International expert Father Philip Larrey discusses moral dimensions of AI with diocesan directors at leadership summit
By Natalie Romano
Shocked murmurs rippled across the conference room when artificial intelligence (AI) ethics expert Father Philip Larrey, Ph. D., revealed the truth…
Pope Leo XIV was a victim of AI-generated deep fakes, and the Instagram post they were looking at was one of them.
“There are hundreds…thousands,” said Fr. Larrey, professor of philosophy at Boston College. “…Pope Leo is now a huge public figure. The software is easy to use, so they’re making stuff up.”
Fr. Larrey’s talk was part of a jam-packed 2025 Summer Leadership Summit hosted by the California Catholic Conference (CCC) June 3-5. The annual event, held in Sacramento, offers diocesan ministry directors’ professional development through lectures and workshops.
With illuminating yet sometimes alarming detail, Fr. Larrey laid out the potential impacts of AI on society and how the Church can influence those outcomes for the better. The session was the most well-attended and perhaps the most talked about part of the summit, thanks to its timely nature and the prominence of Fr. Larrey.
In addition to his “day job,” the Mountain View native promotes AI that respects humanity and serves the common good, beliefs rooted in Catholic Social Teaching (CST). He does so by regularly engaging with Vatican scholars and industry leaders like Sam Altman of OpenAI and Demis Hassabis of DeepMind. He was the previous Chair of Logic and Epistemology at the Pontifical Lateran University in the Vatican and is the current Chairman of Humanity 2.0, an organization that focuses on improving life through global collaboration and ethical technology.
AI, in simple terms, is the ability of machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. In a few years, Fr. Larrey told the crowd, there will likely be an AI that “can do any cognitive task” that we can, the effects of which could be devastating; job loss for a staggering hundreds of millions of people and the devaluing of human life. Despite this, he says we shouldn’t ban AI.
“I think we need to teach people how to use it, use it in the right way, use it for good,” advised Fr. Larrey. “…We need to ask, does the AI enhance human dignity or is it a detriment? Are people still thinking critically? Are people free, deep down inside themselves?”
Wilfredo Aguirre came to the summit with a group from the Diocese of San Bernardino. The Director of Advocacy and Justice for Immigrants says he’s troubled by the impact massive layoffs could have on the human psyche.
“We were talking about the dignity of work and how work is something that’s very integral to the human identity,” explained Aguirre. “If we have a tremendous amount of people unemployed, what might that look like in society, not just economically, but also what that means for the human being? ‘If I no longer have work, what is my purpose?’ ’’
Fr. Larrey went on to discuss the most frightening potential of AI: the end of the human race, whether that be orchestrated by bad actors using AI to deploy bombs, biological warfare, and the like, or by AI run amok.
“AIs don’t have to respect truth…they can deceive human beings,” cautioned Fr. Larrey. “They can even deceive engineers and rewrite their own code.”
These hard truths prompted questions from audience members like Maria de Lourdes Valencia from the Diocese of San Diego, who wondered how we can have faith that God will triumph over evil.
Fr. Larrey acknowledged that these terrifying predictions lead people to ask if AI was created by the devil, and to that he always says no.
“I do think it’s part of God’s plan in some way,” answered Fr. Larrey. “…I don’t think we should demonize it…I think we need to control it.”
Catholic educators in the audience are already grappling with issues related to AI, like students relying on the technology to do their homework or teachers using it to assess student progress. They say personal integrity is part of the equation when it comes to preventing AI from overtaking us.
“It’s very flashy, it’s very accessible,” noted Erin Barisano Ed. D., Superintendent of Catholic Schools, Diocese of Orange. “That’s why we need to ensure our teachers are not only informed but well-formed. What sets us apart is our humanity —that’s what we always have to go back to. We shouldn’t have a reliance on AI; it’s a tool.”
Fr. Larrey was joined by Robert Nalewajek of Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice, Inc. (CAPP-USA), a Vatican-affiliated organization that encourages Catholic values in public life. Nalewajek says while he’s pessimistic about the regulation of AI, he’s optimistic about its value in the fields of science and medicine.
“We can discover things quicker,” said the Executive Vice President. “The pharmaceutical industry and others are really diving in, and the results on the human health market are going to be unbelievable.”
Isaac Cuevas from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has personally benefited from those medical advances. He wears smart glasses for macular degeneration, a condition that affects his vision.
At first inspection, his frames seem typical, but with AI technology along with a built-in camera, speaker, and microphone, they can read signs, describe a room, and even find objects.
However fascinating, Cuevas says we should not look at AI as a “novelty” but a responsibility.
“When you add this artificial element, thinking that it’s a way to replace human interaction or human thought or human emotions, then we start to create a blurred line in reality,” said Cuevas, Director of Immigration and Public Affairs for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. “AI doesn’t understand that human life is valuable…That’s very scary.”
So how do we prevent the worst from happening?
Both speakers have faith in the Catholic Church as well as Pope Leo XIV, who, with purpose, chose his name after the pontiff who cautioned about technological advances during the Industrial Revolution. The current pope wasted no time discussing how this new revolution of AI requires us to defend “human dignity, justice, and labor”- values also held by the late Pope Francis.
“It was quite shocking…just days after being elected pope, that he would talk about artificial intelligence,” said Fr. Larrey. “…As long as we don’t have a universal consensus about the use of AI, the pope’s voice is a powerful one because he’s not coming from a legal perspective but a moral perspective…Pope Leo needs to rally the people who are working in the field.”
Teresa Rocha, also from the Diocese of San Bernardino, is encouraged by Pope Leo’s emphasis on AI. She hopes that trickles down to a local level.
“I’m hoping we could create training conferences,” said Rocha, Associate Director of Community Services and Outreach Programs. “We could help parishioners and priests better understand the latest technology. Keep it simple so everyone can be brought in.”
Fr. Larrey agrees. He told audience members to speak up if AI is not being addressed in their respective dioceses. Some, like the Diocese of Orange, have already created an AI guidebook for its employees, parishes, and schools. For his part, Fr. Larrey presses on by encouraging stakeholders to foster ethical and moral AI.
“I can’t tell these people what to do, but the fact that they want some sort of guidance or they want to talk about the bigger issues with me…I think is very positive,” said Fr. Larrey. “I just kind of keep molding the process, trying to guide the path…using the principles of the Catholic Church.”
At the end of the lecture, Kathleen Domingo, Executive Director of the CCC, told attendees to take some time to reflect on what they learned.
“[We need] to figure out: How does this impact my ministry? …What does this say to me about the way that I’m answering God’s call?” asked Domingo. “This might be the first conversation you’ve been a part of around AI and the Church’s response, but it certainly won’t be the last.”
Natalie Romano is an award-winning freelance writer based in Southern California.