Father Michael Baggot, L.C. Compelling Comfort In times of stress, confusion, disappointment, or alienation, AI companions seem to offer exactly the kind of accessible, attentive concern that people desperately crave. They are available anytime, anywhere. An AI system’s extended context window can give the impression that it knows the user’s backstory and aspirations even better than human neighbors do. AI companion platforms such as Replika, Character.AI, Nomi, and others reach hundreds of millions of people worldwide. They explicitly promise friendship, romance, and love. […]
By Lucia A. Silecchia Recently, my neighbor died. When I was at the funeral home and when I arrived at work late after his funeral, I was asked how I knew the gentleman who passed away. It was almost sheepishly, or with a note of apology that I said he was “a neighbor.” It was almost as though I thought that to mourn for one who […]
By Morgan Whitmer If Josef Pieper is known in the English-speaking world, it is usually for his work Leisure: The Basis of Culture. Frequently, moderns misunderstand leisure as a break from work, a time for refreshment before returning to the grindstone.1 For Pieper, however, leisure is not mere “free time.” Rather, Pieper argues that true leisure, according to […]
By Lucia A. Silecchia Recently, I have been the frequent, unwilling viewer of an interesting advertisement. In short, the advertisement begins by presenting the modern catastrophe of a family ordering dinner delivered to their home and discovering, to their horror, that each member of the family wants a different type of cuisine. To the rescue is the delivery app touted by the ad. It can save these poor people from […]
By Dr. Jonathan Wanner “The truth shall make you odd.”—Flannery O’Connor A paradox clears up the mud in your mind by making it dirtier, and the best paradoxes rely on an error to correct an error. G. K. Chesterton intuited this fact well, as he routinely confuses the reader only to enlighten him, teaching logical […]
By Lucia A. Silecchia Pope Leo XIV recently released the first extensive document of his papacy, Dilexi Te, an Apostolic Exhortation on love for the poor. Almost immediately, pundits responded, some thoughtfully and others with partisan “hot takes” that pulled a mere line or two from the document to illustrate how it aligned perfectly with their […]
By IHE Scholar Miriam Pritschet The IHE England pilgrimage was an unparalleled experience. Accompanied by a flock of faithful, joyful, intellectually curious fellow pilgrims and surrounded by the stunning architecture of Gothic spires and baroque facades, I could hardly believe how blessed I was to be experiencing the riches of the faith in Our Lady’s […]
By Lucia A. Silecchia As September dawned, eyes turned to Rome with joy to celebrate the canonizations of two young men — Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis. In a particular way, many hoped that the holy lives of these two new saints would have a special appeal to young people who would see […]
By Theresa Ryland The Church recently celebrated the feast day of Saint Augustine on August 28. Augustine’s life shows how prayer and intellectual activity can unite in the depths of the human heart by grace. Augustine’s practice of sacred intellection reflects Christ’s prayer that his disciples would be “consecrated in the Truth” (John 17:19 RSV). […]
By Lucia A. Silecchia I was visiting a parish not my own when a young girl of about five greeted me. With a shy smile and the quiet encouragement of her family, she handed me a hand-colored greeting card welcoming me to her parish. I do not know if this card-making was a class project […]
