Imagine having instant answers to your questions about the Catholic faith through friendly conversation. That offers Catholic.chatan artificial intelligence (AI)-based platform that allows users to interact with the Catechism in a natural conversational format.
Dave Matney, co-founder of Fivable, the company behind Catholic.chatassured ACI Prensa, in a recent interview, that this convergence was simply a natural progression.
Receive the main news from ACI Prensa by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social media. Subscribe to our free channels today:
“It happened quickly,” Matney revealed when asked about the birth of the chatbot. “AI was a fun and exciting conversation in early 2023, and after discovering how powerful the technology was internally impacting the daily operations of our software company, I had an idea of how it could have an impact for the Church.”
The idea behind Catholic.chat was simple but relevant: an AI designed to provide answers about the teachings of the Catholic Church, all through a natural conversational experience. This initiative emerged from the intersection of technology and faith, familiar territory for Fivable, whose primary clients are dioceses, archdioceses and apostolates.
Cutting-edge technology was used to develop Catholic.chat, although Matney is keeping specific details secret. “That’s the secret sauce. Although I can tell you that we are not doing anything magical. “Anyone can create their own version of Catholic.chat, but being a software development company with over 14 years of experience makes it a little easier,” he explained.
Accuracy and integrity are fundamental to Catholic.chat. Matney emphasizes that while the AI can make some mistakes, the goal is for responses to be based primarily on what the Catechism says, while also providing context and empathy when necessary.
“We want Catholic.chat to base its answers on what it knows about the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and it does that quite well, but it also wants to be helpful and empathetic, so we know it will provide more context when appropriate,” he explained.
Regarding its availability in different languages, the platform can understand and respond from English and Spanish to French, German, Italian, Portuguese, among others.
How does Catholic.chat work?
Catholic.chat it’s easy to use. Its home page invites the user to: “Get answers from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.” You are then prompted to “Select a chat experience below and ask your question.” After that, there are three usage levels to choose from:
1. “Child: Simple and easy to understand teaching.”
2. “Adult: Thoughtful Responses for Inquiring Minds.”
3. “Scholar: All the details. “There is no stone left unturned.”
ACI Prensa made several queries to this chatbot, achieving a passing grade. When asked, for example, about “what is euthanasia?”, the platform gave an answer in five paragraphs.
In the first he explained that “euthanasia is the act of intentionally causing the death of a person who suffers from a serious, incurable illness or that causes unbearable suffering, in order to alleviate their suffering or hasten their death. “It is an action that seeks to end a person’s life deliberately and early.”
And then he added that “the Catholic Church considers euthanasia to be morally unacceptable, since it goes against the sacred value of human life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph 2277: ‘Any act that is intended to cause death to suppress pain constitutes homicide seriously contrary to the dignity of the human person and respect for the living God, its Creator.’”
The rest of the response complements this information by delving into the sacred value of human life and remembering that there are differences between euthanasia and the decision to suspend disproportionate medical treatments. At the end he provides a conclusion, highlighting that the Church considers this act morally unacceptable.
Receiving Catholic.chat and future updates
User feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with more than 600,000 questions asked in the past 12 months, including praise from major Church institutions in the United States.
“I have received feedback from many of my clients, including the Diocese of Bridgeport and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. They are all fans of Catholic.chat,” Matney noted.
Regarding the continuous updating and improvement of Catholic.chat, Matney ensures that the platform receives regular updates. Content-wise, it is up to date with the Catechism’s publications, including the 2018 update, although Matney admits that small errors are inevitable.
“We provide Catholic.chat with regular updates to ensure it is functionally working for our users. You can’t create anything for the web and expect it to work forever. These things need care and feeding because the entire ecosystem is constantly changing,” she assured.
Looking ahead, Matney reveals that while a version of Catholic.chat was released in the Apple App Store a few months ago, the team is evaluating other improvements and additional functionality. However, the challenge lies in keeping the service free as the number of users increases.
“Our goal will be to find a way to allow this to remain a free service,” Matney concluded.
Diego López Marina
I was born in 1991. I have a degree in Communication Sciences. Since 2015 I have worked as a digital journalist. I started my career at the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio. In 2016, I started as an editor at ACI Prensa and I have worked as a web editor since 2018. Starting in 2024, I write the newsletter for social media. I specialize in Catholic news focused on the defense of life and family, international politics, technology, popular culture and the Vatican.