“Artificial intelligence will become an essential technology for the preaching or pastoral care of the faithful,” said Father Ignazio are Chang-Hyun, one of the priests who participated in an innovative formation organized by the Diocese of Suwon, in South Korea.
According to informa Asia Newson July 2, this South Korean diocese brought together priests from the cities of Suwon, Daegu and Masan to learn about the use of artificial intelligence tools (AI) in the parish life.
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Unlike other ethics focused meetings, this formation sought to explore the practical opportunities offered by AI for the evangelization and care of the faithful.
“Since it is a hot topic in these times and its areas of application are expanding, we have prepared a formation for priests to acquire competences that can be used in the pastoral field,” said Fr. Lee Cheol-Gu, director of the Social Communications Office of the Diocese of Suwon, promoter of the event.
During the day, given in collaboration with a company specialized in literacy in AI, the priests learned to use tools such as Chatgpt and other generative platforms to create images, presentations, videos and even background music for their parish activities. They also experienced with a chatbot that can write automatically.
For P. they are Chang-Hyun, this technology can not only help in administrative tasks, but could go further in its application. “I think that by data analysis we could better understand the trends and moods of the faithful, which change from one place to another, we could get closer to them in pastoral terms,” he said.
Fr. Bartolomeo Choi Jae-Yong, another of the participants, highlighted the importance of integrating faith and science: “I believe that religion and science must be well harmonized to make a new work of God.”
“Religion must actively learn and understand science and technology, to prevent abuses related to their use,” he added in his conversation with Asia News.
Another objective of this initiative is to establish bridges between the Church and technological companies, in order to improve the content of the tools that IA.
“I have observed that the Catholic terminology and the Protestant often confuse with each other and that there is a lot of wrong information about the saints. Therefore, I thought it was necessary for the Church to collaborate with companies to improve these aspects,” said Fr. Leone Lee Jae-Geun, deputy director of the Social Communications Office.
In a country like South Korea, world leader in technology, the local church has taken this step determined to also evangelize in the digital world. According to participating priests, this experience could become a model for other dioceses of the world that seek to integrate technological innovation at the service of the Gospel.
Diego López Marina
I was born in 1991. I have a degree in Communication Sciences. Since 2015 I work as a digital journalist. I started my career in the newspaper El Comercio in Peru. In 2016, I began as editor in ACI Press and I perform as a web editor since 2018. From 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.