Weekly insight and thoughts from Fr. Damian Zuerlein
Pastor’s Letter 8.2.26
Dear Friends, Before ChatGPT and other AI options hit the market in 2022, many people believed that what made humans special was our capacity to solve abstract problems. Now we have software on our phones capable of doing this better and faster than we can. While...
Pastor’s Letter 7.26.26
Dear Friends, You might be wondering how much more Pope Leo wrote in his letter to us? Be assured, in this weekly letter, I have only hit the important points of the first three chapters. We have two more chapters to go. It may take us through the remaining Sundays of...
Pastor’s Letter 7.19.26
Dear Friends, Back in 1970, when I was a sophomore in high school, Alvin Toffler and his wife wrote a book entitled Future Shock to describe what happens to societies and people when too much social change happens too quickly. Toffler died in 2016 but had predicted...
Pastor’s Letter 7.12.26
Dear Friends, As Pope Leo begins his discussion on AI itself, he qualifies the meaning of intelligence. That paragraph has generated the most discussion worldwide: It is not possible to provide a single, comprehensive definition of AI. What can be stated, however, is...
Pastor’s Letter 7.5.26
Dear Friends, After the first two chapters of his encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, where Pope Leo reviews the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, he begins the core of this letter – the new challenge of Artificial Intelligence. The first question you and others...
Pastor’s Letter 6.28.26
Dear Friends, The teacher in me desires to have everyone read the first two chapters of Pope Leo’s encyclical which does such a great job of summarizing the Social Doctrine of the Church. Given that this wish is not likely to be realized, let me give you Pope Leo’s...
Pastor’s Letter 6.21.26
Dear Friends, I will continue with an overview of Pope Leo’s encyclical on AI in a moment, but first I want to reflect briefly upon what Pope Leo did Saturday. According to his schedule on the Vatican website, while visiting Northern Italy, he is to go by car to the...
Pastor’s Letter 6.14.26
Dear Friends, Some of our neighbors who are not Catholic may find it odd that the Holy Father has written an encyclical on the challenges humanity faces with the use of AI. Some of his critics do not think he has gone far enough and suggest he state that AI is always...
Pastor’s Letter 6.7.26
Dear Friends, In this, our moment in history, as humanity faces something totally new, Pope Leo has given us a teaching to guide us with a wisdom born of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Father signed Magnifica Humanitas on May 15, 2026, the 135th anniversary of Rerum...
Pastor’s Letter 5.31.26
Dear Friends, Today, we celebrate in our Sunday Liturgies the Most Holy Trinity. It is an annual feast in the Church’s calendar. While the Doctrine of the Trinity was solidified at the Council of Nicea in 325, no specific feast was dedicated to the teaching until...
Pastor’s Letter 5.24.26
Dear Friends, Happy Pentecost!!! The descent of the Holy Spirit upon us is a major event in the history of the Universe. God did not only come to visit humanity once in the person of Jesus but has chosen through the Spirit to make his dwelling among us. You may recall...
Pastor’s Letter 5.17.26
Dear Friends, This is the time of year for graduation talks. I have given way too many of them over the years and heard more than my share of them as well. Occasionally, there is one that has a new or creative approach that will grab my attention and make me think...