October 30, 2024 // National

News Briefs: November 3, 2024

Scholars, Theologians, Tech Leaders Talk AI Ethics

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church has a valuable role to play in providing “clear moral leadership” to protect humanity from the negative impact of new technology, a leading AI researcher said under the vaulted ceiling of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences headquarters in the Vatican Gardens. “You could have made so much money on human cloning; the Catholic Church came out against it, all countries are against it, it’s illegal everywhere, we do not have a problem with that,” said Max Tegmark, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and president of the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing existential risks from advanced technologies. Speaking at a forum on artificial intelligence development on Thursday, October 24, Tegmark said that today, in the AI age, the Church must advocate for pausing further developments in artificial general intelligence – a form of AI that surpasses human cognitive capabilities across many tasks – and computer superintelligence “at least until maybe one day someone will figure out how it can be controlled or aligned.” At the conference, Taylor Black, director of AI and venture ecosystems at Microsoft, noted how few people in the technology industry “think of persons in a holistic sort of way.” That is why the advent of artificial intelligence is a “fantastic opportunity” for the Church, he said, since “tech has to come to the only place where the person is really understood and where we have paths to further understand the human person.”

Dioceses Slam Fake Catholic Newspapers

NEW YORK (OSV News) – A number of officials for U.S. Catholic dioceses and their bishops have issued statements disavowing fake Catholic newspapers that have resurfaced in swing states ahead of the presidential election to target Catholic voters on key issues. The publications, which were initially produced ahead of the 2020 presidential election, highlight the rise of what communications scholars call “pink slime” journalism – while running afoul of both canon law on the use of the name “Catholic” and U.S. tax code banning churches and other tax-exempt nonprofits from engaging in partisan politics. In an October 20 article, ProPublica, an investigative journalism nonprofit, noted the resurgence of the “Catholic Tribune” in several states, including Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Several bishops and diocesan officials have slammed the Catholic Tribune newspapers for deceptively claiming to represent the Church’s interests. Officials with the Archdiocese of Detroit pointed out that, to its knowledge, the Tribune “does not have the proper authorization required by Canon (Church) law to call itself Catholic.”

Aid Organizations Seek Prayers for Persecuted Christians

NEW YORK (OSV News) – Officials from a number of organizations are inviting faithful to pray for persecuted Christians throughout the month of November, as more than 365 million believers in Christ worldwide suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination, according to a 2024 report by the advocacy group Open Doors. The first and second Sundays of November (November 3 and November 10) have each been designated as an International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, a commemoration organized some two decades ago by the New York-based World Evangelical Alliance. The two dates are designed to give faith communities flexibility and convenience in observing the occasion, according to the website dedicated to the initiative, idop.org. On Wednesday, November 20, officials with Aid to the Church in Need, which under the pope provides pastoral and humanitarian aid to persecuted Christians, will mark Red Wednesday, established by ACN in 2016 to raise awareness of Christian persecution worldwide. In honor of the day, parishes, schools, and individual participants are encouraged to don the color red, which recalls the blood of the martyrs.

Archbishop Gomez, Cardinal Dolan Make World Series Wager

LOS ANGELES (OSV News) – The stakes for winning the World Series became more interesting – and beneficial for Catholic students – after Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez and New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced a friendly wager on the morning of Friday, October 25, just hours before the Dodgers beat the Yankees in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. The wager is: If the Dodgers win the World Series, Cardinal Dolan must send Archbishop Gomez a box of New York-style bagels; if the Yankees win, Archbishop Gomez must send Cardinal Dolan a box of Randy’s Donuts. What’s more, both prelates will be directing their respective followers to take part in the rivalry by making donations to baseballunites.com, a website that will direct funds to both the New York-based John Cardinal O’Connor School and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Catholic Education Foundation. Whichever team wins the World Series will earn their region’s educational institution 60 percent of what’s raised; the losing region will get 40 percent. As of Tuesday, October 29, the Dodgers led the series 3-0.

Archdiocese of Paris Balks at Fee to Enter Notre Dame Cathedral

PARIS (OSV News) – The countdown has begun for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, which will take place on Saturday, December 7. As the last pieces of scaffolding are being removed on the outside, France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati has proposed introducing an entrance fee of 5 euros ($4.16), which could generate 75 million euros ($62.41 million) annually to help restore France’s crumbling religious buildings. Officials with the Archdiocese of Paris immediately answered the minister saying that “Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris wishes to recall the unchanged position of the Catholic Church in France regarding free entry to churches and cathedrals.” At Notre Dame, there’s never been a distinction between pilgrims and visitors, the archdiocesan officials said on Thursday, October 24. “Services are celebrated during visits, and visits continue during services.” Establishing differentiated access conditions would create “a physical separation” and would “deprive pilgrims and visitors of the communion between all that is the very essence of the place.” The cathedral has been closed since a fire destroyed much of the church in April of 2019. An estimated 15 million visitors a year are expected to come to Notre Dame, or 40,000 visitors a day.

Pope to Open Holy Door at Rome Prison for Jubilee 2025

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Two days after opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica to inaugurate the Holy Year 2025 on Tuesday, December 24, Pope Francis will travel to a Rome prison to open a Holy Door on Thursday, December 26, as a “tangible sign of the message of hope” for people in prisons around the world, Vatican officials announced at a news conference on Monday, October 28. On December 26, the pope will go to Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome, “a symbol of all the prisons dispersed throughout the world,” to deliver a message of hope to prisoners, announced Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who is pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization’s section for new evangelization and the chief organizer of the Holy Year 2025. In the bull of indiction announcing the Holy Year, the pope also called on governments to “undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope” for incarcerated persons during the Holy Year, such as expanding forms of amnesty and social reintegration programs.

Mourners surround the casket of Father Marcelo Pérez during his burial in San Andrés Larrainzar in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico, Oct. 22, 2024. Father Pérez, who ministered in Indigenous regions rife with territorial conflicts and later denounced drug cartel violence, was shot dead Oct. 20 by two assailants on a motorcycle as he drove away from the Guadalupe church in San Cristóbal de las Casas. (OSV News photo/Gabriela Sanabria, Reuters)

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