careful investigation of the matter has shown that there were no serious liturgical violations in this service, the assessment of which would be reserved for the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith,” said a Sept. 8 joint statement whose signatories included Bonnemain. “Therefore, no criminal proceedings are required under canon law.” “However, important liturgical regulations that are binding for the entire Church were ignored in this service,” the statement added. “The bishop therefo...
Exclusive: Archbishop Fernandez Warns Against Bishops Who Think They Can Judge ‘Doctrine of the Holy Father’…
VATICAN CITY — The incoming prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has warned that bishops — both “progressive” and those from “traditionalist groups” — who think they have a “special gift of the Holy Spirit to judge the doctrine of the Holy Father” are on a road to “heresy” and “schism.” Speaking in response to a question on accepting Pope Francis’ magisterium, Cardinal-designate Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández told Register senior correspondent Edward Pentin in an exclusive Sept. 8 email interview that the Pope not only has a duty to guard and preserve the “static” deposit of faith, but also a second, unique charism, only given to Peter and his successors, which is “a living and active gift.” “I do not have this charism, nor do you, nor does Cardinal [Raymond] Bu...
Eduardo Verástegui, Catholic Actor and Film Producer, Files as Candidate for President of Mexico…
“We can see it. We have two candidates who are exactly the same: They dress differently, maybe they eat differently, maybe different ages, but they are the same. Is that the opposition? We cannot allow ourselves to be manipulated,” Verástegui said. On Sept. 7 Verástegui announced on X: “It’s a fact. Now is the time. After a period of discernment, I made the most important decision of my life: I just filed with the INE my intention as an aspirant to be an independent candidate to the presidency of the Mexican Republic for the elections of June 2, 2024.” “My fight is for life. My fight is for freedom. It’s time to remove the same old people from power. Our country needs a new way of doing politics in order to eradicate corruption and impunity. There’s still time [to save Mexico]! Let’s go wi...
What do we know about Catholics United for Life and New Hope’s St. Martin de Porres Community, which was called a “cult” by a California news outlet?
NBC’s news story about the suits was shared on social media by the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, which has positioned itself as a premier filer of sex abuse lawsuits against religious entities. It was not immediately clear whether attorneys for the Minnesota-based Anderson & Associates filed the lawsuits in question. What is Catholics United for Life? Catholics United for Life (CUFL) is a ministry of the St. Martin de Porres Lay Dominican Community, which is part of the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic’s Eastern Province. Reached by phone, a representative of New Hope Publications, the Dominican community’s main ministry, agreed to pass CNA’s comment request to the appropriate person, but the call was not returned by press time. According to the grou...
Sources Tell The Pillar: Pope Francis Meets Officials at Vatican to Discuss Possible Resignation of Bishop Joseph Strickland…
Pope Francis meets to discuss Strickland resignation Skip to content At a meeting Saturday, Pope Francis discussed with Vatican officials the prospect of requesting the resignation of Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, The Pillar has learned. The pope met Sept. 9 with Archbishop Robert Prevost, OSA, head of the Dicastery for Bishops, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States – both cardinals-elect. Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler. Credit: Diocese of Tyler Several sources close to the dicastery told The Pillar ahead of the meeting that the prelates would present the pope with the results of an apostolic visitation of Stickland’s diocese, conducted earlier this year, as well as subsequent public actions by the bishop, who has emerge...
Defense of Pius XII reflects concern that Francis could be styled ‘Putin’s Pope’…
ROME – Yesterday Crux carried two stories which, at first blush, appear unrelated. The first concerned the latest Ukrainian backlash against Pope Francis’s praise of “Great Mother Russia,” while the second covered the discovery of a previously unnoticed bit of anti-fascist graffiti from the WWII years in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Yet pushing beyond the headlines, the two stories do actually have something in common: To wit, they point to mounting concern among Pope Francis’s advisers and allies that just as his predecessor Pius XII has been pilloried as “Hitler’s Pope,” something similar could befall Francis down the line vis-à-vis Vladimir Putin. (For that matter, the same accusation can, and has, been lodged against Francis with regard to Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, but that’s ...
Nigerian seminarian Na’aman Danlami burned alive in attack on rectory…
Nigerian seminarian burned alive in attack on rectory Skip to content A Catholic seminarian was burnt to death during an attack on the rectory of his parish in north central Nigeria on Thursday night. Assailants stormed the rectory of St. Raphael parish in the Diocese of Kafanchan at around 8 p.m. Thursday night, diocesan officials said. Seminarian Na’aman Danlami was killed in a rectory fire Sept. 7. Share After breaking through the house gate, the attackers began shooting and forced their way into the house. They failed to gain access to the pastor’s room and then set his car on fire, causing a nearby set of solar batteries to explode, a diocesan official told The Pillar. The pastor, Fr. Emmanuel Okolo, and his assistant, the newly ordained Fr. Monday Noah, escaped, but seminarian ...
‘Where Two or Three Are Gathered, I Am in Their Midst’…
Today’s Gospel makes two major points: the need for fraternal correction and the communal context of prayer and salvation. Jesus speaks about how to correct a brother. Before we even look at Jesus’ three-step process for fraternal correction, let’s first consider the concept of spiritual admonishment. We should consider it because it may seem alien to some modern ears. In saying how to correct a brother who wrongs you, Jesus clearly assumes that there is right and wrong and that someone can do the latter. He also assumes that the other brother recognizes there is right and wrong and that someone is committing the latter. It is not “judgmental” to recognize that there is right and wrong and that people do both. And it is not “judgmental” or even “hypocritical” to point that out. Rather, the...
Forgiveness is hard. Correction is harder. One thing is needed for both…..
Jesus shatters the illusion that we are alone in the Gospel for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. He gives very practical, very difficult advice on forgiveness and prayer that amounts to: We’re all in this together — until we realize that, tragically, we are not. The command to reprimand our friends is one of the most difficult commands of Jesus. Jesus begins today’s advice to his disciples with: “If your brother sins against you, go tell him the fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.” St. John Chrysostom points out what Jesus doesn’t say you should do. “He does not say ‘accuse him’ or ‘punish him’ or ‘take him to court.’ He says ‘correct him.’ … Help him see his indiscretion. Tell him what you have suffered from him.” One possible res...
Like Gentiles or Tax Collectors…
23rd Sunday in Ordinary TimeBy Fr. Victor Feltes Jesus teaches us today about how to practice fraternal correction. In short, if a brother or sister in the Church sins against you, approach him or her privately. If that fails to persuade, come again with one or two others. If that does not work, bring the matter to the Church. And “if he refuses to listen even to the Church,” Jesus says, “then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” Jesus says to treat an obstinately unrepentant Christian like “a Gentile or a tax collector.” What are we to make of this? How would the Jewish crowds hearing Jesus’ preaching treat Gentiles or tax collectors? The Old Covenant kept Jews and Gentiles (that is, non-Jews) separate. For example, archeologists have found stone signs from the Jewish tem...
In Historic First, Church Beatifies Entire Family at Once: Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and Seven Small Children, Martyred by Nazis in 1944…
Operation “Reinhardt,” a program aimed at murdering all of the Jews in Germany-occupied Poland, began to be implemented in the Ulma family’s area of Poland in late July and early August 1942. The Nazis began to deport the roughly 120 Jews in the Markowa area to a labor camp and extermination camp. Approximately 54 Jews in hiding were found and shot on Dec. 14, 1942. An additional 29 Jews continued to hide in Markowa, including the eight who found refuge with the Ulma family. Early on March 24, 1944, a Nazi patrol surrounded the home of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma on the outskirts of Markowa. They discovered the Jewish people hiding on the Ulma farm and executed them. The Nazi police then killed 31-year-old Wiktoria, who was pregnant and in premature labor, and 44-year-old Józef outside their h...
