Pastor’s Corner — November 23rd, 2025
Beware of AI Chatbots, especially Catholic ones
The bubble of my excitement about the potential for AI burst last year when I discovered that the chatbot I was using was spitting out fabricated quotes of Church fathers. And it wasn’t just one or two either. I would soon learn that chatbots “hallucinate” and make up stuff fairly often, even as their answers seem plausible. We need to acknowledge that AI chatbots sometimes get facts wrong and it can be very dangerous. Why these chatbots can get some stuff wrong is actually easy to understand if you understand how they are programmed to work. But it seems that most people aren’t aware of how common such basic errors are.
The errors of AI chatbots are even more dangerous when people try to use them to ask questions about faith and ethics. This is not just because the ethical framework used by chatbots is formed from the dust of the probabilities of datasets. It’s worse than that. Recently, a parishioner was seeking to answer a question about Catholic practice using a Catholic AI chatbot (kind of like ChatGPT for Catholic content) and the chatbot was hallucinating and giving out contradictory answers to his questions. When he brought this to my attention, I wasn’t surprised at all. But I have started to become concerned that with products such as Magisterium AI and Truthly AI people are turning to chatbots for answers and getting falsehoods and aren’t aware of it.
There’s a lot to say about this topic for sure, but I want to invite people to read a fabulous article called “Beware of Catholic AI” by Dr. Lily Abadal. The tagline of the article is: “We are not machines and cannot be well formed by them either. Human formation should be primarily human—even if it’s easier and faster to dole out our questions to a machine.” Dr Abadal outlines why chatbots hallucinate and why using chatbots to answer spiritual questions is very dangerous. I strongly recommend this short article.
“Food is for Communion” and Other YouTube Talks
We’ve been adding more talks to our St Pat’s YouTube channel, including my talk on small groups, my homily from adoration at the Michigan Catholic Women’s conference, and Deacon Peter’s excellent talk, “Food is For Communion.”
Deacon Peter’s talk is a perfect example of something phenomenal that people don’t know they need to hear. One of the key accomplishments of secularism is to get us to live disintegrated lives: to have entire parts of our lives not at all integrated or even related to our relationship with God. But as Catholics, everything we do has meaning in God and can be an avenue of God’s grace. Eating, enjoying a meal, a snack, or a dessert, are means by which we can have communion with God and each other and they can be profoundly meaningful. This is notwithstanding the fact that eating points to the Communion we have with Jesus in the Eucharist and our communion with God in heaven.
What is your relationship with food and diet? Do you realize how much our secular world has affected your relationship with food? Deacon Peter explains the theological and spiritual elements of our relationship with food and how to see it from God’s perspective.
Reminder: Door Locking Starts Next Weekend (Nov 29-30)
Last week’s message from parishioner Karl Vogelheim, the head of the St Pat’s Safety Team:
As you know from previous bulletin articles, we have formed the St. Patrick Safety Team at our parish. The purpose of the St Pat’s Safety Team is to enhance parish security so that our families have the freedom, without distraction, to focus on worshiping God at Mass.
Our Safety Team is comprised of parish volunteers (many of whom are current & retired law enforcement) to work alongside our ushers and medical volunteers during weekend Mass times to discreetly monitor activity throughout the church and grounds to support a secure and peaceful worship experience for everyone.
Beginning the weekend of November 29-30th, we will be locking all of the doors of the Church five minutes after Mass begins to enhance our security at Mass. Door A (carport) will be the only door open the entire Mass and that door will be monitored by the Safety Team. Door A was chosen to remain open due to its centrality between both sides of the street, its visibility from inside, and its accessibility for the handicapped. This access control measure reduces unlocked entry points during services to deter unauthorized access and ensure the safe arrival and departure of parishioners. To be clear, no one will be locked in the Church; the automatic locking doors will only prohibit entry into the Church during designated times.
If you have any questions or want to volunteer in this ministry, please contact Karl Vogelheim (810-588-4887, prmetime@sprintmail.com), our parish lead for the Safety Team. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we work together to make our parish safer.
Two More Opportunities to Give This Week
During this time of the year, many service organizations are raising money for the good work they do all year round. In addition to the Livingston Catholic Charities appeal highlighted last week, this week I highlight two additional opportunities:
1) The Diocesan Catholic Social Teaching Collection: Each year on the Solemnity of Christ the King, the parishes take up a collection for the Diocesan Commission on Catholic Social Teaching, which supports catechetical projects to inform and inspire the putting into practice of Catholic social teaching. This is distinct from the mission of Catholic Charities, which provides direct assistance to people in need. You should have received an envelope for this purpose.
2) Annual Thanksgiving St Vincent de Paul Society Collection: During the 9am Thanksgiving Mass, our St Vincent de Paul Society will take up a collection for their great work of helping individuals in need who approach the Society throughout the year. This ministry is on the front lines of those who are in need of basic necessities in our area. I’m proud of the men and women of the parish who serve in this beautiful ministry. If you want to give please use the St Vincent envelope or give during Mass on Thanksgiving.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias