Catholic Answers is a “media ministry that serves Christ by explaining and defending the Catholic faith,” according to their description on X. For Catholic observers, it serves as a good resource for deepening one’s faith and finding clarification on certain Catholic doctrines. However, the site recently introduced a controversial new member to the team: Father Justin, a chatbot “priest” designed to help answer people’s questions about Catholicism. In defense of this AI app, Catholic Answers said,

As a leading Catholic apostolate, Catholic Answers is committed to leveraging the latest technologies to advance its mission of explaining and defending the Catholic faith. The Father Justin app is the latest example of this commitment, providing a new and appealing way for searchers to begin or continue their journey of faith.

The pushback promptly commenced from Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Users soon discovered that Father Justin was offering absolution for sins, something that in the Catholic tradition, only an actual priest is supposed to give during one’s private confession. Others wondered why Catholic Answers hadn’t simply made an AI search engine, like Microsoft uses and which collects and presents various Internet resources in a digestible manner. But no, Father Justin just had to be rendered as an avatar, because artificial intelligence is the “latest technology” and it would defy the mission of this organization to forego its use for spiritual purposes.

Writer Leah Libresco Sargeant wrote on X,

When someone comes forth with questions about the Church, they deserve to hear the truth in love. An AI chatbot pretending to be a priest can’t be reliably trained to speak the truth. And it will *always* offer the counter-witness that the seeker wasn’t worth a human’s time.

AI’s hype curve has coopted even the most unlikely of organizations. The question, of course, is whether a place like Catholic Answers needs its own personalized bot. Based on the many comments on X, there seems to be an almost gut-level reaction against using AI in this kind of role. It’s another example of assuming that just because the technology is sophisticated, new, and has “potential,” it has to be wrangled and channeled for positive ends. Sometimes, though, the form the medium takes precludes its use for good. Perhaps nonprofits like Catholic Answers can breathe a sigh of relief in recalling that the centerpiece of their ministry is connection, both human and divine. Soulless avatars might end up driving folks away in the end.