In this exclusive interaction with Indian Catholic Matters Editor Verghese V Joseph, Fr. Anthony Swamy, a young missionary priest from Bangalore serving in Northeast India, shares his journey of faith and service. Ordained in 2021, Fr. Anthony reflects on how his belief that “God chose him for a purpose” led him to overcome initial fears about serving in an unfamiliar region. He emphasises the role of spiritual mentors and the power of faith in navigating challenges. Through his experiences, he conveys a message of love and devotion to both priests and laity alike: loving God and others fully brings unparalleled happiness that transcends worldly concerns. Excerpts:

You are from the heart of a thrilling life in Bangalore, what made you choose to be a Missionary Priest in North-East of India?

Good question sir. But a simple answer. The scriptures say “You did not choose me but I chose you…” I strongly believed over the years in my priestly formation that God will not lead us where his grace cannot keep us. God chose me for a purpose.

But were you not disturbed to choose a ministry far away from home?

Yes, I was rather initially fearful but not disturbed. The fear was: How can I serve in a place where I don’t know the language, the people or their culture?  But faith always overcomes our fears. I am learning the language of love for God’s people.

But faith alone doesn’t suffice. Did people strengthen your faith?

Beautiful question. Yes. God always works through people to confirm His Will in anybody’s life whether priest or laity. I have had many spiritual mentors in my life from the very start of my priestly formation till this day. I gratefully remember Fr. Joseph Sengole (IVD) Bishop Stephen Routlunga CSC, and Auxiliary Bishop Joachim Walder (Aizwal Diocese). They all spoke the same message that… when God chooses you for a purpose, nobody can stop you. I believe this is true in everybody’s life whether you are a lay person or priest.

You are just in the 5th year of your priesthood far away from home. Do you miss anything?

I am deeply convinced that if you miss God, you miss everything in life. Humanly speaking, I do miss friends and family, but God gave me new families to serve in places like Silchar (Barak valley) of Aizawl Diocese in Northeast India.

Any fears or regrets?

Fears and regrets are a part of everyone’s life journey but when you begin to realize in Faith, that God walks the journey with you, then the terrain, fears and regrets disappear.  I travel for Holy Mass through rigid and risky terrain and bitter climates even for just a few people waiting for The Holy Eucharist. It is such a joy to know people yearn for The Holy Eucharist.

But could you specify what those fears and regrets were?

My basic fear was ‘How to learn a new language and minister to people different from my own?’. But one of my priest mentors told me just one sentence repeatedly “Learn to love all people and you will fulfill your calling whenever you go.”

May we know who said that?

I apologise I can’t mention names. But that spiritual guide is still my driving force. Many others did say similar things in different ways, and I am always grateful.

You mentioned you serve in difficult terrain and conflicting situations. Does it demotivate your missionary zeal?

Spiritually speaking, there is no place on Earth where there is no conflict. All the prophets faced conflict, rejection, misunderstanding and false accusations.  Jesus our Savior Himself did. But there’s an old adage, ‘Smooth seas don’t make skillful sailors’, and if you want to discover the seas you must be willing to leave the shores. I left south to North-East India.

So, you are still discovering your mission purpose?

You said it. In fact, We are all on a discovery journey. Spiritually speaking, if anyone wants to cling to seats of power, position popularity (I call it the three Ps) they will gather only fungus as the old saying goes ‘Rolling stones gather no moss’.  I love the quote from Lebanese-Christian writer Khalil Gibran, ‘Don’t cling to that which clings to you.’

What would your message to priests and laity be?

Sir, I am too young to give a message. There are more experienced missionaries than me, even among the laity. In fact, you interviewing me as a Catholic Media Editor is itself a manifestation of the power of the laity. A simple suggestion would be: Love God to the fullest, Love the people around you to the fullest. The result will be that you receive happiness that the world cannot give, and the world cannot take away from you. Nothing else matters.

The post ‘Faith Always Overcomes Our Fears,’ Says Indian Missionary Priest appeared first on Indian Catholic Matters.

Decades ago, at Baithakkhana, Kolkata, at the “Church Of Our Lady Of Dolours” I was greeted by Fr. Sunil Francis Rosario who had cooked an entire salmon for me and he had decorated it with greens like they do at seven-star hotels. That was the first time in my life I had met a diocesan priest. The room where he hosted me was filled with books of all sorts; mainly on Church leadership, pastoral guidance and migration. This was in the early 2000s. Thus started a long friendship between a Catholic priest and a Hindu man. For long periods of time I did not meet him; for instance, when he was at Ireland for a long period of study; we just used the internet to communicate. The catholicity of Fr. Sunil lies in his being truly open — when he became the Editor of ‘The Herald’ about sixteen/seventeen years ago, he invited me to write for this Catholic paper. I used to send him weekly articles and if they were publication-worthy, he published them. Then too and even now, he puts me forward in many things and takes a backseat himself. Remember, I am neither a Catholic, nor do I intend to be one. But he reads my articles in this website scrupulously. And I as an ‘outsider’ can honestly see that he is trying to establish a Bengali Catholic community which is self-actualised; he is studying how to bring about this change and he remains true to his vocation. In between he had been a faculty at Morning Star Major Seminary, Parish priest at several parishes and he is a theologian par excellence; not perhaps in a formal manner, but if I were to take screenshots of his WhatsApp messages and string them together, we would find a theologian in him who is profoundly involved in the pain of displaced peoples and in the spirituality of serving the poorest of the poor that is the charism of the Missionaries of Charity. He spent a long time with Saint Teresa of the Gutters and her Congregation. Incidentally he and I are deeply indebted to the late Fr. Augustine Cordeiro SJ. We found that out recently. Presently he is the Regional Director, Commission for Migrant and Displaced People; CCBI, New Delhi. His serialised history of the Archdiocese of Calcutta including his insights on the history of Catholicism in Bangladesh, being published now in The Herald, will one day be used as a reference when none of us will be around. AI documents everything. Here is an excerpt of my interview of this 75 years’ old priest.

Can you tell us of your direct encounter of God?

My direct encounter of God did not take place until I realized God’s presence in my life during a month-long retreat at a Jesuit house in Ranchi, called Manresa. It was my personal decision to go for this month-long retreat in May 1978 before my diaconate ordination. I was advised to go for this retreat by my Jesuit Parish Priest, a Belgian missionary, Late Fr. George Jwijsen, S.J. Late Fr. Georgio Mennini, S.J. was my director for this long retreat. The first week of this retreat was very hard for me to realize God’s presence in my life. It was all dry, a true desert experience. At times, I felt, why did I opt to do this retreat? I found it very difficult to pray and concentrate on God’s choice of me and my vocation to priesthood. I felt I was forcing myself to become a priest. For me discernment was hard, and I really felt deeply the absence of God in my life. During the second and third week of this long retreat, I found the experience real and my encounter with Jesus began slowly and steadily. As if He was calling me, embracing me and giving all the assurance that “I will be with you till the end of time.” I felt his presence and He held my hand to lead me through difficult passages of my life. Clinging to Jesus and peace of mind I gained through this retreat. My initial dryness turned into an oasis of God’s love. I was able to enter into the Paschal mystery of Lord Jesus Christ. That became my foundation and strength to live my priestly life. The sufferings, all the hurdles and challenges in life became a source of joy for the surpassing knowledge of

Jesus Christ and the realization to live and suffer for the sake of Jesus my Saviour. The third week meditations on passion, his way of the cross, all humiliations, rejection, insult and finally his death on the cross gave me courage to live my priestly life with courage and strength of God. When I entered the fourth week of my retreat, I was already enlightened in the life of the spirit. My experience of God was to live the reality of Resurrection. As if Jesus entered into my life already and showing me the wounds and scars he had. On the road to Emmaus, the Risen Lord walked with the two disciples. They were deeply disturbed and looked very depressed, they were discouraged and disheartened at the heinous crucifixion of their Master, Lord Jesus. All these gave me a real experience in life to continue my journey with the Lord. At the breaking of the bread, Jesus revealed to the disciples that He was no more among the dead, but he had risen. This was a fascinating experience for me. It was then I realized, how real is God into my life. It was an encounter with God. I never looked back after this great experience. At the end, I did feel, that I had taken a right decision to go for a month-long retreat. This way I experienced the love of God, as if I fell in love with God.

Why do you think Hinduism is valuable?

During my Seminary formation, while doing the course in Philosophy I had an opportunity to study Indian Philosophy. I had done a thorough study of nine different systems of Hindu Philosophy.

The origin of Indian philosophical thoughts can be traced back to the first available literature of the world, i.e., Ṛgveda. Philosophical discourse flourishes in the Upaniṣads, the last major part of the Vedic literature. Though there are many different philosophical thought systems developed in India, three nāstika and six āstika schools feature prominently in this history.

In the Post Vedic period, philosophical thoughts turned into independent schools, such as, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Mimāṁsā, Vedānta, Cārvāka, Jaina and Bauddha. Many schools carried forward the Vedic thoughts and elaborated upon them, whereas some schools developed their thoughts opposing the validity of the Vedas. The significant pramāṇas are as follows:

1. Pratyakṣa (Direct perception through sense organs)
2. Anumāna (Inference or syllogistic argument)
3. Upamāna (analogy)
4. Śabda (verbal testimony)
5. Anupalabdhi (non-perception)
6. Arthāpatti (implication)

Based upon these sources of knowledge, various Indian Philosophical schools discuss their subject matters which are metaphysical in nature like ātmān (soul), Sṛṣṭi (universe), Īsvara (god), Mokṣa (liberation), Punarjanma (rebirth), manas (mind), buddhi (intellect), so on and so forth.

Source of Parokṣa Jñāna is of five kinds, namely Anumāna (inference), Upamāna (comparison), Śabda (verbal testimony), Arthāpatti (postulation) and Anupalabdhi (nonperception).

Some of the Religious tenets in Hinduism:

Jaimini accepts the plurality of soul. He says that the souls are eternal but they definitely undergo transmigration as per the actions performed by the bodies.

Liberation/mukti is considered to be the highest good for humanity. Liberation puts an end to the transmigration of the soul. Performance of the daily duties brings about liberation. On the other hand, the non-performance of actions or daily duties causes disruption in the path of liberation.

One of the most important observations made by the Pūrva Mimāṁsā system of philosophy is that there is no need for the existence of God to create the world as well as rewarding or punishing human actions. This is because of the fact that all the material needed for the formation and the creation of the world is available eternally.

Also, actions have innate potency of bringing their fruits to the performer of those actions. Hence, Mimāṁsā does not speak about the existence of God. One of the major contributions of Mimāṁsā has been its emphasis on the study of language hermeneutics. Uttara Mimāṁsā: The philosophical system of Uttara Mimāṁsā does not have a specific founder since it is a conglomeration of three different schools of thought, namely Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita and Dvaita.

While I did my Masters in Hindi Literature from Allahabad University (Now Prayag Raj), I was deeply acquainted with Uttara Mimansa Philosophy, i.e. Advaita, Visitadvaita and Dvaita. The Bhakti poets, i.e. Kabir, Nanak belonged to Advaita, Tulsidas was on Visitadvaita. His Ram Charitmanas and Binay Patrika reflect his philosophical views that Ram is ideal man and God who is the Incarnation of God and Dvaita Philosophy belonged to Surdas. He reflects on Lord Krishna as the Awtar incarnation of God. Lord Krishna and Radha and Gopis reflect Lord Krishna who is God’s incarnation and Radha, the soul and other Gopis, imperfect souls desire to unite with the ultimate God in Lord Krishna. This way, I understood the teachings of Hinduism through my literature study of Bhakti Sahitya. Bengali literature, similarly has its own philosophical base, viz Vaishnavism and worship of Shakti, Ma Durga, Kali are the manifestations of same Goddess, ‘Triumph of evil by Good’ Shri Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu during the middle ages used Kirtan to unite people belonging to different castes, rich and the poor. The souls longing for God and their natural inclination to remain in God/ Goddess.

The philosophical system of Utttara Mimāṁsā is otherwise called Vedānta. All the three schools of Vedānta have different teachers. Ādi Śaṅkara is the head of the Advaita system of Vedānta philosophy. Rāmānuja is the architect of the Viśiṣṭādvaita system of Vedānta and Mādhva is the head of the Dvaita system of Vedānta philosophy. Ādi Śaṅkara is the first philosopher who identified the philosophical truths expounded in the Upaniṣads attached to the Vedas. Jaimini gave importance to the Karma Kāṇḍa portion of the Vedas whereas Śaṅkara saw the Supreme Truth that lay firm in the message of the Upaniṣads. Śaṅkara called the world illusory as a result of Māyā or delusion. Māyā causes the illusion akin to the cognition of serpent on the rope. A person gripped by ignorance fails to see the substratum of the universe.

Brahman is the substratum of the universe. It is not seen due to delusion or Māyā. Śaṅkara calls the universe an illusion and the Brahman or the Supreme Entity as Truth. Everything around us is adventitious of the Brahman. Into Brahman all creation goes.

Deluge is the ultimate condition during which the Brahman withdraws all its creation unto itself.

Ramanuja advocated the Viśiṣṭādvaita school of Vedāntic thought. It is a qualified version of monism and hence is called qualified monism. Ramanuja differs from Sankara only a little in the sense that he considers the jiva or the individual soul as the entity different from the body and is infinite in number and cannot be one with the Supreme as long as it is confined in a body. Mādhva, the founder of the Dvaita school of Vedāntic thought says that the jivas or the souls can attain liberation through bhakti and the grace of God. It is important to note that all the three teachers accepted Vedas as a valid means of knowledge.

Barring the Cārvākas, we observe the following salient features of Indian Philosophy:

(a) Indian philosophy is usually spiritual in its nature

(b) Indian philosophy emanates from the experience of sufferings

(c) Religion and philosophy are intertwined and sometimes they are inseparable

(d) It is a complete and comprehensive system

(e) It usually believes in the doctrine of karma and rebirth

(f) It is not person-centric, but a tradition-oriented system

(g) Liberation/mukti from samsara is the summum bonum of Indian philosophical tradition

(h) Ignorance is the root cause of sufferings

(i) The practical aspect of the Yoga philosophy is acceptable to all the schools Indian culture is a cornucopia of different philosophical and religious sects.

Following different faiths, we Indians have been living together in peace and harmony for around three thousand years. There is an inherent harmony among most of the schools of Indian philosophy.

Swami Vivekananda has often quoted the verse from Śiva Mahima Stotra of Puṣpadanta in support of Universalist approach of Indian culture. It says — “Different paths to realisation are enjoined by the three Vedās, by Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Pāśupata doctrine and Vaiṣṇava Śāstras. People follow different paths, straight or crooked, according to their temperament, depending on which they consider best or most appropriate and reach You, alone, just as rivers enter the ocean.” His Guru, Ramakrishna believed in “Joto Mot toto Poth – As many views and philosophies so many ways to reach God and ultimate happiness.”

This is my understanding of Hinduism. Its philosophy is rich in content. Many theologians in Christianity, during the Post Second Vatican Council tried to explore the understanding the core of Hinduism and its application to theologise and to develop Inter-faith dialogue with Hindus and Hindu communities in India. Swami Abhishiktananda, a Benedictine monk made his way of living according to Hindu teachings, however he was an ardent believer in Jesus Christ. He was one of the pioneers to begin Inculturation and simplicity of life, in dress according to Hindu style of living, following the ways of Hindu monks. So also Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya, called himself, “Hindu-Christian”. He said, “By birth I am a Hindu but by my faith I am Christian”. He was baptised as a Roman Catholic. I did a study which is a comparative study of Swami Abhishiktananda and Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya, while developing “Religious Pluralism in Bengal.” That is my dissertation for a course, Pastoral Leadership, M.A. I did in Ireland, All Hallows College, Dublin in 1995. I was born into a Catholic family. My parents were the descendants of Portuguese Christian missionaries who evangelized the part of present Bangladesh, then as one in Indian sub-continent. I was privileged to grow in a Pluralistic society, in an Inter-religious environment. We lived in harmony with Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikh and Jain both within our home environment and in school. I was taught on Christianity in my School and the Church I belonged to. I knew little of Hinduism. Since, my parents were staunch Catholics, they wanted the children to be taught in Christian spirit and atmosphere. I learnt more about Hinduism while studying for my priesthood during Seminary formation. As I said earlier, I leant the systems of Indian Philosophy. While doing my Hindi Literature, Masters, I learnt to apply those philosophical views and principles into literary contributions by authors of Bhakti Sahitya mainly from the Middle Ages.

What do you think Christianity has to offer Hinduism?

One of the foundational truth for any religion is found in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’. Those are the ethical and spiritual teachings of Lord Jesus Christ applicable to anyone who wants to follow one’s conscience. Gandhiji, who was a practicing Jain lived by the teachings of Jainism ‘Truth and Non-violence”. In the “Sermon on the Mount”, he found answers to many of his queries in life and his commitment to Freedom.

Especially in the Gospel of St. John, which is more mystical one can find similarities with the teachings of ‘Gita’. Letters of St. James gives some practical ways to live life in a meaningful ways. Some of the letters of St. Paul have also a lot to offer instructions to live life in a healthy way, in union with God. It does not matter to which religion one holds. Every religion offers good lessons to live life in a healthy manner. Our goal is to experience God and to live fully in His presence, ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ and ‘Tatwam Asi’.

Subhasis Chattopadhyay Ph.D. is an ex-Sahitya Akademi Judge. His Ph.D. was on theodicy and Patristics in Cormac McCarthy and Stephen King. He has formal qualifications in Biblical Theology and in Formative Spirituality. He has also formally studied the Hindu canon and has separate qualifications in the behavioural sciences. His reviews in Prabuddha Bharata from 2010 to 2021 have often featured in the websites of Ivy League Presses. His works in various fields are much quoted. He writes here, at ESamskriti and the Herald. Dr. Chattopadhyay delivered the de Nobili Endowment Lecture in 2022. He has a First Masters in English from the University of Calcutta and studied at St. Xavier’s College when it was not autonomous and topped the university in the poetry paper as an undergraduate student. He is a scholar of Roman Catholicism, but a practising initiated Shakta Tantric who divides his time between Kolkata and Tarapith, a ‘Siddhapith’ at Birbhum, West Bengal. 

The post Interview: The Faith Journey of Fr. Sunil Francis Rosario appeared first on Indian Catholic Matters.

Fr. Philip Larrey, Ph.D. is a Professor of philosophy at Boston College and a Catholic priest. The Pontifical Lateran University in the Vatican appointed him to the Chair of Logic and Epistemology, where he oversaw the department of philosophy until joining Boston College. He focuses on the philosophy of knowledge and critical thinking in his writings. Several works about the effects of the new digital era on society have been written by him. Two recent books, Connected World (Penguin) and Futuro Ignoto (IF Press), both emphasise this topic. 2018 saw Mondadori publish the latter’s Italian translation, Dove inizia il futuro.

He has spent years researching the philosophical ramifications of artificial intelligence’s explosive growth. He openly confronts business executives he meets at the Vatican to talk about how technology is changing the face of society. In his recently published book Artificial Mankind, he explores the implications of AI research for mankind as a whole in a more philosophical manner. (Please visit his amazing and exhaustive website: philiplarrey.com)

Interviewing Fr. Philip Larrey, a prominent Catholic figure who advocates for the Catholic Church and society at large regarding the implications of artificial intelligence breakthroughs for both the Church and society at large, is a great honour for Indian Catholic Matters.

Fr. Larrey is actively engaged in establishing connections with influential figures and global leaders in the artificial intelligence space. We value his time in answering our voice chat questions.  Transcripts of the interview below:

It seems a bit paradoxical that a Roman Catholic priest could end up heading the logic and epistemology department at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, considered the Pope’s University. Can you please share a bit about your journey, starting from your own vocation to the Catholic priesthood to this position?

In 1984, I relocated to Rome and commenced my preparation for the Catholic priesthood, mostly at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University. I focused on analytical philosophy there, and most people’s definition of analytical philosophy includes logic and epistemology. The structure of human cognition and the nature of the human intellect are the subjects of logic and epistemology. After receiving my PhD in 1994, I immediately began teaching, and I did so until 2002, when I moved to the Pontifical Lateran University. A few years later, I was appointed chair of the Department of Logic and Epistemology.

Given that the majority of professors at the Pontifical colleges in Rome are Catholic priests, this is therefore not extremely unusual. Thus, my appointment made perfect sense in that regard. I became interested in artificial intelligence early in the 1990s because I was teaching a course on what constitutes human thought. I reasoned that by learning more about how machines were simulating human thought, we would be able to gain a better understanding of what human thought is all about. Around 2008 or 2009, there was a decline in artificial intelligence research due to immature technology, particularly in the areas of hardware and software, which contributed to some of the excitement surrounding the field.

These days, we have far more capable systems that can handle enormous databases and do logical calculations at blazing speeds. That’s the reason why some of the promises made about the capabilities of artificial intelligence are starting to materialise. My vocation as a Catholic priest is one that is committed to the intellectual life, and I view philosophy as being crucial to my work in artificial intelligence.

In my opinion, the Catholic Church has to speak up in this area, and it is starting to do so gradually. Because we disregarded the potential of artificial intelligence, I believe we are lagging behind the curve, even if we are now beginning to participate in the discourse.

You are also heading multiple other initiatives such as Humanity 2.0. Can you share briefly the goals of this organization and your specific mandate?

As you are aware, Humanity 2.0 is devoted to advancing human flourishing and acts as a human accelerator for it. By “human flourishing,” what do we mean? What are some barriers that prevent people from thriving, and how can we help initiatives that get over them? Our organisation, which has only been in existence for a short while, organises an annual meeting at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a significant and potent location for bringing together individuals from the various fields related to human flourishing. We hope that other kinds of measures that determine a nation’s or company’s level of wealth can be replaced by human flourishing. For instance, the gross national product, profit margins, etc., in simply economic terms. We believe that the concept of human flourishing can provide a new matrix that includes more aspects of what it means to be prosperous as an individual, as a business, or as a nation. We’re committed to seeing that happen.

Pope Francis has been talking about artificial intelligence these days. Can you share what it has been to interact closely with the Pope on these technology matters and how receptive he has been to this disruptive technology be adopted by the Catholic Church? Also any quotes that Pope Francis has mentioned in the context of artificial intelligence.

During his address on January 1st, World Day of Peace, Pope Francis started talking about artificial intelligence. He discusses something once a year. He discussed artificial intelligence and peace this year. Ways in which AI can promote peace.

The Holy Father made references to the weaponisation of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technological advancements in the field of “lethal autonomous weapon systems” that have serious ethical concerns. Weapon systems that are autonomous can never be morally upright. The capacity that only humans possess for moral judgment and ethical decision-making is more than just a sophisticated set of algorithms, and it cannot be reduced to programming a machine—a machine, no matter how “intelligent,” is still a machine. It is crucial to guarantee sufficient, significant, and regular human supervision of weapon systems because of this.

Moreover, Pope Francis is a pope, not a computer scientist, software engineer, or CEO of a digital company. Not only is the Catholic Church primarily a spiritual power in the world, but he also holds leadership over it. He will thus discuss artificial intelligence that is centred on people and how technology might benefit mankind rather than work against it. He discusses some of the challenges associated with this new technology as we get to know it and develop more effective ways to use it.

He dedicated his second address, which was given on the World Day of Communications, to artificial intelligence. The idea that deep fakes could change how we perceive reality is one of the intriguing topics he brings up in his speech, and I find it intriguing. As you may know, deep fake is the term for lifelike audio, video, or image that appears real but isn’t.

Pope Francis goes so far as to say that he was the victim of a deepfake. Of course, this is not true; he may remember the picture of him in a white puffer coat that appeared incredibly authentic. Hence, he warns against falling for these deepfakes and the potential for twisting reality to be something it isn’t.

And then there’s the US President Biden Biden appearing to have advised Americans not to vote in the primaries during an Amy Roblach journalistic call at the New Hampshire primary a few months back. It wasn’t a recording of him; rather, it was an entirely false audio tape that was created by a young man in Connecticut. The voice was saying, “Please don’t go and vote in the primaries because you will lose your vote for the general election in November,” which was absurd, but it did sound like President Biden. Even though it is absurd, some people were convinced by it, and millions of people received it.

There’s also the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift—who is incredibly well-known worldwide—was the target of deepfake pictures that went viral just before the Super Bowl. She’s probably in Milan right now; her two or three sold-out shows there thus far. Naturally, a lot of attention was drawn to her boyfriend, Travis Kelsey, the wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs, who just won the Super Bowl.

It is noteworthy, therefore, that the Pope is cognisant of some of the risks associated with this technology and that caution is advised. Pope Francis delivered his third major speech at the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy for Life, which is led by Archbishop Vincento Paglia. Father Paolo Benanti launched the well-known Rome Call for Ethics of AI, and the two of them were just in Japan last week talking with Asians, many of whom had also signed the call.

Choosing to deploy AI for human benefit rather than harm is akin to making a conscious choice. Of course, Pope Francis’s most recent address was delivered during the June G7 summit in Apulia, Italy, where he really attended mostly for the second day of the meeting, during which they discussed artificial intelligence, and he also gave a speech on the subject.

He was invited to do so by Giorgia Meloni who is the Prime Minister of Italy and it was very unusual because the Pope has never participated in a G7 summit which is a completely political organization and so it was very surprising that he would do this.

But the reason I think he did was because he sees the position of the Catholic Church as not being influential in the development of the technology and he wanted to influence in some way the development of this technology according to the principles of the Catholic Church.

We’ll have to see how effective that was but it was a historic presence and received a lot of attention in the media obviously and I think you can see you can obviously get several quotes from his discourse there.

Although Pope Francis receives assistance from other experts when drafting these texts and speaking about these technologies, it was evident during his speech that he is well-versed in the terminology and ideas related to these technologies. Pope Francis is aware of the significance of this, and it appears that he is making an effort to influence the dialogue.

Let’s put it that way. Try to shape the conversation.

So again, so AI is used for the benefit of humanity and not the contrary.

A lot of people use the term “artificial intelligence” these days without actually understanding what it means. Could you please define artificial intelligence and explain how the Catholic Church and its many members can benefit from it?

Artificial intelligence is a series of algorithms that use logical calculations in order to achieve programmable results.  Although it is a simplified explanation, I believe it covers the key points of what artificial intelligence is. At a symposium he organised with a number of other mathematicians and philosophers, John McCarthy, an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist who is also credited with founding the field of artificial intelligence, first used the term in 1956 at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire.

For instance, Marvin Minsky, an American cognitive and computer scientist who is primarily interested in AI research and co-founder of the AI laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was present there. McCarthy enquired as to what a Turing computer is doing when it generates responses to queries from people. You call this artificial intelligence. Minksy went on to found the Centre for Robotics at MIT, which is still active today and a leader in the field.

Now it’s actually not intelligence anymore. It is actually the logical computation structure that imitates human reasoning. We carry it out mentally. It is done by the machine using ones and zeros. The foundation of the machines we use today is a binary system. What’s impressive about AI is its capacity to mimic human thought.

Now, if you’ve ever utilised ChatGPT4O, where the O stands for omni… Let me put it this way: ChatGPT4O is a fresh take on Chat GPT4, the most recent iteration of OpenAI.

This latest version is quite impressive because it uses speech, the machine will communicate with humans through speech. You can view some of the examples provided by OpenAI by visiting their website. It nearly seems as though it is comprehending what we are saying.

Now, this is important. It’s a very impressive technology, and people are actually using it in order to form relationships with the machine. That could be another question at another time. But it simply is using statistics in order to respond to a human’s question or query or comment.

Statistically, what is the most likely meaning this word has? It would be the proper response or answer to the question, etc. So it’s not thinking, it’s not reasoning as humans do, but it is impressive and it’s very fast.

These are, like I said, these are powerful systems and they go a long way into mimicking what human beings would say is understanding, it’s not really understanding, but it certainly can simulate what we mean by understanding. Now, this is a huge philosophical topic. I taught a course in part last semester dealing with these issues. We spent two weeks on this issue in class with different readings.

So it’s very complex. Let me just say this.

As the chatbots get better and better at doing this, and they’re already impressive, and now other Anthropic has come out with their version called clog, and Google has their version called Gemini, and Facebook has a, so the platforms are getting very good on what’s called Large Language Models. But let’s take a step back and ask ourselves what the AI is actually doing.

Well-known futurist and transhumanist Raymond Kurzweil, who works for Google asks, “Is there a difference if we can’t see it?” Can we now distinguish between a human speaking to us and an artificial intelligence speaking to us? Well, things are becoming harder. It’s becoming increasingly challenging to distinguish between them. He then asks, “Is there a difference if we can’t tell it exists?”

And that’s really a very good question, too. Yes, is my answer. A distinction will always exist. Even if the similarities are so great that they are indistinguishable. The reason is that, once more, time is of the essence, therefore I’m omitting a lot of stages here. The reason for the difference is that human intellect, a higher ability of the soul, produces human language. No machine has a soul.

They have systems, operating systems, and algorithms, which are very sophisticated. But when humans interact, if we want, it’s a soul interacting with another soul. Now, it’s not direct. The soul doesn’t interact with others, except through the higher faculties, which are the will and the intellect. And even that is mediated between the senses and the different passive intellect, active intellect philosophically, we have systems that address this.

Can the AI fool us into thinking it is a soul?

Behind the language it has a soul. Well, maybe. I don’t think so. But this is an open question. The engineers are busy at work trying to, in a sense, fake us out. I think there will always be a difference that the human being will be able to detect. But it’s becoming more and more difficult to detect that difference.

Some of my students last semester were creating AI programs to detect AI, which because chat GPT  can be used to write papers and it can fake out people on a phone call and use, for example, your daughter’s phone number and her voice to say that her life is in danger. Can you please send $20,000 to the following person? And people have been scammed. Many, actually. So this is an issue. It’s getting very convincing. But again, that is a bad use of the technology that’s going against human flourishing and human dignity. And so the conversation will continue to go on.

How can artificial intelligence be harnessed for the Catholic Church?

Well, look at Magisterium AI. And you’ve spoken with Matthew Sanders, who created that. And it is an excellent example of how AI can be used in the service of the Church. Magisterium AI helps people understand the position of the Catholic Church on any number of issues. It’s very precise. And it’s an AI trained on official documents of the Church. There are many other ways in which the Church can harness AI. As long as we’re not afraid of it, it should be something we are not afraid of so that we can use it for good.

Also, click link to read an exclusive interview with Interview with Mathew Sanders, Founder & CEO of Longbeard, creators of Magisterium AI:
It’s Time to Learn the Teachings of the Church Through AI

You are the author of two thought-leading books on artificial intelligence, ‘Artificial Humanity’ and ‘Connected World’, which are not available on Amazon and India. Therefore, most of our readers would not have a chance to purchase it yet. Can you please share a few brief takeaways from these books?

I’m surprised because Connected World was published by Penguin and it was printed in India. I’m not sure where, but in 2017, we published that with Penguin and actually the copies were printed in India. I find it strange it’s not available and then Artificial Humanity is available on Amazon and other countries. I’m not sure why it’s not in India.

So Connected World is a series of interviews I did with people involved with new technologies. Two of the most famous were Eric Schmidt, who was the head of Alphabet, which was Google’s parent company at the time, and Martin Sorrel, who was in charge of WPP, the largest advertising company in the world. Both of them have left and pretty much retired by now. That was seven years ago.

I interviewed also Bill Shores, who was part of the team at Motorola that created the cell phone. If you had a fascinating interview, that was a great one. He recalls how the CEO of Motorola, this would have been in the 1970s, went to Tucson, where Motorola has a huge engineering lab. And brought in a walkie-talkie and when you push a button, you listen, you let the button go. And he says, you need to invent a technology that uses this without the button. And that’s exactly what a cell phone is. It’s called a cell phone because it has a radio connection to a cell tower somewhere near you.

As you know, police can trace your tracks according to the presence on the different cell towers in the city. Now, if you’re in a place with no cell tower, the cell phone doesn’t work. And that’s what happens when they say, oh, I don’t have any connectivity. It means that there’s not a cell phone tower nearby that my cell phone can connect to.

Now, you avoid pushing a button and letting it go because that’s the way the engineers made the device.

But it is fascinating that Bill Shores said they invented the cell phone in order to connect us, in order to help us communicate. And yet now he sees that it actually is being used to separate us. We’ve never been more lonely than we have now. And we’ve never had less connection with each other than we do now, even though everyone has a cell phone at least one, some two.

Now, I interviewed a former pilot for Alitalia, a great interview. I interviewed Malitzle V, who was in charge of Publicis group, which is a large advertising company in Paris. A wonderful friend, he’s on the board of Humanity 2.0. And every year he organizes the largest convention on technology, which is called Viva Tech in Paris.

Last June, Elon Musk went every year, 50,000 people show up. It’s an amazing event. And he gave a wonderful outline. There’s a philosopher, Johann Seabert, a very dear friend of mine, and we went into some of the philosophical implications of AI, which is what I’m most interested in doing. And then there were maybe another 10 or 12 interviews, long interviews so that the people were able to speak their minds in a deep way about these issues and where we’re heading in the future.

Artificial in humanity is, of course, my version of the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence. So the main focus of the book, which is now translated into Chinese, by the way, I’m very happy about that. The main focus of the book is how an Aristotelian-Thomistic framework in philosophy can be used to deal with the philosophical implications and consequences of artificial intelligence.

It makes the case for Aristotelian-Thomistic thought, which is, of course, the tradition of the Catholic Church, and how we can use that in order to guide our thinking on issues such as the nature of the human being. Is there a soul? Is there an afterlife? There are many people in Silicon Valley that are working on immortality. We could get into that also in a separate conversation.

What is the nature of the intellect? What does reasoning mean? What are our general concepts? These are all issues that are now coming out of Silicon Valley without any philosophical framework. It’s important, before we talk about these things, to agree on a philosophical framework, to have a similar vocabulary, for example, to look at the brain in a way where we can see the brain.

It’s not completely reductive. Many other issues require, I think, a philosophical context in order to address these problems. When I speak with engineers and CEOs of tech companies, they get it. One engineer in San Francisco asked me, okay, so humans have a soul, right? Yes, well, that’s not the right way of putting it.

But human being is composed of two co-principals, form and matter. The form of the human being is a soul, the matter is the body. Now, it sounds like dualism, but it’s really not. It’s duality, as Thomas Aquinas calls it. And so the engineer says, oh, can we not separate the soul from the body? Because he’s interested in mind uploading and immortality on a digital format and harnessing memories and emotions and digital storage, place, et cetera. And I said, oh, yes, you can, but that’s called death. The separation of the soul and the body is the moment of death. And he says, no, no, we don’t want to kill anyone. I said, well, I know. But right now, we do not have technology which enables us to separate the soul from the body.

And I said, we never will. And he says, oh, we’re working on that right now. Of course, I’m sure they are. But that really gets into the relationship between the soul and the body. And so I have my students read questions 74, 75, 76 of the first part of the summa where Aquinas talks about the relationship between the soul and the body. And it’s difficult reading. They didn’t particularly like it. It’s new vocabulary for them. I have to, when I go through it with them and try to explain the concepts, but if you’re not familiar with it, it’s very difficult.

But I would suggest to the software engineers to take a crash course on Aquinas. I actually made a devising one and taking it to San Francisco. I have to go to San Francisco next week. So it’s useless to talk about the really cool themes that engineers want to talk about without philosophical basis. And so that’s what Artificial Humanity is about. I also talk about transhumanism. I talk about some movies. I think movies are a powerful way to communicate ideas.

And I have a appendix on Ex Machina, which is a movie by Alex Garment. And it speaks about AI and the box issue. The box issue was coined by Eliezer Yudkowsky, an American artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics, best known for popularizing ideas related to friendly artificial intelligence.

Eliezer Yudkowsky posed the scenario, “What happens if we develop an artificial general intelligence, or HEI,” and confine it in a cage?” We ensure that it doesn’t come into contact with the outer world. They are prohibited from using the internet because, you know, we want to have control over it. Will it eventually persuade the gatekeeper to let it out? he asks. Yes, it will be wiser than the gatekeeper, which is the query and answer. This is the theory.

And Eliezer has a lot of information on his websites where he’ll take you through the whole thought experiment. It’s actually quite interesting. He has challenged many people and they’ve all lost. So he’s warning us about superintelligence getting out, so to speak, escaping the cage. And that’s what Garland tries to tell us in the movie, Ex Machina. I had my students see that movie this semester, and we talked about it.

Yudkowsky, was asked by Time Magazine to write an article about two years ago, I guess. And you can Google that Yudkowsky Time Magazine. It will come up.

But the open letter was written by the Swedish-American physicist, machine learning researcher, and author. Max Tegmark, who’s here at MIT, and an American technology ethicist and the executive director and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, Tristan Harris, and Azaraskan, who live in California, about a moratorium on AI research and development.

And the first person who signed the letter, it’s an open letter.

They asked me to sign it, and I did. I’m like 1,472. SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk is number one. Sam Altman the CEO of OpenAI originally signed it, and then on a later version, he pulled out. But Max Tegmark, who’s a great pioneer in AI, a lot of people, if you can look at the signatories, there are a lot of them. British computer scientist Stuart Russell, I mean, the list goes on and on. And Tristan, who is a good friend of Eliezer, because Eliezer lives in San Francisco also, I believe, would you sign it? And Elie Azar said, no, because it doesn’t go far enough.

And if you read the article in Time Magazine, Eliezer says, once we create an artificial general intelligence, it will kill every human being on the face of the earth.

Now, this sounds exaggerated. It sounds like exaggerated rhetoric. It sounds hyperbole. But it’s coming from one of the greatest pioneers in AI development. Eliezer was one of the first to do research in AI, to start thinking about these issues. I found Eliezer was interviewed recently by Russian-American computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman. So Lex has a podcast where he interviews famous people. And you can see that on YouTube. It’s over two and a half hours, but it is a fascinating interview.

Eliezer says, we need to stop this now. We need to stop it right now. We don’t know where we’re going. We don’t have any guardrails. We don’t know what’s going to happen when we achieve artificial general intelligence. But everything that we know about AI is that it will destroy us. It’s not an issue that we could easily slough off. Eliezer is a formidable voice in this sector. And we should listen to him. Now I try to be less apocalyptic. I think we’ll be able to get along with the AI’s. We’ll learn to live with them. I’m not exactly sure how.

Everybody here in Boston is talking about what we need to do and how to create systems. A lot of very smart people, like Max Tegmark, are working on this right now. It is scary to hear someone of the stature of Eliezer, Yudkowsky, to say that we’re all dead. That’s a pretty somber notion.

Elon Musk said something at here at MIT about four years ago, which I consider particularly insightful. He says we have to make sure that artificial intelligence considers us an interesting part of the universe. Now what does he mean by that? You can’t really write in rules because the AI’s will just change the rules. I just had a recent debate on this at MIT, actually. Rule-based ethics, like the Ten Commandments. Those are rule-based ethics.

Our Emmanuel Kant, a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinker, has a rule-based ethics, a system of ethics.

The ethical system we’re using most of all today is utilitarianism, which was created by John Stuart Miller, an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. In the end, that’s also, I think, a rule-based ethics as well. I think that’s insufficient when we come to AI systems. Elon may have a point.

We have to make sure that they consider us an interesting part of the universe so that they will live with us. They will live and work. My idea is human flourishing. That AI’s should be dedicated to human flourishing, and therefore they won’t destroy us.

It was interesting to note that sometime back, Sam Altman, OpenAI founder and creator of chat GPT, was advocating for the regulation of artificial intelligence. Would you be able to share some thoughts on this?

Yes. Sam told me that he was more than open to asking the federal government to issue regulations the big AI systems. Sam is a very smart person. He’s obviously dedicated to making money, and that was his divergence from Elon Musk because they’re the two co-founders of OpenAI. But every time the senators have asked Sam to go to Washington, he has gone.

Last year, Senator Schumer from New York brought together a bunch of tech people. It was a closed-core meeting, so we didn’t really find out what they said. But I think there were 24 of them. Tristan Harris was actually invited, Sam Altman, an American entrepreneur and investor best known as the CEO of OpenAI since 2019 and the chairman of clean energy companies Oklo Inc and Helion Energy was invited. Sam is considered to be one of the leading figures of the AI boom. Mark Zuckerberg was there. Elon was there. Nadella from Microsoft. All the big names, obviously. The question is, I think Senator Schumer said, how can we regulate this technology?

Because it was interesting, on one side of the room, you had all the tech giants who understand AI but don’t understand how to make laws.

And then on the other side of the room, people have really no understanding of the tech but they’re very good at making laws. How can we make these two worlds speak to each other? It’s not easy.

I remember in San Francisco, a reporter says, what are you doing talking with Samuel (Sam) Harris Altman?

We connect every now and then. He was going to come to speak to my class in May, but at the time he was at MIT in Harvard so the time he didn’t work out. She was like, you know, Sam is the problem. And I’m like, no, no, no, no, Sam, Sam is not the problem. He’s part of the solution. Oh, well, he’s interested in money and the tech.

And I said, no, that’s not true. He’s very conscientious about what he’s doing. Now, Sam is a very driven person and I think last month he was in Saudi Arabia to convince the Crown Prince to start a series of factories that will build the chips that run AI. So he’s not going, you know, he’s not going to disappear.

But I remember telling the journalist, I forget who it was, but I said, you know, we should be worried about countries that are building AI systems and we don’t know anything about it. Because you know, you can talk to the builders of AI in the West.

You know, Sir Demis Hassabis, a British computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur in London; John LeCun in Canada; even Sam in San Francisco, you have other people around the world that are developing these, well, especially in the West developing these systems. And if you ask, especially if a government, you know, asked them or subpoenas and they respond. But who knows what other countries, and I won’t go into those countries, but there are other countries developing massive AI systems that we know nothing about.

So I think that Sam is in the right direction. I think Sam is worried about the ethical ramifications of AI. I don’t know, I don’t think he has the perfect solution. He put himself in charge of safety of AI recently.

I don’t know, I’d raise some eyebrows. But yeah, I think that I think we’re going in the right direction. I think it’s just the technology is advancing so quickly that it’s difficult to raise, it’s difficult to think about these things quick, fast enough.

It is no secret that the number of Catholic priests is declining worldwide year on year. It is getting harder for a Catholic priest to minister to multiple parishes. Do you foresee a day when a priest can use AI to write up a homily or administer some of the sacraments with these technologies? Do you think the physical persona of a Catholic priest or nun can ever be replaced by technology?

So there are several questions here. The first is, yes, priests are already using AI to write up a homily, especially Magisterium AI, because they know it’s accurate. I know some priests that use chat GPT also. If it helps, fine. I think it can be helpful.

But I don’t know if people can relate to a homily written by an AI. It depends on how it’s done and if whether it’s edited correctly.

But sure, you can look up facts and you can find out what other popes or famous saints have said about this issue.

I know a lot of priests are using it. A lot of bishops are using magisterium AI also. Now, on ministering some of the sacraments, Cardinal Ladaria, who was in charge of the doctrine of the faith, during the pandemic was asked about this and he consulted Pope Francis and the answer is no.

As priests, we cannot administer the sacraments except in person. People asked me if they could go to confession or over Zoom. And I said, no, you have to be in my presence.

And that would be the easiest one to do with technology, the other ones you can’t. I was in Rome during the pandemic and we had to close the churches, but we continued to celebrate mass, just the priests among ourselves.

And we had it recorded on a webcam and we actually got quite a few people that would follow the mass through the network, through the webcam.

It was a completely unique situation and the Pope gave a special dispensation to do that, but once we were able to come back to present, in persona, in person, we can’t do that anymore. And of course the other baptism, confirmation, those things have to be done also in person.

Do you think the physical persona of a Catholic priest or not can ever be replaced by AI? No, I don’t.

I think that we can use AI to help us achieve our goals, but I don’t think that we could ever be replaced. I know that there have been several attempts at this in Germany, for example, not in the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church.

A priest had a service that was created by an AI. And it was cool to see how we could use these technologies, but most of the people said it was a waste of time. They didn’t like it. They felt that it was soulless and very cold, and I don’t think the experiment had much success.

God created man with all his vices and virtues. The man is also unique and the world is a beautiful place because of all the diversity in thinking. Do you foresee that more dependence on technologies like AI makes us less diverse, more machine-like in thinking, and also less dependent on him?

No, I don’t. I think that it depends on us how we use the technology.

Like I’ve always said, the technology is not inherently good or evil. It’s how we use it. There have been news items where people use social media in order to enhance or support their own views without looking at other views. That’s not good. When you have newsfeed from Google or from Facebook, it basically gives you what you want to hear. That’s not good. So, excuse me. What I try to do in my class is to help the students learn how to think critically. Critical thinking is a tool that we need to develop and we need to use in today’s society more than ever. Critical thinking will help us use technologies, but will always be separate from them. Will always be autonomous from them.

Therefore, I don’t think that diversity will go out because of that. We are dependent on God in a metaphysical way, but we often don’t recognize that. I don’t think the introduction of the machine is going to make us less dependent on him. I think we need to understand that our dependence on him is a metaphysical dependence. That’s not going to go away through the use of AI.

The  Catholic Church uses specific terminology and so does technology. Both seem to be distinct from each other. Are you doing some work to bridge this gap? Can you kindly share that?

Yes. I see my job primarily as translating terminology of the richness of the Catholic tradition and tradition and words that the tech industry can understand.

Many people that I come across and speak with who come from a tech background appreciate the fact that I’m taking time and trying to understand their point of view and put it in a way, sorry, put my response or my concept in a way that they can understand. Once they understand the terminology, they appreciate it. They see how it works. They see the concept. Unfortunately, this is a recent turn of events in the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church has been a leader in the field of communications for almost 2,000 years, because it has understood the importance of communicating the good news to people. In whatever language and whatever context the missionaries would go off into foreign lands, and they tried to make the good news available to the people that they would find there. That was just true in the 15th century, but even recently, up until I would say maybe 50 years ago, after World War II, the Pope Pius XII was the first person to use the radio. It’s ironic that we missed the boat in terms of AI and new technologies, and we’re trying to catch up now and make our voice heard.

Again, I mentioned I think that’s why Pope Francis went to the G7 in Italy last month. We have so much to say. We’ve been studying the human condition for 2,000 years. We’re the longest standing institution in the world today, perhaps second to the Jewish religion, but as an institution, because the Jewish religion has several different institutional entities within it. The Pope is a symbol of the Catholic Church. Islam does not. They have imams and of course the prophet, but the Catholic Church has always had one voice, the Pope, representing the richness of our tradition. We’re playing catch up. We should be in the forefront of these technologies, especially of AI, but we’re not. I applaud the efforts of someone like Matthew Sanders who’s taking AI, putting it to use for the Catholic Church and the Catholic Mission.

There are other people, even Archbishop Palia, with his Rome call, Father Benanti, who’s a pioneer, who coined the term Algo Ethics, instead of Algo Rhythms. Bishop Barron here in the United States has a huge social media presence, and there are others that we can look at. But it is certainly important today we need to do more.

Can you please share a message for our readers on how you see the next few years of AI, becoming more and more prevalent from the perspective of Catholics?

Okay, Tom, anyone who tells you they know what the next five years hold for AI, they’re wrong, because there’s no way that we can predict what’s going to happen. I mean, probably one of the best is Ray Kurzweil in terms of his track record, but I hear a lot of people tell me, you know, we’re going to be here within five years. This is what AI is going to be doing in five years.

Elon Musk just came out, I think, two weeks ago and said that Chat GPT will have human-level intelligence within four years, I think he said. And then within a year after that, it will have a level of intelligence of the entire human race. Elon likes to make these kinds of statements because they’re exciting and they’re provocative and I just don’t know.

But I can tell you there’s going to be an exponential increase in the capacity of AI. And again, I agree with Eliezer. What we get to artificial general intelligence, and Sam Altman says this is probably about 10 years away.

And he should know because he’ll be one of the first there. We’ll immediately get to artificial super intelligence, which is a term coined by Nick Brostrom, who used to teach at Oxford University and wrote a book called Superintelligence.

Now, once we get to super intelligence, then that’s a game changer. Then we just have to see what’s going to happen with that.

Some ask me if I’m optimistic or am pessimistic. And I say I’m hopeful. The Catholic Priest, I think, has to be hopeful that we’re going to use this for our benefit and not for our demise. And I think that it’s natural for the human beings to use technology in order to achieve their goals and not the contrary.

But as Max Tegmark said in our debate at MIT, it does depend on us. He’s absolutely right. Well, indirectly it depends on God, but God has allowed us to invent this technology, and therefore I consider it part of his provenance. But I said that in our debate, and Max said, oh, yes, but it depends on us, what we do with it. He’s absolutely right. So I don’t want to be naive.

I don’t want to sound like I don’t know where this is going. The market force is a tremendous force behind these growing technologies. And then, of course, we have all kinds of different fields in which they are used.

One, unfortunately, is the military.

And so there’s a lot of incentive to use it for military use. But I think as Catholics, we should not put our heads in the sand. We should not pretend like this isn’t happening. We should be conscientious of how we use it, and we should be ambitious to use it for the mission of the Church.

The post Interview with Vatican AI Expert and Author Fr. Philip Larrey: ‘We Should be Ambitious to Use AI for the Mission of the Church’ appeared first on Indian Catholic Matters.

For Indian Catholic Matters and Tom Thomas, it is indeed a rare privilege to have an opportunity to interact with Bro Guy Consolmagno, SJ, President, the Vatican Observatory — an astronomer to three Popes; who incidentally has an asteroid named after him — and is a renowned publisher of numerous books and scientific articles. More importantly, he’s working at the intersection of science and faith. Excerpts from the interview:

What led you into the field of astronomy and then onto religion? Both the streams seem to be very different as religion particularly our Catholic Religion views God as the Creator of everything (as mentioned right from the First book in the Bible – Genesis) while Science tries to find a rational explanation for everything. Can you please explain your unique path for us?

This is not a unique path, nor even very unusual. My religion tells me God created the universe; my science tells me how He did it. But even more, my religion tells me that the God who created this universe was supernatural, not a nature god; that He created a universe that was orderly and understandable; and that this universe is good. You must believe all of those things before you can do science. If the universe is at the whim of nature gods then there would be no laws of nature to discover. If it were not good, then there would be no reason to dedicate our lives to study it.

And this is not unusual. Read your history and you will find that so many scientists were inspired to study the universe directly by their religion — Ampere and Volta, for whom “amps” and “volts” are named; Gregor Mendel, who discovered the laws of inheritance; George Lemaître, who devised the Big Bang Theory.

Others who may not think of themselves as religious nonetheless speak of the beauty and order and elegance that causes them to love nature and what to get to know it better. And all of us are dedicated absolutely to Truth, even when it means admitting when we are wrong. What is more religious than that?

What is it like to be the Pope’s astronomer?  In your opinion, how supportive is the Holy Father on Astronomy?

There are two remarkable differences between being an astronomer at a university or national lab and being an astronomer for the Pope. The first is the motivation behind the work. What gets you up in the morning to do your work? Too often it was the case for me, before I entered the Jesuits, that I was working for my own glory, or for a better position, or just for a salary. I had lost the enthusiasm for the work itself. The second is related to the first: back then I had to choose the projects I work on based worries about what work can get government grants on a three year funding cycle. But at the Vatican, I can choose the projects that I actually find interesting; and I can pursue them for as long as it takes, even if it takes many years to bring them to completion.

At the Vatican, the motivation for my work ultimately is to bring glory to God the Creator, not to bring glory to myself. As a result, much of the work we do at the Observatory are long-term projects that are widely used in our field, such as surveys of spectra or surveys of meteorite properties. No one ever got a Nobel Prize for this work, but we aren’t doing the work for prizes. The data we collect will be used by our colleagues for many years to come, long after flashier theories are long forgotten.

Every Pope has supported our astronomy very strongly, each in his own way. I am told that Pope Pius XII was an amateur astronomer; he came from a wealthy noble Italian family and used part of his family fortune to purchase a modern telescope for the observatory in the 1950s. His successor, Pope John XIII, didn’t follow the astronomy as closely but during his summer vacations in the Papal Palace in Castel Gandolfo where our telescopes were located he would visit the astronomers and night and bring them a bottle of wine!

I have worked for three popes, from Saint John Paul II to Benedict XVI to Francis, and they have all been very supportive. They are all academics (two of them were university professors) so they understand the nature of our work.

Can you explain to us some of the history between the Vatican observatory and the important scientific discoveries made? What is the position of the Church over the years to science and the support received by Vatican over the years. What are the facilities of the Vatican observatory, location, etc? Can you share some details of the annual budget, faculty, important publications/research, etc.  if possible.

We publish a summary of our work every year in an Annual Report, which is distributed to officials in the Vatican, and to astronomical research centers around the world. Anyone can find these reports on-line, at our web site.

Typically, these reports run to more than 60 pages every year. We are very busy! For example, in 2020 we reported on the publication of six books and 125 scientific papers and articles by the staff of the observatory and our affiliated scholars.

Among our facilities are the remarkable Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Arizona; one of the largest meteorite collections in the world including the world’s leading laboratory for measuring their physical properties; high-speed computing facilities; an extensive collection of telescopic photographic plates dating from the 19th century; and of course an excellent library including a number of historical books.

You can go to our general web site, www.VaticanObservatory.org where we outline the impact that the Observatory has had, and continues to have, in the field of astronomy. It’s far too lengthy to summarize here!

Jesuits are known for their far-reaching interest in astronomy over the centuries and in fact have made huge contributions in India.  For example, the city I live in Bengaluru had a telescope for many years housed in the Jesuit-run St Joseph’s College in the heart of the city. Can you please trace for our readers how the Jesuits came to be associated with astronomy in the history of the Catholic Church and tradition that continues to this day.

Astronomy was one of the four fundamental courses, along with arithmetic, geometry, and music, that made up the studies (called the “quadrivium”) of the medieval universities, necessary to be completed before one could do doctoral studies in philosophy or theology. So of course the Jesuits, who ran schools around the world, would be well versed in teaching these subjects.

Note that in those days astronomy was considered to be a branch of mathematics, since it was originally dealing mostly with calculating the positions of planets. An important person in this history was Fr. Christopher Clavius SJ, a key figure in the 1582 reform of the calendar, who made certain that mathematics and astronomy was an essential part of the Jesuit curriculum. Clavius was a friend and advisor to Galileo.

Among notable Jesuit astronomers were Giovanni Batiste Riccioli SJ, who in the 17th century made the first accurate map of the Moon and assigned the nomenclature we use today; Maximilian Hell SJ, who ran the observatory in Vienna and observed the transit of Venus in the 18th century; and Angelo Secchi SJ, in the 19th century, who pioneered the observation of stellar spectra and the surfaces of planets. Jesuits also ran the Beijing Observatory in China and of course set up a number of important observatories in India.

The Vatican Observatory has a long history. In its present form it was set up in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII. The first directors were not Jesuits; but a Jesuit priest-astronomer, Johan Hagen SJ, was named director in 1905 and after his death, Pope Pius XI tasked the Jesuit order with directing and staffing the observatory. In fact, as the largest order of men in the Church, the Jesuits had the largest pool of possible scientists, mathematicians, and astronomers to draw from.

For long, India was and continues to be a spiritual destination. Many have looked to East for spiritual enlightenment. India too had its share of astronomers. Aryabhata I (AD 476) is considered one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers of ancient India. Another astronomer Brahmagupta defined Zero. Many cultures including India have a strong astrology base. However, scientific testing has found no evidence to support the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions. What is your take on this?

I have fascinated by the work of Aryabhata for many years, and of course everyone knows how so much of modern mathematics derives from the work of Indians over the centuries. But most of the astronomy in India was done, as you say, in order to do astrology, which was considered a very practical reason. That is one reason my Aryabhata’s work is so fascinating, because almost uniquely he was concerned with the greater philosophical sense of how the planets moved, rather than just how their positions could be predicted.

As the famous philosopher of science, Fr. Stanley Jaki, has pointed out, in order to do any science for its own sake you must believe that the physical universe is itself inherently worth studying for its own sake. The clearest justification is found in the theology of Genesis and other scriptural texts in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that see creation as the work of God and thus an expression of God’s glory.

Thus, in the cultures of those religions, science for its own sake would be supported. By that I don’t only mean that people would allow scholars to study the physical universe; I also mean that the culture would honor such a study. Your mom would be proud of you if you chose to become an astronomer!

Can you share some extrapolation from your study of astronomy and some of the phenomena mentioned in the Bible such as the Star that the Magi saw? Could this be explained? Also the Church position on possibility life on other planets/extra-terrestrials, the creation of the Universe/Big bang theory?

I actually co-authored a book on these many topics, called “Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? And other questions…” And I know my answers are by no means the final word on the topics!

There are three things to always remember about such topics. First, there have always been devoutly religious people engaged in the studies of all these topics. Second, there is never a final “answer” to any of them; by its nature, good science will uncover new mysteries to ponder even as it explores old mysteries.  And this means that, there is not and can never be any official “Catholic” position on any of these topics.

An example of this arose in the 1950s when Pope Pius XII spoke favorably about the theory we now call the Big Bang, noting that the idea of a beginning to the universe would be familiar to anyone who read scripture. As it happened, the scientist who first proposed the Big Bang was a Catholic priest, Fr. Georges Lemaître. Fr. Lemaître spoke directly to the Pope, asking him to refrain from such statements. The Big Bang is just our best theory for right now; who knows what our understanding of cosmology might look like in a thousand years’ time?

(And, as it happens, the idea of creation-from-nothing is not the same as the Big Bang. As Aquinas points out, God does not create the universe at one moment but rather maintains the universe at every moment, since God exists outside of space and time.)

If one of our readers would like to follow your path, what advice could you give them? How could they get started on a journey like yours?

No such advice is possible! To quote an aphorism attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, “God writes straight with crooked lines.” My path to where I am was so convoluted and unexpected that I am sure even I could not follow it a second time. Instead, one must always be open to the whispers of the Spirit. And how do you learn to hear that small, still voice? That is why the Jesuits have retreats and retreat programs.

What was the most wonderful moment you have experienced so far in your life as an astronomer and a religious?

 That’s another impossible question to answer. Events in your life can be wonderful or tragic, but they aren’t quantified, they can’t be stacked and compared.

For me they range from meeting Pope John Paul II, to seeing the wispy light of Eta Carina in my small telescope; from seeing my first book published, to seeing the delight on the face of a student who suddenly appreciated the meaning of Maxwell’s Equations. There are more such moments than I can count.

The Vatican observatory has launched a new website recently.  Could you please highlight some key features of that for our readers in India?

 The address is www.VaticanObservatory.org and I encourage everyone to explore it. We were able to hire a professional team who specialize in web sites for Catholic organizations, and I think they did a terrific job. There are so many different branches to it, and everyone has their own favorites.

I would especially like to point out are the Faith and Science resource center, where we have assembled more than 500 articles on the topic of faith and science that teachers and other interested folks can explore.

In addition, we have a digital community called Sacred Space Astronomy that includes regular articles from both astronomers and religious about observing the sky and what it means to us… from a woman in Ireland who helps schoolchildren draw pictures of things in space, to a world-class astrophotographer who is detailing close up features on the Moon, from a priest who reflects on his stargazing and his parish, to my own collection of articles I have published over the years about my work as a Vatican Astronomer.

And there is a gallery of images from the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope; links to podcasts we have prepared; and an extensive section about our history, like our fully operational 19th century Carte du Ciel telescope.

You are one of the lucky few to have an asteroid named after you! Can you please let us know how this happened to be?

Asteroids are named by the people who discover them, and the rules are pretty loose about what names they can use. For example, you have to be dead to have a crater named for you, but you can be quite alive and get an asteroid name, as long as you’re not a politician or a general!

There is a small but active group of scientists who study small bodies in the solar system… asteroids and comets, along with meteorites and meteors. (Meteors are the flashes of light caused by dust hitting the Earth’s atmosphere; meteorites are the rocks that survive passing through the atmosphere and hit the ground.) Every three years these scientists gather for a meeting called “ACM” for asteroids, comets, and meteors. At the meeting banquet a handful of scientists who have been active in the field are singled out for asteroid names, as someone who’s discovered a bunch of asteroids will offer them up for naming. I got mine at the ACM meeting in Paris in 1997.

Could you please let us know some of the science and religious books you have read and have inspired you over the years?

There are a lot of good books out there (and even more that aren’t so good), but here are three that I have “borrowed” some of my favorite ideas from!

First, and a classic, is G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy (1909). He ranges over many topics, and never tells one story when five come to mind, but throughout it he scatters a number of important insights about nature, evolution, and the relationship between God the Creator and us as His creatures.

The opening chapters of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning (2011) have had a tremendous influence on my thinking of the supernatural nature of God and how important that is in the way we understand the relationship between Creator and the created.

Finally, I would like to recall Fr. Michael Buckley’s Denying and Disclosing God: The Ambiguous Progress of Modern Atheism (2004). He wrote other more technical works on the rise of atheism, but this slender volume puts a human face on it and reminds us of what we lose when we lose sight of God in the universe.

Lastly, if you could share some words with our readers on this journey of science and religion, favourite quotes or anything that inspires you.

Here are some snippets that have stuck with me…

“We are not apprentice angels” — John Polkinghorne, speaking of the importance and meaning of the Resurrection and our existence as material creatures, in Science and Christian Belief

“The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister…

To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.” — G. K. Chesterton, in Orthodoxy

“The earth is so very large, and the cosmos is so very small. The cosmos is about the smallest hole that a man can hide his head in.” — G. K. Chesterton, in Orthodoxy

“Freud said that religious faith was the comforting illusion that there is a father figure. A religious believer might say that atheism is the comforting illusion that there is no father figure, so that we can do what we like and can get away with it: an adolescent’s dream.” — Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Great Partnership

“Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.” Pope John Paul II, Letter on the Occasion of the 300th Anniversary of Newton’s Principia

“Science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human. Yet it can also destroy mankind and the world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it… It is not science that redeems man: man is redeemed by love.” Pope Benedict, Spe Salvi.

All images are from Vatican Observatory.

The post Interview: Through the Eyes of Vatican Observatory: Where Science Meets Faith! appeared first on Indian Catholic Matters.

Over 30 years, she has to her credit 800 published works including motivational articles, short stories, poems, songs and short plays.

After a miraculous healing of a brain tumour and tuberculosis, she spends her time and talent reaching-out to people in deep despair.

Excerpts from an interview with Adolf Washington for readers of Indian Catholic Matters:

I understand you went through a tough time battling brain tumor and tuberculosis. Tell us of your experience.

Heera: During the Covid Pandemic in 2019 , after frequent episodes of breathlessness, I was diagnosed with brain tumour. Surgery was recommended but I couldn’t undergo the surgery as my oxygen saturation level was extremely low. Some doctors suggested medication instead of surgery. Meanwhile, due to delayed action, I completely lost sight in my right eye and was :additionally diagnosed with T.B.

Being a proactive person that you are as a school teacher and mentor, did you see hope?

Heera: From December 2019 to January 2020, I was hospitalised. There were several lows and highs. It was a question of life and death. My family rallied around to help, especially my sister Tara, who sacrificed her family chores and spent hours with me daily in the hospital. Though physically weak, I was mentally, emotionally, and spiritually strong.  I remember crying out to God-ji to save me and to make me resilient in pain. I vowed to God-ji that if healed, I would become a beacon of hope and  strength to other patients battling terminal illness. I promised God-ji, Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit that I would become a warrior and spokesperson for God to help patients with terminal illnesses.

You were healed by Faith. Is that why you emphatically profess Faith in Jesus?

Heera: No. Not at all. Being healed is certainly a great miracle in my life. But I came to know God-ji, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit since my school and college days, as the institutions were run by Christian nuns, and I felt  personally drawn towards God-ji, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.  There was never any external influence on my love and fascination for the Christian religion and the wonderful teachings of the Bible.  I have always listened-to and shared my faith experiences with others.

You have been spending your time rendering hope to people in distress, especially the terminally-ill. Did you have a ‘spiritual awakening’ experience?

Heera: Yes. I did have a spiritual awakening and a revelation while in the hospital. God speaks to us in amazing ways.  I began to see purpose in my pain and began to feel that many are suffering more than me in different ways and I must reach-out to them with the strength I received. For the start, after my discharge from the hospital, I joyfully celebrated my birthday with ragpicker children.  Ever since, I have been spending my time at Homes for the Aged, with acid-attack victims, with visually and physically challenged people.

How do you infuse faith and courage  in the distressed people you have been reaching-out to?

Heera: I have been through emotional and physical pain so I understand what many experience. What distressed people need most is empathetic  listening, words of hope, and a hand to hold.  I write motivational poems, songs, and articles and go about reading poems or singing the songs to the people I meet. I help people ‘visualise’ healing and happiness.

Being a retired teacher and a spinster too, are there times you  feel all alone?

Heera: Not at all.  I have mentored to students for over two decades.  I now give tuition mostly in English and French. But you can never really retire when you choose to continue doing good for others.  God-ji, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit constantly inspire me to write and to reach out to others.  We are never alone when we stay connected with God.

I continue my mission by giving motivational talks and reciting poems on God’s teachings and miracles. I motivate my students, relatives, and friends never to give up but to count on God-ji in difficult times.  God-ji never gives-up on us.

The post Interview: ‘I Saw Purpose in My Pain,’ Says Faith-Driven Caregiver Heera Nawaz appeared first on Indian Catholic Matters.

Matthew Harvey Sanders runs a technology company, Longbeard, as its Founder & CEO. In the past, the firm has concentrated on implementing technology infrastructure to enhance consumer reach and organisational operations. It now collaborates closely on digital infrastructure projects, such as creating websites and web applications, for the Holy See and other institutions like the Pontifical Oriental Institute to enhance organisational processes and audience reach. Right now, Longbeard’s main focus is on AI applications. Thanks to Mathew and his team, the richness of the unique library at The Pontifical Oriental Institute, which is the leading academic institution for the Eastern Churches, representing the Middle East, East Africa, India, and Eastern Europe, is available to more people around the world through Magisterium AI. Mathew interacted exclusively with Indian Catholic Matters on creating the Magisterium AI and Vulgate AI. Excerpts:

How did the idea of creating Magisterium AI come about?

The Pontifical Oriental Institute reached out to us and wanted to explore how they could make their unique library available to more people around the world. At the time, if you wanted to do research using their library resources, you’d have to come to Rome to do it. This was obviously very expensive, and very few had the privilege. Magisterium AI and later Vulgate AI were answers to this problem. It allowed anyone with an internet connection to access their library resources and engage them in their native languages.

How is this different from other AI services such as Bible AI, ChatGPT, Bard from the perspective of a Catholic?

Good question. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard were trained on huge chunks of the internet. Naturally, among those contents were a diversity of opinions, many of which do not represent the official teaching of the Church or actively misrepresent it. The problem with these applications is they generate responses but do not inform you from which they source their information. So, how do you know whether ChatGPT or Bard-generated is true or not?

Magisterium AI was created to address this issue and many others. Magisterium AI carefully curates what the AI can reference. So, when in Magisterial Mode, the AI is only referencing and generating from the official teaching of the Church. Moreover, we provide citations so you know from what documents the answer was generated. Currently, our AI is referencing over 5,700 magisterial documents.

Scholarly Mode provides a greater diversity of Catholic thought, going beyond official magisterial teaching to include the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, Fathers of the Church, etc. The AI has access to over 2500 works in Scholarly Mode.

The fact that you can switch between Magisterial or Scholarly Modes is one of the unique benefits of Magisterium AI.

Scholarly Mode also includes the Bible as well as important biblical commentaries.

How receptive has the Catholic Church been to Magisterium AI? Can you share feedback from some of the leaders of the Catholic Church in this regard?

I’ve been surprised by how well-received Magisterium AI is. We’ve had supportive notes from multiple bishops, priests, and religious figures from around the world.

The product isn’t perfect, but they understand what we’re trying to do and why and so have been supporting its continued development.

I recently gave a talk at a Catholic Bishops’ Conference on the challenges and opportunities AI is presenting to the Church. It was very well received, and I was delighted by how engaged the participants were. It was obvious that AI is an important issue to them, and they’re concerned and excited.

What are the ‘trending’ questions being asked on Magisterium AI if you can share them?

We’re very protective of our users’ data and so don’t share publicly user interaction, but what I can say is that the questions being asked are pretty run-of-the-mill.

I’m always fascinated by how many people are interested in exorcism, ha!

Please list out the steps on the best way to use Magisterium AI to further our understanding of the Catholic Church.

Anyone who has used ChatGPT will immediately understand how to use Magisterium AI as our apps share similar UIs (user interfaces).

Visit Magisterium AI and look for the chat box. Type your question, and once Magisterium AI has had a chance to process the data, it will generate a concise answer. Pretty straightforward.

Can you please share some books or quotes from your favourite authors in the area of Catholicism and technology (especially AI)?

• Artificial Humanity by Fr. Philip Larrey
• Connected World by Fr. Philip Larrey

“The inherent dignity of each human being and the fraternity that binds us together as members of the one human family must undergird the development of new technologies and serve as indisputable criteria for evaluating them before they are employed” – Message of the Holy Father for the 57th World Day of Peace.

Please share some thoughts on the future of AI and how you see it impacting the lives of us Catholics in future.

AI is going to reshape our world. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in 10 years, 50% of the world’s population is conventionally unemployed because of AI and robotics.

There are two ways, I feel, we can respond to this inevitability. We can proceed in fear and try to limit or manipulate the market driving these technological forces, or, we can proceed in hope and start to really explore how these technologies could be used to create a new era of abundance.

I feel we need to focus, as a species, on ensuring these technologies are applied in areas that will see the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people. Spiritual growth, education, food, shelter, and health, are all areas AI could supercharge. We simply need governments, companies, and churches, to provide a supportive environment for the creative genius of humanity to flourish.

More specifically for the Church, what we need is a new generation of philosophers and theologians who understand these technologies and their implications deeply and are willing to courageously speak out. The Church has been prophetic in the past in predicting and in many ways helping prevent disasters that may have resulted due to technological advancement. The Church needs to lead once again.

What are your future plans for Magisterium AI?

We plan to foster more partnerships with universities and organizations so we may gain access to greater Catholic insight to share with the world.

We plan to continue to technologically develop Magisterium AI and Vulgate AI to make it easier for people to use and hopefully, more fun!

Very soon, Magisterium AI will have a voice, and you’ll be able to talk to the church’s documents.

How can we use technology in a balanced manner without being slaves to it?

My advice is to be as transparent as possible with your spiritual director about your use of technology. It’s their job to ensure you’re on the right spiritual path, and if your technology use is becoming a barrier to spiritual growth, they’ll tell you.

The only other thing I’d say is remember that technology is a tool. It’s neither bad nor good. It comes down to how it’s used. So, use it wisely.

Is there a danger of people moving away from traditional learning methods and relying more on technology and AI applications?

This movement is inevitable, but I’d assert that it’s not necessarily dangerous.

I’m sure when the printing press came out, there were people very concerned that books everywhere would change learning for the worse. We’d now say that’s silly.

Education will adapt, and as long as we’re measuring the extent to which AI in education is supporting human flourishing, I don’t feel we’ve anything to fear.

The post ‘It’s Time to Learn the Teachings of the Church Through AI’ appeared first on Indian Catholic Matters.

On the 17th of December, Pope Francis celebrates his 87th birthday and this year also marked the 10th anniversary when the world first watched Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio step out of the balcony of St. Peter’ as Pope Francis. After five ballots, at the end of the second day of voting the white smoke poured out of the comignolo, the copper and steel tube on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. The Habemus papam (we have a pope) moment was characterised by the shyly waves in one hand by the new pontiff and “Buona Sera” (good evening in Italian) which was greeted with cries of delight and applause of the thousands gathered at the Piazza San Pietro. The evening culminated with a beautiful gesture before the Apostolic blessing Urbi et Orbi- “Let us say this prayer, your prayer for me, in silence,” he told the cheering crowd.

Pope Francis is a Pope of gestures, very much pastoral in his vision. Ten years on some of the ecclesial themes of this pontificate have been discernment, encounter, accompaniment, emphasizing the mercy and tenderness of God, the revival of pastoral theology, synodality, how to care for creation, and how to engage, rather than confront, secularization. Of these one of the buzz words that has been dominant is synodality.

In 2016 for an interview on Heavens Road Catholic FM for my podcast series “Talking Faith” I caught up with the Late Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster Diocese and former President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales at his Chiswick residence in London. Cardinal Cormac was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI and he was a close ally of then fellow Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was elected as Pope Francis in 2013.

Following are extracts of the transcript of my hour long interview I had with the Late Cardinal Cormac which in essence gives us a good understanding of the personality of the Holy Father whose pontificate has been a revelation for the Catholic Church.

Transcript of my interview with the Late Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor:

Lavoisier: Your Eminence, you were appointed Cardinal in the same consistory as Pope Francis by St. John Paul II in 2001. You have worked closely with the Holy Father. In short, what can you tell us about the Holy Father?

Cardinal Cormac: Let me say first, that I met him, when we were both made cardinals, as you were saying in 2001, and I used to sit next to him at Cardinal meetings, so I got to know him very well. And you know, what struck me about him was, he was a man who was intelligent, spiritual, and had a mind of his own and had his own thoughts about things. He had come from a different background in Argentina, South America and lived amongst very poor people. So, I found him, a very good man to be with and very realistic about the world, about the church and about his hopes for the future.

Lavoisier: The Holy Father has developed a reputation for having a great sense of humor. His laugh and his smile just speak for itself. And I believe when he was elected pontiff one of the first things, he told the College of Cardinals was that I do hope God forgives you for electing me pontiff. Does this sense of humor, and his smile and his personality make it easy for you to deal with the Holy Father?

Cardinal Cormac: I think it’s not just me. Everybody relates to Pope Francis in the sense that he always takes people where they are. We’ve all got ambitions, we got to be holy, but he says this is who you are, this is where you are. Let’s take a step ahead towards what is good. And people relate to that. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Catholic, whether you’re a Christian, whether you are from another faith or no faith, he will still speak to you. He will be warm towards you. And he will engage with you.

Lavoisier: Pope Francis, many relate to him as the pope of surprises. From the moment he stepped out of the balcony of St. Peter’s for the first time. Everybody in the world was surprised, and almost most of the TV channels got it wrong. As he was not one of the favorites, Your Eminence was the election of Pope Francis a surprise to you?

Cardinal Cormac: I think it was a surprise, generally. But for me it was not, knowing him well, and being present at the meetings before the Conclave. I didn’t actually go into the conclave because I was over 80. But I talked to the other Cardinals. And you know with conclaves, one is looking at possible candidates and realistic candidates. Up until 30 or 40 years ago, it was usually Italian Cardinals. But since the election of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict, the field has been wide open. And a lot of people felt that it would be good to have a Pope elected out of Europe. Let’s get away from old, tired Europe and go to the new world. I knew cardinals from both north and south America and for me Cardinal Bergoglio stood out, so I wasn’t totally surprised.

Lavoisier: Is Pope Francis the pope of many first?

Cardinal Cormac: I think choosing the name Francis was a bit of a genius. Because it’s a dangerous name to choose. Because if you choose Francis, we’ve got to be a bit like the great St. Francis of Assisi and, this Pope has a similar style of simplicity and poverty. He lives in a hostel not in the Vatican palace. He queues for breakfast with all the other priests who are living there. It’s a very simple life and he talks to everybody. I’d like to tell the story of when he came out of his room one morning at about half past five, six in the morning. And the Vatican guard was standing outside, and he said to him, how long have you been standing here? The Vatican guard said I have been standing four hours. Oh, he said, that’s a long time. I’ll get you a chair, to which the guard said Oh, no Holy Father you can’t do that. Why not? the Pope said. So, the guard then said because the captain of the guards says I’ve got to be standing. So, the Pope said look here. I’m the captain of the captain. So, I’m going to get you a chair. So, he got a chair and gave the guard a sandwich. Simple, but shows how he relates to anybody.

Lavoisier: What do you think is Pope Francis’s vision for the church?

Cardinal Cormac: I think his vision for the church is possibly threefold. Firstly, he has written an encyclical called the Joy of the Gospel. The Gospel is the message of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who gives us good news. And the good news is that God is love and God is merciful. And God has conveyed that with his son Jesus Christ. And the Pope wants all Christians and Catholics particularly, to live that life more freely and of course through prayer, the sacraments and to be generous in their Christian lives. I think that’s his first priority. He has wider priorities; he wrote another letter on the environment. He’s worried about this world, and concern for this world and for the ecology and all that, because he sees this world, that has been given to us in a mysterious way by God and yes with all the theories of evolution, but God is there, this world is given to us, so we must care for it and look after it. And no other Pope has written a letter like him on the care of the earth. So obviously that’s a big priority for him. And as we’ve seen recently, he cares particularly for the family, he feels that family is crucial to good living. That’s why he called a synod meeting of bishops on the family to get the views of the bishops and the faithful people on what are their views of the family? How does one deal with family in the modern world. The last thing I’d say about his vision for the church is that he wants to share his authority with other bishops. The Pope has a particular role, but he shares it with the bishops. And he is taking steps to see how that can happen. And he’s giving people more freedom in their own lives and in their own diocese, for bishops to be free to live the gospel. Because living the Gospel is different here in London say than down in areas say in Manila.

Lavoisier: Your eminence, do you think he’s bringing about reform without compromising the doctrine of the Church, he seems to have a different style.

Cardinal Cormac: Sometimes, people are a bit alarmed while he’s speaking, especially while he is on a plane. He gets an interview with a journalist, and he answers their questions very realistically. But he never compromises what’s the deepest truths of the faith, we call it the deposit of faith. Those are things about God about Jesus Christ, about what we believe about Jesus Christ, and how we celebrate that belief in the sacraments and the liturgy. People say but is he clear about the indissolubility of marriage. Yes, he is, but he also knows that we live in a broken world, and that God is merciful. He’s not giving away anything regarding the fundamentals of Catholic doctrine or Catholic morality or Christian morality.

Lavoisier: Do you think the Holy Father is very much like Pope John XXIII. A breath of fresh air for the Catholic Church ready to address any of the challenges be it on the family, the role of women in the church, capitalism, immigration.

Cardinal Cormac: Yes and no. No, because in a way, I think Pope John XXIII was a wonderful Pope, who again was a breath of fresh air, and he called the Vatican council which was crucial in the life of the church. But I have known the other Popes like Pope Paul VI who I found was a wonderful man and who had a difficult pontificate trying to fulfill the hopes of the council. Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict, they all came with their own styles, and I wouldn’t want your listeners to feel that other popes were not up to it. They all were special in a different way.

Lavoisier: Do you see the legacy of the Second Vatican Council being fulfilled in the pontificate of Pope Francis

Cardinal Cormac: I think that’s what they say about general Councils it takes at least 50 years to be fulfilled and realized for all sorts of reasons. And I will say that the hopes of the Vatican Council in terms of the governance of the church, ecumenical outreach and in terms of how the church is now being fulfilled in the pontificate of Pope Francis.

Lavoisier Fernandes, born and raised in Goa, is currently based in West London. His faith is “work in progress”—a lifelong journey.  He has always been fascinated by the Catholic faith thanks to his Salesian schooling.  His passion is podcasting, theology, the papacy, and volunteering.  He has hosted the ‘Talking Faith’ series for Heavens Road FM Catholic Radio, connecting with ordinary men and women within the Catholic faith, other faiths and examining issues affecting both Church and society. He has also hosted the ‘Heart Talk’ series for  Shalom World Catholic TV.  He presently contributes for the Goa Diocesan magazine Renovação and the Faith Companion Magazine in England.

The post Interview: Snippets of the Papacy of Pope Francis on His 87th Birthday appeared first on Indian Catholic Matters.

“The Pope’s Exorcist” is one of the top ten movies streaming on Netflix. As a Catholic, I found several aspects of the movie, very compelling, such as “If there is no Evil, where is the need for the Church,” a couple of quotes at the beginning of the movie, and also, “Your sins will seek you out.”

After watching the movie, I read the book on which it is based, “An Exorcist Tells his story,” by Fr Gabriele Amorth, who performed hundreds of exorcisms as the exorcist for the Diocese of Rome.

Russell Crowe has played the role of Fr Amorth very convincingly, and was ably assisted by Fr Tomas, they demonstrate that a Catholic Priest will do anything to save the soul of one, even at the cost of their own lives – very poignant.

My research showed me that Fr Edward Siebert SJ, of Loyola Productions, co-produced this thought-provoking movie and I reached out to Fr Siebert, as I think there are a lot of myths surrounding exorcism and the evil one, even among Catholics in India, and would be good to get Fr Siebert’s view on it. I was fortunate that Fr Siebert replied and was ready to do an email interview for ICM readers. Excerpts:

Dear Fr Siebert, it is very kind of you to agree to take this email interview for our readers. Can you please tell us a bit about yourself, your background, as well as that of Loyola Productions, and what led to your purchasing the movie rights to this book?

Thanks for inviting me! My name is Fr. Eddie Siebert, S.J. and I’m a Jesuit priest and filmmaker. Originally from Ohio, in the Midwest, I now call Los Angeles my home. I’ve been a Jesuit priest for 26 years. I’m currently the Rector at the Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Jesuit Community and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Film & Television at LMU.

I founded Loyola Productions, Inc. (LPI) over 20 years ago to tell global stories that inform, inspire, and entertain. My goal with LPI was always to move from creating strictly Ignatian programming and into producing mainstream content. That said, I was reluctant when the opportunity arose to option the rights to Fr. Gabriele Amorth’s stories about his work as an exorcist, I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t want to do an exorcism movie.’ Not only is horror not really my genre, but William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” is a cinematic and cultural touchstone that is forever etched into the minds of audiences around the world. But the more we talked about getting the rights, the more I realized we could reach a wider audience with an interesting story about a real man and his mission. It was a complicated process, but we ultimately secured the rights, and we were off and running.

How hard was it to translate the main points of Fr Amorth’s book to the screen, and to get actors such as Russell Crowe interested in the project? Can you please share some details on the process, effort, and budget if possible?

We listened to a lot of pitches and finally landed on two writers who would draft the script for the film. Over a period of several months, the writers would pass various drafts to the producing team and we would give notes. This cycle of writing/notes/re-writing can seem interminable, but it’s essential: the studio will give the film a green light for production only when the script is where it needs to be.

Our goal was to be as authentic to the character of Fr. Amorth as possible, but obviously this is a work of historical fiction. The writers and the director took creative liberty to translate the characters’ internal struggles into cinematic language.

The movie theme of two Catholic Priests teaming up and using all their spiritual training to save the Soul of an affected boy is a refreshing change from the current superhero movies. Can you please comment on this aspect?

I love the buddy aspect of the film! “The Pope’s Exorcist” is very much a dynamic duo movie, with two very different protagonists thrown together to accomplish a monumentally difficult task. In our film, they just happen to be priests who play off of each other nicely. Clearly, Fr. Amorth is the veteran and Fr. Esquibel is the neophyte. Combined, they make a great team.

Could you elaborate a bit on the power of the name of Jesus and the existence of the evil one, as you have highlighted these aspects in the movie?

A basic premise of “The Pope’s Exorcist” is that Evil exists in the world and the only way to dispel the darkness is to invoke the light of Christ. While the demons in the film may seem extreme and exaggerated, they are indicative of the power of evil to overwhelm us.

Fr Edward Siebert, SJ

Can you please share some information to dispel any wrong notions or myths surrounding the rite of exorcism, the evil one’s manifestation in the world today, and necessary prayers for Catholics, such as the St Michael’s prayer, to be on guard against such attacks always, etc for our readers, based on your knowledge gained from Fr Gabriele’s works and the movie.

Although certainly dramatic and often misunderstood, the rite of exorcism is essentially a ministry of healing. True cases of demonic possession, although extremely rare, can be devastating for the victim and terrifying for friends and family. Fr Amorth’s warm personality and no-nonsense approach cut through the histrionics of demonic possession and facilitated the outpouring of Christ’s love and mercy.

Regarding prayer, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus instructs the disciples, “This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, and do not put us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.”

It’s hard to beat this prayer (which comes from the heart and mouth of Jesus himself) for succinctness, purity of intention and breadth.

St Ignatius of Loyola has said that the evil spirit can come in the disguise of an angel of light. Can you please share some information with our readers on how we can be on guard against the evil spirit, and how we can discern if it is the good spirit or evil spirit within us?

Spiritual discernment is a fundamental element of Ignatian spirituality. Although St Ignatius certainly acknowledged the power of demonic possession, his discernment process is aimed at discovering God’s will by learning to recognise the movement of dispositions (which he called “spirits”) within us. Simply put, some dispositions lead us closer to God’s will (manifesting as peace, charity, true happiness) and some, however beguiling, lead us away from God’s will (manifesting as isolation, resentment, spiritual stultification and unhappiness.)

A wonderful way to learn more about spiritual discernment is to engage a Jesuit or Ignatian (i.e., Jesuit-trained) spiritual director. Another is to take advantage of the 3- or 7-day retreat experiences offered by most Ignatian spirituality centers.

What are your biggest takeaways from making this movie? Are there any memorable quotes or incidents you can share from Russel Crowe that happened during the making of this movie?

I’d say my biggest takeaways are to keep an open mind and to never give up. The pathway to your goal is often not the one you think it will be, so remain open to the possibilities that the Spirit presents, even if those possibilities are times of pause or what appears to be inactivity. The Spirit is always working. Patience!

Russell Crowe is a lovely man and it was great to meet and work with him. He was very alert to and respectful of the fact that he was portraying a real person with an utterly unique ministry. He approaches his craft very seriously and that was his focus during filming.

There are a lot of references to the Catholic Faith throughout the movie, through sacraments and prayers, could you kindly share what a Catholic MUST do daily in order to be away from the clutches of the Evil one?

As a Catholic, I strive to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Jesus was very clear about how to follow him: care for the poor, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, tend to the ill and destitute, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, and promote justice (Matthew 34-46.) This is a tall order! I believe that the surest defense against Evil is the honest effort to follow Jesus’ example and live out his call to build the Kingdom. The sacraments, liturgies, good works and magisterium of the Church are all there to guide and assist our efforts to emulate Christ and help build the Kingdom of God.

What are some favourite movies that you can recommend to our readers or further spiritual reading to get educated about the wiles of the evil one?

I’m going to stick with movies on this one because that is where my heart is: I’m most attracted to movies that, while not overtly religious, explore and celebrate the dimensions of the human experience, particularly our need for mercy, solidarity, community, forgiveness and faith.

Movies that spring to mind are:

• CRASH (2004)
• OF GODS AND MEN (2010)
• MAGNOLIA (1999)
• CALVARY (2014)
• CHILDREN OF MEN (2006)
• ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
• TRUE CONFESSIONS (1981)

Lastly Fr can you please share a prayer for our readers to be in the Light always?

As a Jesuit, I have a particular fondness for the Prayer of St. Ignatius. You certainly don’t need to be a Jesuit to gain spiritual strength and solace from Ignatius’ prayer!

Dearest Lord,
teach me to be generous;
teach me to serve You as You deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labour and not to ask for reward
save that of knowing I am doing Your Will.

Thank you very much for your time, Fr Siebert.

The post Interview: ‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ Movie Urges Us to Invoke the Light of Christ to Cast out Evil appeared first on Indian Catholic Matters.

Keeping up with its tagline, the southern Indian state of Kerala is literally turning out to be “God’s Own Country.” In the recent past, the state has testified to four saints — Kuriakose Elias Chavara, Euphrasia, Alphonsa and Mariam Thresia and one more to follow soon Blessed Rani Maria. ‘Blessed’ which is the penultimate (second last) step in the canonisation process. Of all the saints and to-be saints, Blessed Rani Maria’s story stands poignant.

Born in Kochi in Kerala in 1954, Sister Rani Maria after becoming a nun joined the Franciscan Clarist Congregation for missionary work. She mostly worked in North India for her congregation. On the fateful day of February 25, 1995, she was dragged out of a bus near Indore and stabbed to death by one Samundar Singh, who is alleged to have been hired by moneylenders, as their business got affected following the work by Sister Rani Maria among the women by creating self-help groups. One of the most touching events was her family pardoning Singh when he was left free in 2006.

Recreating these moments on the celluloid is an internationally acclaimed documentary film maker, cameraman and photographer – Shaison P. Ouseph. The shoot for the movie began as soon as the Covid pandemic settled down. His many credits range from director of photography to art direction on a myriad of documentaries and independent feature projects. So far he has worked in 35 countries and won more than 10 international recognitions, including United Nations’ and International Independent Film Awards. Currently he is the HOD for Film, Television and Digital Video Production Course at XIC, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

In an interaction with the ICM Editor, Shaison walks us through his thought process and insights. Excerpts from the interaction:

Was it because Blessed Rani Maria was murdered in a knife attack that you took this up as a subject for a movie about her?

No, it wasn’t only because of that. I have been doing research on Sister Rani Maria’s life for the past 5 years, and I came to understand and feel that she is truly an example of empowerment of the oppressed. Even though she was a Catholic nun with certain limitations within this society, she continued ahead with the fortitude of her beliefs, and of serving the poor in any capacity that she could. Just as Saint Teresa of Calcutta did for people in her day, Sr. Rani Maria was also an instrument of good work to those truly in need, and her story deserves to be celebrated and told to the world.

My goal in taking on any subject for a film is to let the world know that there are many good people who exist, who strive to make a change in the lives of others, even when facing adversity and detriment to themselves. One of the main reasons I wanted to make this film is that Sr. Rani Maria is a true example of the fight against injustice in society. I want to have an impact on an international scale with the story of a woman, a nun, who fully walked in the shoes of her beliefs of what was good and right.  Through this film I hope to bring attention to the needs of oppressed women throughout the world, and disadvantaged people of India in particular.

Film has an intrinsic power, not only to reach the masses but to also move minds more so than even the written or spoken word. When we can see the story, we can feel the story. This is a story that I think should be seen and felt.

How do you plan to portray the hitman Samandar Singh in the movie? Would you explore his character as an antagonist and /or backed by some ideology?

I have had the distinct privilege of being able to spend some time meeting and interacting with Samandar Singh, within his native village a couple of years back. I was able to have some deep discussions, to build a rapport with him on this topic, and he was able to reveal some surprisingly different angles to this question.

Obviously, at some point he is a primary antagonist, as a man drawn into a very dark side of life, used as an instrument to not only harm, but murder an innocent woman. But there is another side also, which is that in many ways Samandar Singh is just as much of a protagonist of this story as Sr. Rani Maria. It’s his life story also, and it’s a testament to how desperation can drive people to do the most heinous and grievous things imaginable, yet through the higher powers of love and forgiveness there is still space for redemption.

No doubt Samandar Singh was an instrument in the hands of some very dark powers…powers that still exist today, and control the lives of those in our society with no way out.

In your research about Blessed Rani Maria as a Saint, what are some insights that you featured in the movie?

There was a quote by tribal leader Gulzar Singh Markam that struck me in a particular way. He said, “[I view] Rani Maria’s work and murder differently. I do not look at her as a Christian religious [figure], but as the manifestation of humanity.”

I often get asked questions pertaining to my religious perspective on the films that I make. As someone who was raised in the Catholic faith, and who continues to practice that faith today, I take much pride in my religion and the spiritual lessons I have learned through Catholicism. My mission as a filmmaker however, is never to cover the core values of a story being told, with a religious perspective that may not apply to everyone. Sr. Rani Maria’s story isn’t just a Catholic story. Not all nuns are saints, not all religious people are good or well intentioned, non-believers can also be wonderful people who believe in doing what is right.

This is a story about a woman, and a nun, who was able to take inspiration of all that was good in the teachings of her faith. She took what was kind, compassionate, loving, and embodied it for the benefit of those less fortunate. That to me is the true definition of a Saint…the capability of the human spirit to do the work of the divine. This is one of the main aspects that I wish to bring into the film. Only great humans can work for the liberation of the marginalized from oppressors through risking one’s own life.

Have you explored the relationship between Sr. Rani Maria and her biological sister, Sr. Selmy Paul?

Yes. Sr. Rani Maria’s biological sister, Sr. Selmy Paul, plays a major role not only in the context of the film, but in the story of Rani Maria’s life, the aftermath of her death, and the fate of hitman Samandar Singh. I have gotten to speak with her on several occasions, and throughout our interviews and interactions I find her to be one of the biggest inspirations for doing this film.

For those that do not know, Sr. Selmy Paul is also a Catholic nun who belongs to the same congregation as Sr. Rani Maria. Sr. Paul would often travel to visit Samandar Singh in the prison, to speak with him, to counsel him, and maybe to try to find some understanding or closure. After many visits, she realized that she was dealing with a human soul in peril, and that it was her mission to help him. She not only chose to forgive this man who murdered her sister, but to help save his life. She became one of the most outspoken advocates for Samandar Singh, and played a major role in getting him released from his life sentence. She is one of the guiding heartbeats that turned a story of tragedy into a story of inspiration and redemption.

How did you go about casting for the movie? Any interesting aspects that came about in getting it right?

I think there is always some amount of flux that goes into getting the right people into the right roles, it’s not always a perfect process. In the initial stages of this creation, I was thinking about a small audience of people in Kerala, and particularly Christians in India. Therefore, we had discussed with some of the leading South Indian actresses to play the lead role as Sr. Rani Maria, and we had almost fixed those actors.

Later discussing the story of Sr. Rani Maria with prominent filmmakers both in Hollywood and Bollywood, we realized that we needed exceptionally good actors to harness the depth of these roles, not just famous ones. There have definitely been some shifts in how we have gone about casting for this film. Who knows, we may even be introduce some new talent if it’s the right fit.

How did you manage resources, locales, more importantly funding? Did you use the crowd-funding route?

I think crowd-funding is an amazing new resource, especially for young filmmakers looking for an outlet to get started. There may be aspects of this that we look into for the future, as it’s definitely something that seems to be catching on in a lot of creative industries. For this film at least, we are lucky enough to have a producer and an available budget.

For the last two years, after completion of the script, I had been running around trying to find a producer who would understand the worth of this film. To be frank, I didn’t find someone with that intention for quite a long time.

It wasn’t until the end of 2019 that we got a really capable producer who knew about Sr. Rani Maria, and connected with her story. As with anything in life, it’s all about timing. You can’t really force something until the right people show up for it, and I think we have finally gotten to that point. Now that we have the right producer on board, we have more freedom to explore, and start the creative process of building the world of Sr. Rani Maria’s life. Obviously we want to be able to use every resource we can to tell this story in as authentic a way as possible.

Are you looking at this as a commercially viable project?

This is a low budget film in comparison to any big Bollywood production, but that does not mean that we are going to compromise in any way on its quality. We have some of the most experienced film crew and award-winning technicians working behind the scenes. We have many people who are not only committed to doing the best work possible for this film, but are passionate about the story and want to do it justice. This is going to be a commercial, full-length, feature film in two languages, both Malayalam and Hindi. We believe that Sr. Rani Maria’s story deserves to be told, and to have as wide an audience as possible around the world.

What was the reaction of the church? Are they supporting you in this venture?

The church has always been very supportive. Especially the Bishop of Indore Most Rev Chacko Thottumarickal, S.V.D. and Fr. Joby Anand (Atmadarshan TV) who has been keen in the discussions about the development of this film, along with many other church leaders.

It’s their wish to highlight the very real struggles that are faced in serving marginalized communities, and the Catholic church’s efforts to support the helpless in our society. Sr. Rani Maria’s life was a perfect example of the beauty and the perils of being of service to those within the deepest recesses of deprivation and poverty. She gave that service with her very life, and for that the Church has rightfully deemed her a Saint. We all want to spread that message of compassion and goodness.

The post Blessed Rani Maria Movie: The Story of a Martyred Nun appeared first on Indian Catholic Matters.

Fr Prasant Palackappillil (56), from the Order of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, known as CMI fathers of the Syro Malabar Church, has a couple of unique passions. One, he loves to travel all over India on his favourite motorcycle and the other, more importantly, is to make people aware of nature and the need to preserve the environment.

A social worker by training from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a Ph. D in Social Work from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, Fr Prasant began his career as an assistant professor in 1998 at Kalamassery Rajagiri College with the Social Science Department. Later, he became the head of the department and continued in the position till 2010. His next stint was at SH College as its principal from 2010 to 2021. Under his leadership, Sacred Heart College, Thevara in Kerala made many achievements at the national level.

Throughout his career as Principal of Sacred Heart College, he has been known to use a bicycle to travel short distances, trying to inculcate a sense of ecological responsibility among his students and the general public. He has also been part of green activities, promoting organic agriculture, gardening and creating concern for the nature in young generation.

Interestingly, the name his parents gave him was John Thomas but never liked that name and hence changed it to Prasant Palakkappillil when he got ordained as a priest.

Fr Prasant has covered over 27 States and 3 Union Territories. During his journey he has met with all like-minded people and has spread the message of peace and a sense of concern for the environment. He also highlights the need for environmental education and green campaigns.

Last month, he touched arrived at Guwahati in Assam in the North-Eastern part of India. I caught up with Fr Prasant and got to know more about his passion and enthusiasm for nature through his travels. Excerpts:

As a passionate biker, please share your travel experience with regard to people and culture across India?

Passionate?? Rather dispassionate! But enthused definitely.  I use to bike more out of considerations of efficiency and convenience combined with efforts to limit/reduce carbon footprint.

With regard to people and culture across India, I feel good about being an Indian – free to be around the country. No questions asked! People are happy to meet a stranger – especially when they are ‘not imprisoned by institutional walls’ as they have nothing much to lose. Welcoming, trusting, trustable on the whole.

But culture – it’s agri – culture all through.  India is not shining, but is struggling – basically in its villages, in the fields, in the farms, on the roads… farms and roads are very much linked.  You are riding the highway – but you are cutting across the vast fields…

You see the thousands in toil, in the struggle for a daily living, to produce, to harvest, to sell, to save their harvest… This struggling India is set aside, sidelined, forgotten, deprived and NOBODY wants his (her) son/daughter to be in the fields – they send them to school so that they would escape from the fields.

You’ve been an educationist, what are your views on the National Digital University proposed in the recent Union Budget with regard to National Education Policy?

For six months I travelled, I was almost cut off from this world and its noises. Hence I didn’t attend to the budget details.

But, as such, it is a natural next step of the digital revolution – it can indeed make the best teaching resources available to the millions.  (However, the promises are suspect – since 2014, all financial support to education, especially Higher Education and research has been drastically cut, in spite of the rosy promises in the NEP. So will teachers become redundant? Or will the teaching career in Higher Education have to be recast drastically so that those other vital dimensions thoroughly missing in today’s education in the set ideal of ‘well-rounded formation’ (NEP) are made part of the teachers’ tasks? the social, the psychological, the experiential, the environmental, the spiritual, the reflective aspects?

I feel it is a wake-up call for the teaching community to wake up to reshape and make individual teacher presence meaningful and relevant.

With your travel experience all over the country, what are your views on India’s environmental challenges?

India is beautiful and diverse…. but growing uglier thanks to rapid ‘urbanisation’ and resultant waste culture.  It has now grown into consumerism in spite of the rural backwardness and struggle, with goods of all sorts and highly packaged materials being available everywhere. This is a relatively newer but increasingly threatening aspect of Indian culture – waste generation and littering and use & throw culture.

Beautiful landscapes are becoming eyesores, and there are health hazards.

This is still very much controllable by mere local administrative efficiency as demonstrated by Indore Municipal Corporation. But climate action requires larger policy frameworks!

What do you think should India’s position with regard to global climate change?

The development right and ‘you-have-done-your-so-too-we-have-the-right (need)-to pollute’ is suicidal in today’s global context, as any adverse step in mitigating climate change is affecting all. However, the global consensus today cannot be exploitative and another form of colonialism.

India and similar nations have every right to argue for compensation from the erstwhile exploiters to compensate for their exploitation, so as to maintain the globally accepted standards meant to mitigate climate change.

How does the church in India view Climate change? How do you think churches in India should contribute to reducing their carbon footprint?

Holy Father Pope Francis has indeed made a very articulate and fervent appeal. But it has stopped at that, and at the best intellectually stimulating discussions and some re-reading of the scripture.  But far away from climate-linked or planet-friendly lifestyle as part of Christian spirituality.  Indian Church is a far cry from any such steps.

The strength of the Indian Church is its vast educational-social-pastoral This calls for a new spirituality based on consumption sans consumerism, consumption tinged with sacrifice, consumption of minimum harm to the planet. This is the new evangelisation of the world, of the country, which incidentally comes under the United Nation’s Sustainable Goals.

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