Babel or Jerusalem? Where the Church Is Behind the Curve on AI

Pope Leo on AI, War, and the Culture of Power

Pope Leo's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, devotes its most unsettling chapter to war, peace, and the "culture of power" that AI is quietly accelerating. In Panel 2 of our 3-part series, Edmund Mitchell sits down with three expert guests who carry this question between worlds that usually don't speak to each other: Taylor Black — Director of AI and Venture Ecosystems at Microsoft; Founding Executive Director of the Leonine Institute for AI and Emerging Technologies at the Catholic University of America; deacon candidate Julianne Stanz — Director of Outreach for Evangelization and Discipleship at Loyola Press; consultant to the U.S. Bishops on Catechesis; coined "tabernacle with feet" at the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress Fr. Philip Larrey — Professor of Philosophy at Boston College, formerly Dean of Philosophy at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome; author of Connected World and Artificial Humanity; a longtime dialogue between the Holy See and Silicon Valley We dig into: — Why Pope Leo refuses to be either a Luddite or a technologist — "AI is not neutral" — and why it's also not intrinsically evil — The three refusals: false realism, manichaeism, and the belief that war is inevitable — Why three commencement speakers were booed in a single week for mentioning AI — Autonomous weapons, "tactical nukes," and the crisis of multilateralism — The Rome Call for AI Ethics, Anthropic at the Vatican, and what's actually happening behind closed doors — Why Pope Leo says AI cannot make a moral decision — AGI in four years? Five? Ever? — Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Demis Hassabis, and what a philosopher tells worried students — Taylor's 50-page prompt and "metacognitive strategies" — what it actually looks like to use AI well — Mary as poet and prophetess: how the encyclical closes — And the line that quietly anchors the whole document: "The first contribution we can make toward a more humane civilization is to be mindful of our words." This is Panel 2 of three. To watch Panel 1 (Matthew Harvey Sanders, Dr. Brett Robinson, Fr. Jean Gové) click the link below. CHAPTERS 00:00 Opening prayer and welcome 01:14 Introducing Taylor, Julianne, and Fr. Philip 06:25 First impressions of Magnifica Humanitas 09:55 Three chapters of anthropology  11:30 "Idolatry of AI" and "demonizing it"  15:48 Why three commencement speakers were booed 18:32 Gen Z's nose for the inauthentic 22:23 Fear, the pocketbook, and the builder mindset 27:34 Tower of Babel vs. New Jerusalem 28:30 What's happened between 2020 and 2026 in tech + the Vatican 34:00 Realism is not resignation 38:45 The Rome Call, Anthropic, and the Eastern anthropology 43:17 The crisis of multilateralism, drones, and Italy's two boxes 47:32 The conditions that lead to war 52:03 Can we actually change the corporations racing to AGI? 54:24 The line between good and evil runs through every human heart 57:00 Why AI cannot make a moral decision 59:01 "Disarm your words"  01:04:28 The Trinity, large language models, and Aquinas 01:08:49 Mary, the Word, and a narrative of hope 01:13:12 What is AGI? 01:21:39 Practical: how do you actually use AI as a Catholic? 01:23:06 Taylor's 50-page prompt and metacognitive strategies 01:30:01 Agentic AI and why YOU are still the responsible party 01:35:12 Closing thoughts: read the document; understand the tech LINKS Panel 1 with Matthew Harvey Sanders, Dr. Brett Robinson, Fr. Jean Gové: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P6SYsm_kto [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P6SYsm_kto] Leonine Institute for AI and Emerging Technologies: https://leonum.catholic.edu/ [https://leonum.catholic.edu/] Loyola Press: https://www.loyolapress.com/ [https://www.loyolapress.com/] Fr. Philip Larrey's Artificial Humanity: https://philiplarrey.com/publications/artificial-humanity/ [https://philiplarrey.com/publications/artificial-humanity/] The Rome Call for AI Ethics: https://www.romecall.org/ [https://www.romecall.org/] This episode is brought to you by ParishStaq by Pushpay — the comprehensive parish platform built for Catholic parishes. Schedule a live demo at https://pushpay.com/ [https://pushpay.com/] #PopeLeo #MagnificaHumanitas #FaithAndAI #CatholicAI #AGI Learn more and access free resources at faithandaiproject.com [https://faithandaiproject.com/].

Babel or Jerusalem? Where the Church Is Behind the Curve on AI

Pope Leo's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, turns in its third chapter — "Technology and Dominance" — to the hardest question AI forces on us: are we standing on a Tower of Babel that's destined to fall, or can the thing be rebuilt brick by brick? In the final panel of our 3-part series, Edmund Mitchell sits down with three expert guests who live this tension from worlds that rarely meet: a frontier-lab AI safety leader, a Catholic builder who bootstrapped a nine-figure AI company, and a Harvard formation scholar: Andrew DeBerry — President of Arimathea Investing; founding member of the Catholic Digital Commons Foundation and SENT Ventures; Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserves for the Pentagon's AI policy office; has led responsible-AI teams at Microsoft, Amazon, Google X, and Meta John Johnson — Founder and CEO of Patmos Hosting, a bootstrapped, profitable AI data-center company that owns its infrastructure "down to the dirt"; founder of the Albertus Magnus Institute; wrote his thesis on the beatific epistemology of St. Thomas Aquinas Letty Garcia — Director of the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School; MTS from Harvard Divinity School; Diploma in Ignatian Spirituality from the Gregorian University in Rome; doctoral studies in adult learning and leadership at Columbia's Teachers College We dig into: — "Pope Light" (a Luddite) of "Pope Ultra" (a doomer) — Why it's a recovery document, not a regulations document — The Tower of Babel vs. Nehemiah: patch the windows, or get off the tower and build from the ground up? — "AI is cultivated, not built" (#98)  — Counterfeit personhood: why "you can't baptize the machine" — Throwing rocks at Silicon Valley, or funding the windows? —  Building a profitable nine-figure AI company — What secular AI safety already knows that the Church hasn't engaged — Ignatian discernment and the discomfort AI is designed to remove — Why a machine has no will — Owning the sandbox: open source, GitHub, and a Catholic Digital   Commons — The warning against "technical salvation"  — The Catholic "love robot"  — "Remember your dignity, O Christian"  CHAPTERS 00:00 Landing the series with "Technology and Dominance" 01:30 Letty: the real thread is formation and co-responsibility 03:00 The canon-lawyer-and-mathematician Pope 04:14 John: "Pope Classic"  08:22 A recovery document, not a regulations document 09:10 Don't read it as "can I use AI or not" 12:24 The historical moment  14:50 Change management and "move the movable" 16:20 What does secular AI safety know that Catholics don't? 23:20 The Patmos model  27:10 "Don't fund the windows"  34:10 AI is "cultivated, not built" 37:00 The call: deep research + discernment 39:40 Counterfeit personhood  42:23 Human freedom, writing an "AI covenant" for your home 44:50 Open source, GitHub, and a Catholic Digital Commons 49:50 Ignatian discernment for the AI black box 55:20 Shaping the experience  59:00 The "Catholic love robot"  1:02:20 Tool vs. relationship 1:03:50 Faith-informed design principles 1:06:00 A moral compass is the will 1:08:32 Objective truth, benchmarks, and a hybrid future 1:10:50 Beware "technical salvation"  1:16:40 Disarming our words and the civilization of love 1:21:10 "Bring the stone" 1:26:48 Closing: Babel or Jerusalem? This episode was made possible by ParishStaq by Pushpay. Ministry moves fast. ParishStaq by Pushpay keeps your team a step ahead — with giving, engagement, and parish management all in one Catholic-built platform. So you spend less time on software and more time with your people. Schedule a live demo today at https://pushpay.com/ [https://pushpay.com/] #PopeLeo #MagnificaHumanitas #FaithAndAI #CatholicAI #TowerOfBabel Learn more and access free resources at faithandaiproject.com [https://faithandaiproject.com/].

Magnifica Humanitas: Human Dignity, Work, and Freedom in the Age of AI

Pope Leo's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, just dropped and it goes harder on AI, capitalism, and human dignity than anyone expected. Is this just a regulation document? Or is this document a call for Catholics to recover and embrace a deeper understanding of Catholic Social Teaching?  In the first of our 3-part series, Edmund Mitchell sits down with three Catholic experts working at the front lines of AI to discuss chapter five of the Pope’s new encyclical. 🟠 Expert Panelists Matthew Harvey Sanders Founder & CEO of Longbeard, creator of Magisterium AI (deployed in 190+ countries, 50 languages) Dr. Brett Robinson  Director, Church Communication Ecology Program,McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame Fr. Jean Gové Diocesan Coordinator for AI, Archdiocese of Malta; author of Malta's 2026 position paper on the ethical adoption of AI; Holy See representative at the Council of Europe on AI 🟠 We dig into: — Why the Pope refuses to call AI "just a tool" — "AI is not neutral" — what that actually means for the average user — Whether the EU AI Act and the Vatican are using the same words to   mean different things — Why "becoming more human" is the litmus test Pope Leo keeps coming   back to — Why Anthropic sent Chris Olah and Amanda Askell to the encyclical's   launch (and what that signals) — Two practical questions to ask before opening any AI tool — Digital sobriety, the family, and what the early Christian   communities can teach us about living in a saturated AI environment — Tower of Babel vs. the New Jerusalem — the recurring frame Pope Leo   uses to read our moment This is the first of three panel conversations on Magnifica Humanitas. Subscribe so you don't miss Panels 2 and 3, dropping later this week. 🟠 CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome + introducing the panel 05:00 First impressions of Magnifica Humanitas 10:00 "The Pope didn't pull his punches" 13:00 Why AI is not neutral 16:00 Tool vs. environment  21:00 Can education alone fix this?  26:00 What does human flourishing actually look like? 35:00 The EU AI Act vs. the Vatican on "human dignity" 44:00 Should chatbots have to announce themselves? 52:00 Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, the "martyrs of everyday life" 01:04:00 Digital sobriety, the family, and parish life 01:11:00 Babel, Pentecost, and the bitrate of Christ 01:22:00 Fr. Gové's two questions for any AI interaction 01:25:00 Why it matters WHO is building these systems 01:29:00 Brett's practical shifts as an educator (and a parent) 🟠 LINKS — Magisterium AI: https://magisterium.com — McGrath Institute for Church Life: https://mcgrath.nd.edu — Archdiocese of Malta Position Paper on AI: https://ms.knisja.mt/AI/Ethical_Adoption_of_AI.pdf This episode is brought to you by ParishStaq by Pushpay — the comprehensive parish platform built for Catholic parishes. Schedule a live demo at https://pushpay.com #PopeLeo #MagnificaHumanitas #FaithAndAI #CatholicAI Learn more and access free resources at faithandaiproject.com [https://faithandaiproject.com/].

Where Are You Going, Humanity? The Vatican's New AI Document Explained

The Vatican just dropped a major document on AI, transhumanism, and the future of humanity titled: "Quo Vadis Humanitas?" In this episode, we sit down with Fr. Michael Baggot, a bioethicist based in Rome who specializes in transhumanism and emerging technology, to unpack what the International Theological Commission is saying about digital culture as a living environment, brain-computer interfaces, mind uploading, and why the Church insists the body matters more than ever. Three years in the making, this document is the Church reading the signs of the times and it has a lot to say. Learn more and access free resources at faithandaiproject.com [https://faithandaiproject.com/].

How AI Environments Change Us with Dr. Brett Robinson

In this episode of The Faith & AI Project Podcast, Dr. Brett Robinson reframes the AI conversation: it’s not just about whether a chatbot gives the “right” answers, but about what kind of environment AI creates and how that environment forms our attention, imagination, and relationships over time. We talk about “communication ecology,” why tech is never neutral, how these tools quietly reshape education and discipleship, and what a distinctly Catholic response could look like when we take formation seriously. If you’ve ever felt torn between AI hype and AI panic, this conversation offers a wiser path forward and a better set of questions for the Church to ask. Learn more and access free resources at faithandaiproject.com [https://faithandaiproject.com/].