Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

ewtnnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 473 posts

Re: Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

#331

Post by kstrauser »

randusername wrote: post #329

My old-school protestant pastor started with an AI disclaimer in the sermon yesterday. What a time to be alive! I don't know what to do with my double standard here. It seems totally normal and expected that I would outsource aspects of my job solving business software problems to AI, but the idea of my spirituality and cultural experience (music, movies, art, etc) being someone else's business problem to be outsourc…

I don’t think that’s a double standard. Computers telling computers what to do feels reasonable. Computers telling humans what to feel seems not.

Re: Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

#332

Post by bigstrat2003 »

amelius wrote: post #171

The same pope who declared an influencer boy a saint? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/07/pope-leo-xiv-d... Let's be honest, the entire concept depends on advertising like nothing else.

A saint is someone whom the church believes (based on criteria that aren't worth getting sidetracked on) is in heaven. That's it. It isn't a declaration that the person was perfect, or even better than the rest of us in some way. The goal of the church is that everyone will be a saint some day.

Re: Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

#333

Post by QuesnayJr »

wolvesechoes wrote: post #225
QuesnayJr wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It amazes me that people think this version of events makes the Church sound better, when it makes it sound worse.

It is not about better or worse, it is about correcting myths created later on that were intended to paint the Church as epitome of backwardness. Galileo's affair wasn't about noble scientist going against stupid masses and oppressive institution designed to keep people in dark, while providing strong evidence for revolutionary theory, and being punished for his great genius. But it is often presented like this.

Galileo is a noble scientist going against a Pope who had his fee-fees hurt, which then banned the truth. It doesn't make the Church any less backward.

Re: Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

#334

Post by AdamN »

dfxm12 wrote: post #323
AdamN wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think that happened to me yesterday. We had a new priest (actually retired and visiting) and the homily was 10x more engaging than the normal ones. I fear that the rest of the congregation didn't like that he wasn't using cheap techniques like constant repetition and that the content was more elevated about what was really meant by the authors of part of Genesis.

Why do you fear this? Did you consider discussing this with some of the congregation to know for sure ? I don't mean to pick on you personally, but your comment and the parent comment (among others here) both project feelings across wide groups of people in a hasty generalization. Their feelings could be easily confirmed with human connection. I think the article makes it clear the Pope charges priests with knowing t…

I'm an outsider (not Catholic, raised Methodist) who just happens to be attending church this year; I'm not a member. The church is interesting because it's an immigrant church which is truly global (in Berlin with English speaking people from all over the place).

'Fear' is a strong word but I mean it in the same way as I do when talking about reading comments in the Wall Street Journal- I'm afraid by the realization of who I'm surrounded by in the world. With that said I really, really appreciate the social justice statements I hear from the pulpit and from the congregants.

Re: Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

#335

Post by QuesnayJr »

1718627440 wrote: post #249
QuesnayJr wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It amazes me that people think this version of events makes the Church sound better, when it makes it sound worse.

How so?

Because the Church didn't even have a good theological reason for siding against Galileo. It was a fit of pique.

But people have so completely internalized the idea that truth must bow to power that they think the fact that the Church condemned Galileo's ideas because he was rude somehow exonerates it as an institution.

Re: Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

#336

Post by slfnflctd »

gwbas1c wrote: post #305
chasd00 wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all the homilies i've heard were pre-written but ended with current events... like telling the congregation to not vote for Obama heh. My wife was Catholic until that moment, she never went back after that. This was St. Rita's in Dallas TX.

American religions are supposed to stay out of politics, or they risk their tax-exempt status. For me, the disturbing event was shortly before the 2016 event when a Catholic Church in Lowell MA had posters urging people to vote no on marijuana legalization. (In my case, I smelt the politization when I was a teenager so I never continued being Catholic as an adult.)

Unfortunately, those laws are not currently enforced.

I see another reply is arguing that religion is inherently political. I disagree. Modern politics did not exist at the time the world's major religions were being formed. Attempting to twist them to fit with a particular party or candidate is a terrible idea all around in my book, for many reasons.

The state can cause a lot of damage by endorsing religion, the historical record is overflowing with examples. I'd argue that a religious body endorsing a state is every bit as potentially destructive. The government is at its best when it is neutral on the subject of faith and crafts policy in evidence-based ways that people of all (or at least most) faiths can agree upon. In this situation, there is no reason for a religious organization to promote such a government because their interests are orthogonal. They can cooperate, but there is a clear line between that and acting subservient, or declaring some sort of 'divine mandate' has been bequeathed upon a government institution or official.

Re: Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

#337

Post by 1718627440 »

harimau777 wrote: post #247
lo_zamoyski wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> doing so would be a violation of their vows of silence I don’t know what this means. There is no formal “vow of silence”. The closest things I can think of are the discipline of avoiding unnecessary speech in some monastic communities, or perhaps the seal of confession, but this doesn’t apply as priests can speak in generalities or anonymously about the kinds of moral issues people struggle with. > Good homilies ar…

Catholic priests are forbidden from revealing anything they learn in confession under ANY circumstances. If someone comes in and confesses to a crime or that they are planning a crime, the priest can advise them to go to the police, they can counsel them that they may be in danger of hellfire if they do not, but they absolutely cannot tell anyone. The Catholic Church takes this very seriously. It is fully expected th…

> It is fully expected that a priest would die rather than break the confidentiality of confessions.

And that is not just a theoretical thing. This what e.g. Nepomuk is a saint for and what other priests went for to a concentration camp.

Re: Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

#338

Post by 1718627440 »

anthonypasq wrote: post #320
Tade0 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yesterday I when I was googling something it hit me: I wouldn't know how to find anything without a search engine. We're already reliant on big tech regarding what information is presented to us and LLMs are just the next step in that direction.

i dont remember a world without google but surely the answer is just walk into a library?

Or just look into your own encyclopedia.

Re: Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies

#340

Post by palmotea »

rgblambda wrote: post #109

Not defending the use of AI, but plenty of people who grew up going to Mass on Sunday know that priests often recycle old homilies, deliver lazily written homilies or homilies that were clearly pulled from the internet, or just skip them if they couldn't think of anything that week or are running late for something. Absolute worst was when an intelligent priest put in incredible effort, only for it to go over the hea…

> people who grew up going to Mass on Sunday know that priests often recycle old homilies

That doesn't seem bad? You'd think a lot of the topics would be evergreen, and not everyone would be there for every service. So after an appropriately long time, why not recycle one that worked well?

Post reply on HN