August 6, http://www.tribtimes.com
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William Zambrano MD
Aug 5, 2025, 5:16:28 PMAug 5
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(Mat 24:23-25) Then if any man shall say to you, Lo here is Christ, or there: do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.
POPE LEO XIV: “Remember: no algorithm will ever replace an embrace, a look, a real encounter—not with God, not with our friends, not with our families. Think of Mary!”
FIRST THINGS EDITORIAL: Why the Catholic Church’s Voice on AI Could Be the Most Consequential
RELIGION NEWS: Pope Leo is focused on AI. What should his guidance offer the world?
From the start of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV signaled his interest — and concern — over the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence, prompting many Vatican observers to believe a major papal document might be coming to address autonomous systems and their impact on humanity.
The Vatican has been carefully observing the rise of AI, which has made dramatic leaps just this year. The new version of ChatGPT, released by OpenAI in February, claims improved emotional understanding, and Google’s AlphaEvolve is creatively solving mathematical problems. Google’s Veo 3 creates state-of-the-art AI videos with synched audio. AI-controlled F-16s are now rivaling human pilots, and China is deploying intelligent robots to do an increasing number of tasks, from waiting tables to providing health care. Experts say Artificial General Intelligence — machines capable of simulating human reasoning — may be only a few years away.
A mathematician, canon lawyer and theologian, Pope Leo has shown he understands the stakes. Speaking to cardinals in the Sistine Chapel only 48 hours after his election, he said he was inspired to take the name Leo to follow in the footsteps of Leo XIII, who in 1891 issued “Rerum Novarum” (“On Revolutions”) to address the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution.
“In our own day, the church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” the pope said.
CNA: ‘Media nuns’ urge AI mindfulness: ‘Human beings create, machines only generate’
EXCERPT THE CATHOLIC THING: Some Ethics of Some AI
Let’s make perhaps the best case for AI. Two days ago, Mark Zuckerberg revealed his vision of AI as playing the role of a “person superintelligence” for everyone:
If trends continue, then you’d expect people to spend less time in productivity software, and more time creating and connecting. Personal superintelligence that knows us deeply, understands our goals, and can help us achieve them will be by far the most useful. Personal devices like glasses that understand our context because they can see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day will become our primary computing devices.
He envisions a social network where persons interact in a heightened way, in real life, with the help of AI, rather than in the “flat” way found online in Facebook.
It would be easy to tailor Zuckerberg’s “personal superintelligence” to the life of a devout Catholic. Your own personal AI assistant could compose a daily schedule for you, which prioritized time for prayer. It could plan your movements so that you passed by churches and could easily attend Mass. It would remind you to say the Angelus at noon and do a general examination before bed.
It could suggest spiritual reading for you, or, better, send to your tablet the spiritual reading that it “heard” your spiritual advisor recommend. It would remind you of name days, and feast days, and significant dates for friends and relatives – even composing greetings for you to send easily by text or email.
Who knows, after lots of training on the sermons of Fulton Sheen, Ronald Knox, and others, it might even generate new meditations, to help you pray. It might whisper ejaculatory prayers to you throughout the day. (“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”)
In your conversations it might prompt you, through an earpiece, to say appropriate apostolic things. In your actions, if you had any doubts about what to do, it could give sound advice, by bringing to bear all of the casuistry it had been trained upon.
Would we be better off with such a personal superintelligence helping us?
Sed contra: But we already have a personal superintelligence as an assistant, known as a “guardian angel,” who adopts a rather strong “hands off” policy. Our angel allows us to fail repeatedly through negligence, clearly wishing that we grow in all of these things, slowly, on our own.
If our guardian angel does none of these things except sometimes, with a very light touch, in response to a deliberate request, then neither should we want an AI assistant to help us with them.
The relevant philosophical point is that doing (“acting”) is different from making. And tools have their main use in making. Insofar as we use a tool for simply living, we treat ourselves as if we are other than ourselves. We need to become good in who we are, which is even prior to what we do.
THE CATHOLIC REGISTER: Choose your AI path wisely There are two divergent roads — the golden path or the dark path
Ladder of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 1- "On Renunciation of the World"
13. The man who renounces the world from fear is like burning incense, that begins with fragrance but ends in smoke. He who leaves the world through hope of reward is like a millstone, that always moves in the same way. But he who withdraws from the world out of love for God has obtained fire at the very outset; and, like fire set to fuel, it soon kindles a larger fire.
"Have ANY Catholic Question? Just ask Ron Smith at: hfmin...@roadrunner.com
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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: https://bibleinayearonline.com/august-oyb/?version=63&startmmdd=0101
August 6, 2025(Mat 24:23-25) Then if any man shall say to you, Lo here is Christ, or there: do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.
POPE LEO XIV: “Remember: no algorithm will ever replace an embrace, a look, a real encounter—not with God, not with our friends, not with our families. Think of Mary!”
FIRST THINGS EDITORIAL: Why the Catholic Church’s Voice on AI Could Be the Most Consequential
RELIGION NEWS: Pope Leo is focused on AI. What should his guidance offer the world?
From the start of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV signaled his interest — and concern — over the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence, prompting many Vatican observers to believe a major papal document might be coming to address autonomous systems and their impact on humanity.
The Vatican has been carefully observing the rise of AI, which has made dramatic leaps just this year. The new version of ChatGPT, released by OpenAI in February, claims improved emotional understanding, and Google’s AlphaEvolve is creatively solving mathematical problems. Google’s Veo 3 creates state-of-the-art AI videos with synched audio. AI-controlled F-16s are now rivaling human pilots, and China is deploying intelligent robots to do an increasing number of tasks, from waiting tables to providing health care. Experts say Artificial General Intelligence — machines capable of simulating human reasoning — may be only a few years away.
A mathematician, canon lawyer and theologian, Pope Leo has shown he understands the stakes. Speaking to cardinals in the Sistine Chapel only 48 hours after his election, he said he was inspired to take the name Leo to follow in the footsteps of Leo XIII, who in 1891 issued “Rerum Novarum” (“On Revolutions”) to address the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution.
“In our own day, the church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” the pope said.
CNA: ‘Media nuns’ urge AI mindfulness: ‘Human beings create, machines only generate’
EXCERPT THE CATHOLIC THING: Some Ethics of Some AI
Let’s make perhaps the best case for AI. Two days ago, Mark Zuckerberg revealed his vision of AI as playing the role of a “person superintelligence” for everyone:
If trends continue, then you’d expect people to spend less time in productivity software, and more time creating and connecting. Personal superintelligence that knows us deeply, understands our goals, and can help us achieve them will be by far the most useful. Personal devices like glasses that understand our context because they can see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day will become our primary computing devices.
He envisions a social network where persons interact in a heightened way, in real life, with the help of AI, rather than in the “flat” way found online in Facebook.
It would be easy to tailor Zuckerberg’s “personal superintelligence” to the life of a devout Catholic. Your own personal AI assistant could compose a daily schedule for you, which prioritized time for prayer. It could plan your movements so that you passed by churches and could easily attend Mass. It would remind you to say the Angelus at noon and do a general examination before bed.
It could suggest spiritual reading for you, or, better, send to your tablet the spiritual reading that it “heard” your spiritual advisor recommend. It would remind you of name days, and feast days, and significant dates for friends and relatives – even composing greetings for you to send easily by text or email.
Who knows, after lots of training on the sermons of Fulton Sheen, Ronald Knox, and others, it might even generate new meditations, to help you pray. It might whisper ejaculatory prayers to you throughout the day. (“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”)
In your conversations it might prompt you, through an earpiece, to say appropriate apostolic things. In your actions, if you had any doubts about what to do, it could give sound advice, by bringing to bear all of the casuistry it had been trained upon.
Would we be better off with such a personal superintelligence helping us?
Sed contra: But we already have a personal superintelligence as an assistant, known as a “guardian angel,” who adopts a rather strong “hands off” policy. Our angel allows us to fail repeatedly through negligence, clearly wishing that we grow in all of these things, slowly, on our own.
If our guardian angel does none of these things except sometimes, with a very light touch, in response to a deliberate request, then neither should we want an AI assistant to help us with them.
The relevant philosophical point is that doing (“acting”) is different from making. And tools have their main use in making. Insofar as we use a tool for simply living, we treat ourselves as if we are other than ourselves. We need to become good in who we are, which is even prior to what we do.
THE CATHOLIC REGISTER: Choose your AI path wisely There are two divergent roads — the golden path or the dark path
Ladder of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 1- "On Renunciation of the World"
13. The man who renounces the world from fear is like burning incense, that begins with fragrance but ends in smoke. He who leaves the world through hope of reward is like a millstone, that always moves in the same way. But he who withdraws from the world out of love for God has obtained fire at the very outset; and, like fire set to fuel, it soon kindles a larger fire.
Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerR...@aol.com
"Have ANY Catholic Question? Just ask Ron Smith at: hfmin...@roadrunner.com
This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.
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