The title of the recent Catechetic Summer School for religious education teachers in secondary schools, »Christian Anthropology in an Age of Epochal Changes«, demonstrates that religious education is not spared by the digital revolution. While religious education teachers in Zagreb were considering the serious ethical challenges that AI brings to all Christians, we decided to examine its direct impact on religious education and parish catechesis with the help of a »media nun«. This is the name by which the Daughters of St. Paul are known, whose Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles is led by communication and catechesis expert Dr. Sr. Nancy Usselmann. In anticipation of the new religious academic and catechetical year, our interlocutor, a promoter of media awareness, looked at the opportunities the digital environment brings to religious formation. But she also warned about the importance of media fasting, revealing how “media nuns” teach young people to pray through film.
Every new technology ushers in changes in how we interact, connect, and learn, especially in the digital era. It requires adaptation to not only changes in technologies, but also changes in how children grow up in the digital culture. New technologies adjust our understanding of human and machine interaction, which generates more participative and intuitive learning.
Catechesis can embrace the more emotional and intuitive style of learning through digital storytelling. Younger generations are engaged through spontaneous and participatory experiences. Catechesis is about making faith integral to everyday life. And our everyday life is a digital life. It is a call for the Church to integrate catechesis with media use so that faith becomes a lived reality in the digital age.
AI developments require human beings to slow down and reflect on why we’re engaging with this technology and for what purpose. Not every AI app supports human dignity and human creativity. Media mindfulness is media literacy informed by faith values. This means that every time we interact with an AI platform, we need to ask critical questions about whether it upholds Christian ethical principles or diminishes human development. Technology is a tool. It’s a matter of what we do with it. If we use it to exploit others, then we are not living a Christian life. But, if we use it to support human work and the Church’s evangelizing mission, such as those apps that give accurate Catholic responses based on Church teaching, then they are amazing tools to communicate the Gospel.
I wouldn’t say that media addiction is particularly threatening to faith formation. It is a threat to the human person, first of all. Social media and games are created to keep our attention, and so can be addictive for those who are already feeling lonely, isolated, or who struggle with emotional or mental issues. All of us have probably at one point recognized that our digital devices consume our time and attention, and so need to step back to assess. Children do not have developed brains to know how to discern when something is addictive. They need parents and teachers to guide them to be critical discerners and aware of the ideologies present in various media messages. I often suggest periodic media fasting as a mental and spiritual practice that helps us retain balance in the digital culture. In fact, I wrote a book called Media Fasting: Six Weeks to Recharge in Christ to promote this practice in the culture.
What does the media apostolate of the Daughters of St. Paul encompass?
The recharging mentioned in the title of your book undoubtedly points to digital emptiness. Are we at risk of sliding toward a lonesome, virtual spirituality?
Regarding catechesis, if we are truly leading people to have a deep and profound relationship with Christ, then everything we do in faith formation must lead people to the liturgy and the ecclesial community. The Church’s liturgy is where we leave behind our digital worlds and enter the sacred to recover our humanity. When we leave the church, we are sent forth to go and humanize the digital environments we inhabit. Our catechesis needs to lead people to be good stewards of these »gifts of God« and so »seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God,« (Col 3:1) as St. Paul says.
Without discernment and media mindfulness, children are susceptible to turning to AI technology for emotional support rather than as a guide for learning. This is a challenge for the Church to reach out to help parents and teachers set guidelines for their children’s media use and to consider age-appropriate devices.
If AI chatbots are replacing authentic human relationships, then there is a need to address the underlying emotional and psychological issues of the children. AI mimics human understanding and intelligence, but it cannot replace human love and affection. It is important that in faith formation, a clear distinction is made between our relationship with God and others and our interactions with machines.
The dignity of personhood cannot be replaced by an algorithm. Catechetical formation must express the beauty of Christian anthropology that emphasizes the uniqueness of the human intellect and freedom of the will since we are made body and soul in God’s image.
Even with all the challenges it presents, AI can be used in faith formation. AI can help seek out answers to questions about the Church’s teachings through platforms such as Magisterium AI, or apps like Truthly. These AI chatbots respond to prompts with accurate Church teaching and offer footnotes with sources, something most chatbots do not include. These AI platforms can enhance learning and understanding of the faith.
Parents are the first teachers and help to shape children’s moral consciousness. The digital culture requires parents to not only parent their children but also parent the media they engage with. That means open communication with their children about the media and its messages. Parents need to be attentive to age-appropriate devices and media experiences and be aware of the effects of early screen use on brain development. There is a plethora of quality and educational media for children. When parents watch and play various media with their children, they can use those experiences as teachable moments by helping kids grow in faith-inspired discernment.
Everything created in some ways reflects the Creator. Artificial intelligence is created by human beings who are made in God’s image and likeness, and so therefore is a product of God’s gift that inhabits the human soul. As the Church document Antiqua et Nova states, “AI is but a pale reflection of humanity” (105). It is fallible and is not a substitute for God (105). However, grace is present everywhere, even in the popular media culture, if we have a mystical lens to see it. If we begin with this principle, then we develop a sacramental imagination that sees symbols and signs as pointing to transcendent realities. The symbols present in current media stories, such as film, streaming series, video games, social media, and even AI, can give us a clue to the deepest human yearnings and desires, which are ultimately for God.
The more we engage children to be critical thinkers and reflective engagers of the media from a faith perspective, the more they learn to integrate their faith with their everyday lives, including their digital experience.
Catholic educators and catechists are called to reflectively embrace technologies based on the Church’s teachings, especially in the document Antiqua et Nova. It inspires caution in the faithful to not make an idol of AI, but to embrace it wisely and with spiritual awareness as a complement to human intelligence. The more mindful we are of our media use, the less chance it will generate an interior restlessness that disturbs the mind and the soul. Embracing new technologies requires an intense spiritual life so that we use them as tools that promote human dignity and assist in human understanding, and not replace it. Catholic educators can be the ethical voice in a world that rushes into every new digital endeavor, through the practice of media mindfulness and faith-based critical thinking.
