Weekly insight and thoughts from Fr. Damian Zuerlein
Pastor’s Letter 9.13.26
Dear Friends, In spite of all the challenges, Pope Leo does not give up hope. Here are some of his concrete suggestions for us as we move to create a better world: At this point, however, a subtle temptation may emerge, namely the thought that the problems are too big...
Pastor’s Letter 9.6.26
Dear Friends, One of the concerns about the use of AI in combat is what Pope Leo says is the growing belief that war is simply an inevitable part of human nature. He says one of the conclusions from this erroneous belief is the loss of our desire to search for and...
Pastor’s Letter 8.29.26
Dear Friends, I am delighted to hear that a good number of Cabrini parishioners have decided to read Pope Leo’s full encyclical. Yay! I think I am covering the high points, but even better to read the full letter for yourselves. As you can see from my highlights, Pope...
Pastor’s Letter 8.23.26
Dear Friends, Before Pope Leo gets into the challenge of using AI in war he offers an overview of the recent history of war. While not directly speaking to AI at this point in his encyclical, it is worth reading his summary: In 1965, the words of Saint Paul VI...
Pastors Letter 8.16.26
Dear Friends, Pope Leo has generated a bit of controversy among the political class in the United States because of his opposition to the war we are waging against Iran. I am not sure why his opposition was a surprise to Trump and his team. Years earlier, St....
Pastor’s Letter 8.9.26
Dear Friends, In the last part of Chapter Four, Pope Leo discusses the possible new forms of slavery brought about by AI. When he does so, he acknowledges the sad role the church played in the history of human slavery and seeks pardon for it: Yet neither can we deny...
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...