{"id":485604,"date":"2026-10-05T09:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485604\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:28:09","slug":"vatican-tech-advisor-tells-la-priests-to-engage-with-ai-carefully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485604\/","title":{"rendered":"Vatican tech advisor tells LA priests to engage with AI carefully"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the questions around artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) continue to swirl in our everyday lives, Father Brendan McGuire \u2014 a former Silicon Valley engineer and tech executive-turned-priest \u2014 challenged priests in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to \u201cnot sit on the sidelines\u201d and to prepare for the societal transformation through AI that is already underway.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of humanity is on the line,\u201d McGuire told priests during the archdiocese\u2019s annual Presbyteral Day gathering Sept. 28. \u201cThis is not a moment where we can fall. You, as the leaders in the Catholic world of LA, you need to be really struggling with this and work with this stuff. You cannot stand on the sidelines. This is not the time to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuire\u2019s wide-ranging presentation inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels\u2019 conference center touched on how AI models work, how and when they can be used effectively for ministry, and what to make of growing fears that AI may wipe out humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t ignore what they\u2019re saying,\u201d McGuire said of recent statements from Silicon Valley tech workers expressing alarm over AI safety. \u201cBecause what they\u2019re seeing, the emerging behaviors, is frightening them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s probable. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s impossible. What I don\u2019t want to do is wait to find out what the percentage is. We need guardrails.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A copy of Pope Leo XIV\u2019s first encyclical, \u201cMagnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.\u201d (CNS\/Lola Gomez)<\/p>\n

McGuire, a native of Ireland, worked as a tech executive in Silicon Valley before pursuing the priesthood for the Diocese of San Jose, where he now ministers as pastor of St. Simon Church in Los Altos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McGuire has helped bring the Catholic Church\u2019s voice to the attention of tech companies, including helping shape Anthropic\u2019s Claude AI system\u2019s governing document. He\u2019s also one of the founders of the Institute for Technology, Ethics, and Culture<\/a> at Santa Clara University, which partners with the Vatican\u2019s Dicastery for Culture and Education.<\/p>\n

McGuire pointed to Pope Leo XIV\u2019s encyclical, \u201cMagnifica Humanitas<\/a>\u201d (\u201cMagnificent Humanity\u201d) \u2014 which he helped introduce to the global press last May \u2014 as a guiding document to bring the dignity of humans into the AI discussion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been serving technology, and [Leo] wants technology to serve us again,\u201d said McGuire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the encyclical, Leo invokes two contrasting biblical construction projects, the Tower of Babel of Genesis and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem described by the prophet Nehemiah, as the choice facing humanity today: \u201cBetween constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In finding that harmony between humanity and AI, McGuire believes there\u2019s still time for religious leaders to make a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is the wall that we\u2019re still building, the mortar is still wet,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can build this wall. But what I\u2019ve seen developed in the last year alone, I can tell you that the mortar is drying out fast. That\u2019s not to frighten you, but to give you a sense of urgency for this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuire was clear that AI development needed a \u201cslowdown\u201d and accountability, despite seeming evidence that the small handful of companies and investors don\u2019t seem interested in that.<\/p>\n

\"\"Father Michael Croghan, associate pastor at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in Lomita, prays vespers with more than 500 other priests serving in the Archdiocese of LA at Presbyteral Day. (Pablo Kay)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a handful of elites that are making decisions for all humanity,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cThat is not acceptable to us. We cannot allow that power. We need to engage, we need to get our people to engage and to demand guardrails, to demand transparency, to demand participation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the AI discussion wasn\u2019t all doom and gloom. \u201cNow that I\u2019ve scared you a little bit, I want to give you some hope,\u201d McGuire said.<\/p>\n

Several times, McGuire asked the priests to reflect on questions about AI, including how they used it, where they\u2019ve already seen AI in their parishes, and what reassurances or concerns they had.<\/p>\n

The answers ranged from thoughtful to humorous to heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

One priest shared that he asked ChatGPT to give him the liturgical calendar in a clear format, and it gave him the wrong date for Easter.<\/p>\n

Another priest shared that he was surprised that he could argue with his chatbot and how easily it would concede.<\/p>\n

Another priest said that while ministering on a major university campus, he met students who were already using AI as their therapist, asking it for emotional support, life decisions, and financial assistance.<\/p>\n

The slippery slope of using AI to write homilies also came up. McGuire cautioned against simply prompting: \u201cWrite me a homily for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe preaching of the word of God is the single most important part of our responsibility [in the liturgy],\u201d McGuire said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just showing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut make sure it\u2019s yours. Make sure it\u2019s not the machine. It has to be your stories. It has to be your people, in your pew, because if not, they\u2019re going to see it and they\u2019re going to feel it. And the pope is pleading with you to not do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the doomsday scenarios, McGuire told priests that an AI transformation was already taking place, and that they would have to be ready for the imminent ramifications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking you to discern,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m asking you to make this part of your new vocabulary and discernment. I understand that\u2019s new work, it\u2019s hard work, and it doesn\u2019t feel pastoral. But it will be pastoral, trust me, because you will be dealing with people\u2019s problems in every aspect of society in the next decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a doomsday. That\u2019s reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"author<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMike Cisneros is the associate editor of Angelus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the questions around artificial intelligence (AI) continue to swirl in our everyday lives, Father Brendan McGuire \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-485604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}