Fr. Damian Ference

I wept. And I’m not a weeper. Maya Hawke perfectly captures the raw, and desperate, and holy desire of Flannery O’Connor to both serve God and to be a great writer. In her Catholic faith, O’Connor experienced being seen and understood and loved; it was the one place in which she felt that she fit. At the center of Catholicism is a crucified misfit.

Thomas Griffin

An AI platform called Digi has launched the first version of an AI relationship with its founder touting the brand “the future of AI Romantic Companionship.” In a time when we know that loneliness is rising, love is now becoming something you can manufacture and completely determine and customize on your own—digitally. We need to remember we are infinitely loved.

Dr. Richard DeClue

Some believe if certain things could be proven scientifically, then Christian faith would be irredeemably contradicted. The existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) or nonhuman intelligence (NHI) is sometimes cited as an example. The recent escalation in government and media coverage of this issue has led me to highlight some easily accessible Catholic resources that address this issue for those concerned.

Bishop Robert Barron

Whereas the default position of most young people today is that their lives belong entirely to them, the priest, on the day of his ordination, says that his life does not belong to him at all, but rather to God and for God’s purposes. There are three great promises that a man makes when he accepts ordination, and each one of them is a marvelous countersign to our culture today. (Léelo en español aquí.)

Alejandro Terán-Somohano

Dignitas Infinita presents a non-exhaustive list of violations of human dignity that includes poverty, war, abortion, euthanasia, gender ideology, and surrogacy. One is not explicitly stated as a violation of human dignity and yet is brought up over and over throughout the document: the abuse of language. I would go so far as to claim that it is the violation that precedes all others.

Thomas J. Salerno

Sarah Law is a lecturer, poet, editor, and author of Sketches from a Sunlit Heaven, which chronicles the life and times of St. Thérèse of Lisieux from the perspectives of her siblings and other close associates. She joined Thomas Salerno to discuss how her novel came to be, her own devotion to St. Thérèse, and her passion for “literature and the sacred.”

Dr. Richard DeClue

The document was in the works for five years before its April 2024 release. Over the last few weeks, much has been written about Dignitas Infinita from a variety of perspectives, some championing the document, others contending with specific points. Dr. DeClue provides some background to the document, lays out its organization, and provides a summary of its general contents.

Dr. Christopher Kaczor 

The reality that 2+2=4 (like countless other mathematical facts) is a timeless reality and an unchanging truth, so it cannot depend upon minds like ours that come into existence and can go out of existence. So, there must exist a mind that is necessarily existing, eternally understanding, and infinitely knowing.

Mark Bradford

There may be no other magisterial document as thorough in its defense of the dignity of those with various impairments as Dignitas Infinita. Each human being, regardless of their vulnerabilities, receives his or her dignity from the sole fact of being willed and loved by God. Recognizing the dignity of those with disabilities and acting on that recognition and what it demands is an individual’s responsibility.

Dr. Steven Umbrello

Bernard Lonergan’s transcendental precepts—be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible, and be in love—can be applied as a map for navigating our interactions with AI systems. These are quintessential to understanding the dynamism of human cognition and our ethical engagement with the world in order to foster human dignity and promote the common good.

Collin Slowey

Many are calling for a return to tasteful hymns and chant, well-crafted architecture, and statues and images that lift the soul to God. Nevertheless, there is a real danger that Catholics who overindulge in aesthetic criticism will limit their ability to give beauty its true due—and to give God his. There is a distinction between analysis and what Dietrich von Hildebrand calls frui, enjoyment of or delight in objects in themselves, in a manner that draws the subject and objects together.

Angela Jendro

St. Catherine lived in very dark, strange times too. Her fidelity to Christ’s call in prayer was continuously tested and strengthened. If you are looking for guidance on how to live as a disciple of Christ today, look to St. Catherine of Siena, both a saint and a Doctor of the Church. The breadth of her life and teachings could fill a tome, but here are four takeaways for us today.