Extension magazine - Spring 2024
What will be the impact of artificial intelligence on our world? Our article on page 24 considers how AI can assist as a helpful tool for the betterment of humanity, as well as its potential drawbacks. You will see images generated by a new AI system, Midjourney, that we prompted to create the cover of this magazine as well as vivid religious art. Also included is Pope Francis' 2024 address: "Artificial Intelligence and Peace."
What will be the impact of artificial intelligence on our world? Our article on page 24 considers how AI can assist as a helpful tool for the betterment of humanity, as well as its potential drawbacks. You will see images generated by a new AI system, Midjourney, that we prompted to create the cover of this magazine as well as vivid religious art. Also included is Pope Francis' 2024 address: "Artificial Intelligence and Peace."
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catholicextension.org<br />
STORIES OF FAITH FROM CATHOLIC EXTENSION SOCIETY<br />
SPRING <strong>2024</strong><br />
IS HERE<br />
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR US? 24<br />
Priest named general in U.S. military 42
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 3<br />
S T O R I E S O F F A I T H F R O M C A T H O L I C E X T E N S I O N S O C I E T Y<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society has published<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> since 1906 to share with<br />
our donors and friends the stories illustrating<br />
our mission: to work in solidarity with people<br />
to build up vibrant and transformative Catholic<br />
faith communities among the poor in the<br />
poorest regions of America.<br />
Contact Us<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
150 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 2000<br />
Chicago, IL 60606<br />
800.842.7804<br />
<strong>magazine</strong>@catholicextension.org<br />
catholicextension.org<br />
Board of Governors<br />
CHANCELLOR<br />
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich<br />
Archbishop of Chicago<br />
VICE CHANCELLOR<br />
Most Reverend Gerald F. Kicanas<br />
Bishop Emeritus of Tucson<br />
PRESIDENT<br />
Reverend John J. Wall<br />
VICE CHAIR OF COMMITTEES and SECRETARY<br />
Elizabeth Hartigan Connelly<br />
BOARD MEMBERS<br />
Most Reverend Gerald R. Barnes<br />
Bishop Emeritus of San Bernardino<br />
Most Reverend Steven Biegler<br />
Bishop of Cheyenne<br />
John W. Croghan<br />
Most Reverend Daniel E. Flores, STD<br />
Bishop of Brownsville<br />
William D. Forsyth<br />
Most Reverend Ronald Hicks<br />
Bishop of Joliet<br />
The Honorable James C. Kenny<br />
Most Reverend Robert N. Lynch<br />
Bishop Emeritus of St. Petersburg<br />
Peter J. McCanna<br />
Michael G. O’Grady<br />
Christopher Perry<br />
Andrew Reyes<br />
Sister Fatima Santiago, ICM<br />
Karen Sauder<br />
Pamela Scholl<br />
Most Reverend Anthony B. Taylor<br />
Bishop of Little Rock<br />
Most Reverend George L. Thomas, Ph.D.<br />
Bishop of Las Vegas<br />
Timothy Turner<br />
Most Reverend William A. Wack, CSC<br />
Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee<br />
Edward Wehmer<br />
Your investment in Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> is tax<br />
deductible to the extent allowed by law. Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> is a nonprofit 501(c)( 3 ) organization.<br />
ISSN Number: 0884-7533<br />
©<strong>2024</strong> The Catholic Church <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
All rights reserved.<br />
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AI and the<br />
Church 24<br />
What will be the impact of<br />
artificial intelligence on our<br />
world? Our article on page 24<br />
considers how AI can assist as a<br />
helpful tool for the betterment of<br />
humanity, as well as its potential<br />
drawbacks. You will see images<br />
generated by a new AI system,<br />
Midjourney, that we prompted to<br />
create the cover of this <strong>magazine</strong><br />
as well as vivid religious art, such<br />
as this image above of a rural<br />
mission church. Also included<br />
is Pope Francis’ <strong>2024</strong> address:<br />
“Artificial Intelligence and Peace.”<br />
BUILD<br />
We are a ‘Society’ again 8<br />
ROOTS | Key word brings us back to our origins<br />
Why many Black Catholics trace roots<br />
to Josephite parishes 16<br />
ROOTS | Religious priests served emancipated slaves in<br />
the South<br />
INSPIRE<br />
Wyoming’s cowboy priest 20<br />
FEATURE | Associate pastor develops a spirituality steeped<br />
in a rancher’s life<br />
Sports can be a pathway to the<br />
spiritual life 36<br />
FEATURE | Young adults celebrate their love of soccer,<br />
friendship and God<br />
IGNITE<br />
military 42<br />
Priest named general in U.S.<br />
FEATURE | Florida pastor is the highest-ranking Catholic<br />
clergyman in the armed forces<br />
<strong>Extension</strong>’s pen pal club sparked<br />
love 44<br />
DONOR PROFILE | A widow’s second marriage began with<br />
<strong>magazine</strong>’s pre-tech dating service<br />
Letter from Father Wall 4<br />
Mission needs 12<br />
Vocations 34<br />
Parish Partnerships 40<br />
Connect 46
4<br />
Letter from Father Wall<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 5<br />
This Lent, fast<br />
from your fears<br />
F<br />
RANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT<br />
famously said, “The only<br />
thing we have to fear is fear<br />
itself.” He was not wrong.<br />
Fear can be a debilitating illness,<br />
and it is becoming more<br />
widespread.<br />
In this age of anxiety, fear<br />
has become a predominant<br />
force in so many people’s<br />
lives. But faith is a force<br />
stronger than fear.<br />
Perhaps that is why the<br />
sacred Scriptures state—in<br />
some form or fashion—more<br />
than 300 times that we must<br />
“fear not.”<br />
In this Lenten season, I<br />
pray that instead of fasting<br />
only from material things,<br />
like food and daily comforts,<br />
we will dig a little deeper<br />
and also fast from the mental<br />
junk food that is fear. May we<br />
let go of the doom and daunting<br />
feelings that dominate<br />
life, and instead lean into the<br />
gift of fortitude offered to us<br />
by the God of life whose love<br />
has redeemed us.<br />
So much of our fear today<br />
is sparked by the unknown.<br />
For example, we are perhaps<br />
on the precipice of<br />
another major technological<br />
revolution with the arrival of<br />
artificial intelligence, the consequences<br />
of which we cannot<br />
yet fully grasp. This has<br />
triggered a great deal of fear.<br />
You will read an article in this<br />
issue of <strong>Extension</strong> where we<br />
discuss the possibilities of AI<br />
in ministry. We want to know<br />
your thoughts on the matter.<br />
I cannot tell you how this<br />
story will end. But, I do know<br />
that in addition to the Spirit’s<br />
gift of fortitude, we will also<br />
need the gifts of wisdom and<br />
right judgement to help us<br />
find a safe, ethical and beneficial<br />
path forward with AI.<br />
In spite of all that we face<br />
as a human family, there are<br />
many reasons why I believe<br />
our future remains bright and<br />
why we must let go of our<br />
fears.<br />
All throughout our country<br />
are good people, courageous<br />
and virtuous people, who are<br />
part of Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society, and together we are<br />
creating something that can<br />
withstand any storm. We are<br />
building up strong communities<br />
of faith which are an<br />
antidote to indifference and a<br />
cure for our crippling anxiety.<br />
These faith communities<br />
are reminding people that we<br />
are destined for the love of<br />
God—the God who reminds<br />
us, “under His wings you<br />
may take refuge; His faithfulness<br />
is a protecting shield”<br />
(Ps 91:4).<br />
Thanks to your support,<br />
many young people are being<br />
filled with courage and faith<br />
despite the multitude of<br />
voices in our society telling<br />
them that religion is meaningless.<br />
Read the story on<br />
page 36 about the hundreds<br />
of young adults who drove<br />
countless miles to attend a<br />
regional retreat in Alabama<br />
sponsored by Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society. They left that<br />
retreat with greater courage,<br />
ready to set the world ablaze<br />
with their faith and passion<br />
to serve. Some are even considering<br />
vocations to priesthood<br />
and religious life as an<br />
outcome of their powerful<br />
encounters with God and<br />
one another.<br />
We should all be encouraged<br />
by the stories of wonderful<br />
and courageous priests<br />
featured in these pages.<br />
Read the story on page 20<br />
about the “cowboy priest” in<br />
Wyoming who had the courage<br />
to say “yes” to God’s call<br />
to priesthood, even though<br />
he wasn’t exactly sure<br />
how being a cowboy<br />
and a clergyman<br />
could be compatible<br />
vocations.<br />
See the article<br />
about our longtime<br />
board committee<br />
member, Father<br />
Peter Zalewski, who<br />
just became the highest-ranking<br />
Catholic<br />
priest in the U.S. military<br />
upon his recent promotion<br />
to general. He was<br />
courageous in his years of<br />
combat deployment, and<br />
now as a military chaplain he<br />
brings a reassuring presence<br />
to the men and women of our<br />
armed forces as their spiritual<br />
companion.<br />
On page 34, read about the<br />
young priest who made his<br />
way from Brazil all the way to<br />
Idaho, and the leap of faith it<br />
took to follow God’s call from<br />
one hemisphere to another.<br />
Likewise, read about the<br />
Society of St. Joseph on page<br />
16, which had the courage<br />
to ordain the nation’s first<br />
Black priests at a time when<br />
no one else would. This religious<br />
community of Josephite<br />
priests has faced hatred<br />
and discrimination over the<br />
years, but by the grace<br />
of God, and your support,<br />
they are continuing<br />
their vital mission<br />
among Black Catholic<br />
communities<br />
in the Deep South.<br />
As we reflect on<br />
these incredible stories,<br />
may we too be<br />
filled with courage<br />
and conviction from<br />
the one who had the<br />
fortitude and faithfulness<br />
to face the cross<br />
so that we might have<br />
life and have it abundantly.<br />
The future is<br />
here and the future is<br />
bright.<br />
May God bless you<br />
and all whom you<br />
love,<br />
Rev. John J. Wall<br />
PRESIDENT, CATHOLIC<br />
EXTENSION SOCIETY<br />
Father Jack<br />
Wall, president of<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 7<br />
Poor faith communities need your help<br />
BUILD<br />
RETURNING TO OUR ROOTS 8 | NEWS BRIEFS 12<br />
News from<br />
around the country<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society’s support for ongoing ministries<br />
in this Native American parish represents a true miracle<br />
for a community in a desperately poor area.<br />
Donate today<br />
Text “<strong>Extension</strong>” to 50155 to make a gift<br />
catholicextension.org/give<br />
An altar server<br />
at St. Peter<br />
the Apostle<br />
prepares for<br />
Mass. Josephite<br />
priests founded<br />
the parish in<br />
Pascagoula, MS.<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society rebuilt the<br />
church, which is<br />
commemorated in<br />
the plaque on the<br />
far wall. See story,<br />
page 16.
8<br />
BUILD<br />
Roots<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 9<br />
T<br />
Key word<br />
brings us back<br />
to our roots<br />
he word “Society” has<br />
been officially re-added<br />
and re-introduced into the<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> title and<br />
logo after a brief hiatus.<br />
“Society” has always been part<br />
of our legal name, but it was<br />
dropped from our logo for the<br />
purpose of brevity.<br />
Now “Society” is back in.<br />
The noun “Society” automatically<br />
turns “Catholic” and<br />
“<strong>Extension</strong>” into adjectives.<br />
Every noun is lonesome for<br />
adjectives.<br />
Adjectives are servants.<br />
They dress up nouns, lending<br />
them qualities, distinction<br />
and focus. A world in which<br />
nouns go without their adjectives<br />
would be a poorer and<br />
duller world.<br />
So what kind of “society”<br />
are we talking about? The<br />
answer is that we are a<br />
society that extends. And we<br />
Father Francis C. Kelley, founder of<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society, in 1916<br />
are a society that extends in<br />
uniquely Catholic ways.<br />
Thus, we are “Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society.”<br />
Titles matter, and so do the<br />
adjectives that serve them.<br />
WHY THEN, A “SOCIETY”?<br />
A “society” is a voluntary<br />
association of individuals with<br />
common beliefs or interests<br />
that bind us together and move<br />
us toward action. A society is<br />
different from a club. There<br />
are no stringent membership<br />
requirements that distinguish<br />
who is in from who is out.<br />
We are a society made so<br />
by our common beliefs and<br />
our common purpose so<br />
that together we can achieve<br />
something.<br />
What kind of society are<br />
we? We are not just any<br />
society. We are a society that<br />
believes in “extension.”<br />
When we extend ourselves<br />
to see suffering, we are<br />
moved to action. Matthew 25<br />
We<br />
again<br />
describes Jesus’ foundational<br />
belief in the concept of extension,<br />
namely, “Whatever you<br />
do for the least of my people,<br />
you do for me.” Connectivity<br />
activates our empathy.<br />
A society of “extension”<br />
believes we must go to the<br />
peripheries, to put those most<br />
counted out in the center<br />
of our consciousness. By<br />
extending ourselves to the<br />
poor, the marginalized and the<br />
suffering, we are transformed.<br />
We can easily develop<br />
“spiritual cataracts” when we<br />
cease to extend. We become<br />
detached and indifferent,<br />
unable to repair and reverse<br />
injury, doubt, despair and<br />
darkness.<br />
“<strong>Extension</strong>” is the only<br />
are a<br />
‘Society’<br />
antidote to this spiritual<br />
paralysis and is an indispensable<br />
adjective in our name.<br />
The <strong>Extension</strong> Society ensures<br />
that we can readily access<br />
this antidote to indifference,<br />
through our connection to<br />
the poor, marginalized and<br />
forgotten of our country.<br />
The last indispensable<br />
adjective in our title is that we<br />
are “Catholic.”<br />
To be Catholic is to be in<br />
communion with others. To<br />
be Catholic is to find the face<br />
of Christ in the poor. And to<br />
be Catholic means that we are<br />
called to “love and serve the<br />
Lord” as a sign of hope for the<br />
world.<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
has continually given us<br />
a larger sense of ecclesial<br />
communion that extends<br />
beyond the narrow geographical<br />
confines of any particular<br />
area. A Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society also brings us to an<br />
encounter with Christ through<br />
our connection to the poor. As<br />
Catholics, we are concerned<br />
with the well-being of others<br />
not because of who they are,<br />
but because of who we are,<br />
namely people of faith.<br />
The adjectives and noun<br />
that form our name matter.<br />
They make us the Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society.<br />
HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
was born out of the genius<br />
of Father Francis Clement<br />
Kelley, a young pastor serving<br />
a poor, rural parish in Lapeer,<br />
Michigan, in the early 1900s.<br />
While traveling out West,<br />
he found many areas of<br />
Many years, same mission<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society has<br />
updated our logo several times since<br />
our founding in 1905.<br />
1920<br />
1970<br />
1980<br />
2000<br />
2010<br />
2015<br />
<strong>2024</strong>
10<br />
BUILD<br />
Roots<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 11<br />
Our core mission continues.<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society’s 119-year-old mission<br />
is going strong today. Pictured<br />
right, a frontier chapel is<br />
erected in South Dakota<br />
in 1908.<br />
Below, a modern-day church<br />
is constructed in Peñitas,<br />
Texas.<br />
the country where there were<br />
Catholics, but no presence of the<br />
Church. In these isolated areas,<br />
people needed help. He knew that<br />
building up faith communities in<br />
the hills and hollers, the frontiers<br />
and borderlands of our country<br />
would strengthen the Church and<br />
change the fabric of this nation.<br />
Father Kelley articulated his<br />
vision in a stirring essay that<br />
began with the words, “I know<br />
a little shanty in the West.” He<br />
described the deplorable living<br />
conditions of a priest in Ellsworth,<br />
Kansas, as he served people on<br />
the peripheries. Catholics near<br />
and far were moved by his story<br />
and his appeal to start an “extension<br />
society” for the Catholic<br />
Church. “<strong>Extension</strong> societies”<br />
already existed in other Christian<br />
denominations, but one was<br />
lacking in the American Catholic<br />
Church. Many people started<br />
sending donations, and Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society was born.<br />
As the first step, Father Kelley<br />
created a trio of mobile train cars<br />
fashioned into chapels, complete<br />
with altars, pews and confes-<br />
sionals. They traveled westward<br />
with a priest aboard, stopping in<br />
town after town, offering Mass,<br />
baptisms, weddings and funerals.<br />
With increasing demand, Father<br />
Kelley started sending funds to<br />
these remote faith communities to<br />
build small churches. By collecting<br />
donations from Catholics in more<br />
established dioceses—typically in<br />
the East and Midwest—Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society soon began<br />
constructing hundreds of<br />
churches. Within a few years, it<br />
had helped build roughly half<br />
of the Catholic churches in this<br />
country at that time. Many of these<br />
churches remain vibrant centers<br />
of faith across our nation.<br />
What began with Father Kelley’s<br />
dream to build up our Church and<br />
country continues today.<br />
Methods have evolved, but<br />
the mission is the same. We<br />
still seek to deepen and expand<br />
our commitment to Catholic<br />
faith communities by providing<br />
resources to develop leaders,<br />
ministries and facilities, while<br />
inviting more people across our<br />
country to invest in this work.<br />
So what is old is new. The word<br />
“Society” has been officially<br />
re-added to the Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
title and logo. The noun<br />
“Society” automatically turns<br />
“Catholic” and “<strong>Extension</strong>” into<br />
adjectives. And adjectives matter.<br />
We are a Society whose<br />
members extend Catholicism to<br />
the peripheries of our Church and<br />
country.<br />
We are Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society.<br />
THE GIFT<br />
THAT PAYS<br />
YOU BACK<br />
A Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society charitable<br />
gift annuity offers you immediate financial<br />
benefits and will help communities that are<br />
poor in resources but rich in faith. Future<br />
generations will thank you!<br />
• Receive fixed, stable payments for life<br />
• Get immediate and future tax benefits<br />
• Make a lasting impact<br />
For a personalized proposal, contact Betty Assell at<br />
800-842-7804 or Bassell@catholicextension.org<br />
or visit catholicextension.org/annuities<br />
NEW<br />
HIGHER<br />
RATES!<br />
Diocese of Stockton, California<br />
ATTRACTIVE PAYOUT RATES<br />
10.1%<br />
9.1%<br />
8.1%<br />
7.0%<br />
5.7%<br />
6.3%<br />
5.2%<br />
AGE<br />
60 65 70 75 80 85 90+
12 BUILD Mission Needs<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 13<br />
Your donation will be applied to a similar<br />
need should your specified project be fully<br />
funded before we receive your support.<br />
Thank you!<br />
Chalan Kanoa<br />
Guam<br />
HAYS MONTANA<br />
PLEASE SUPPORT LENTEN<br />
ALMSGIVING OPPORTUNITIES<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society has supported St. Paul<br />
Mission, which serves the Assiniboine and Gros<br />
Ventre Native Americans, since<br />
1970. Today, your donation<br />
will help the mission with its<br />
operating costs and support a<br />
priest’s travel to the Fort Belknap<br />
Reservation. This faith community<br />
is looking to offer a consistent<br />
sacramental and catechetical<br />
presence to its people.<br />
Your donation will support a poor faith community<br />
in need this Lent and help keep the presence of the<br />
Catholic Church strong in our country. To contribute<br />
to one of these projects, please contact us at<br />
<strong>magazine</strong>@catholicextension.org or call 1-800-842-7804.<br />
LEXINGTON KENTUCKY<br />
Deacon Jim Bennett and his<br />
wife, Dorothy “Dot” Bennett, built<br />
Centro de San Juan Diego in 2021<br />
to serve as a place that the more<br />
than 10,000 Hispanic immigrants<br />
of eastern Kentucky could call<br />
home. The building includes a<br />
chapel for Mass and Bible study,<br />
as well as classrooms for ESL<br />
learning and a medical clinic. Your donation will go<br />
toward the center’s operational costs. Photo taken<br />
during pandemic.<br />
KALAMAZOO MICHIGAN<br />
Your donation will support the ministry of<br />
Catholic sisters serving<br />
the thousands of<br />
migrant farmworkers<br />
who come to Michigan<br />
each summer on worker<br />
visas. The sisters make<br />
frequent camp visits,<br />
leading faith formation<br />
for the workers and their<br />
families. Through this ministry, the sisters<br />
provide migrant families with the Church’s<br />
care and support.<br />
Caroline Islands<br />
Marshall Islands<br />
HUNTINGTON UTAH<br />
Your donation will help Father<br />
Arokia Dass David travel 45 miles<br />
on mountain roads each week<br />
to San Rafael Catholic Mission.<br />
Located in a mountainous region<br />
of central Utah, this mission<br />
established in 1977 serves mostly<br />
miners and farmworkers. Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society first supported<br />
this faith community 35 years ago, helping to build its<br />
present church.<br />
SALINA KANSAS<br />
The Diocese of Salina, Kansas, spans<br />
over 26,000 square miles of rural<br />
Kansas farmland. Currently, there<br />
are 50 priests serving 86 parishes in<br />
31 counties. Forty percent of those<br />
diocesan priests will reach retirement<br />
age in the next 10 years. Your<br />
donation will support the education<br />
of 10 seminarians who are a source of<br />
great hope and promise for the next generation.<br />
TALLAHASSEE FLORIDA<br />
Samoa-Pago Pago<br />
ISSION NEEDS<br />
Hawaii<br />
You can support campus ministry<br />
at Florida State University. The<br />
Catholic Student Union enriches<br />
the faith of young adults and<br />
prepares them to carry their faith<br />
into their post-college lives and<br />
careers. Additionally, the Diocese<br />
of Pensacola-Tallahassee credits<br />
this campus ministry with sparking<br />
many of its new priestly and religious vocations.<br />
EXTENSION DIOCESES<br />
Puerto Rico<br />
St. Thomas-<br />
Virgin Islands
14<br />
BUILD<br />
News Briefs<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 15<br />
HIGHLIGHTS<br />
Become a parish<br />
partner<br />
Does your parish<br />
want to support the<br />
mission of Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society?<br />
Visit catholicextension.<br />
org/parishpartnerships<br />
or contact<br />
Natalie Donatello<br />
at ndonatello@<br />
catholicextension.org<br />
to learn more.<br />
Follow us on social<br />
media<br />
Follow Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society’s social<br />
media channels to see<br />
more stories, photos<br />
and videos about the<br />
vibrant faith communities<br />
we support!<br />
Facebook:<br />
@Catholic<strong>Extension</strong><br />
Instagram:<br />
@catholicextension<br />
X (Formerly Twitter):<br />
@Cath<strong>Extension</strong><br />
Large cohort of sisters arrive in the U.S.<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society recently welcomed a new cohort of 30<br />
religious sisters to the United States through our U.S.-Latin American<br />
Sisters Exchange Program that began in 2013, with funding<br />
from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. The program provides a<br />
university degree to religious sisters from Latin American congregations<br />
while they serve marginalized communities in <strong>Extension</strong><br />
dioceses. To date, 150 sisters have participated in the program.<br />
This newest cohort come from 10 distinct communities in<br />
Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico<br />
and Nicaragua. The sisters will minister in dioceses across the<br />
country in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Florida and<br />
Georgia. Their ministries are projected to touch the lives of more<br />
than 100,000 people over the next five years. We offer our thanks<br />
to the sisters for their beautiful witness of self-sacrificing love and<br />
for their commitment to serve the Church in the United States!<br />
NEW BOARD OF<br />
GOVERNORS MEMBER<br />
CHICAGO<br />
William D. Forsyth joined<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society’s<br />
Board of Governors<br />
this year. He serves on the<br />
University of Illinois Foundation<br />
Board of Directors,<br />
as well. A parishioner<br />
at Saints Faith, Hope &<br />
Charity Catholic Church in<br />
Winnetka, Illinois, he has<br />
also participated in our<br />
immersion trips to witness<br />
our work with faith communities<br />
like the Diocese of<br />
Jackson, Mississippi (pictured<br />
above). He brings his<br />
commitment to help support<br />
our mission.<br />
2025 JUBILEE EDITION<br />
CALENDAR<br />
NATIONWIDE<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society’s<br />
2025 Jubilee Year calendar,<br />
titled “Places of<br />
Pilgrimage,” is on sale<br />
now. Explore the holiest<br />
pilgrimage sites worldwide<br />
in this 12-month journey<br />
inspired by the pope’s<br />
Holy Year theme, “Pilgrims<br />
of Hope.” Calendars are<br />
available in English and<br />
bilingually. One hundred<br />
percent of the proceeds<br />
supports our mission.<br />
Order calendars for your<br />
parish at catholicextension.org/calendars.<br />
NEW SHEPHERD IN<br />
VAST REGION<br />
ALASKA<br />
In October, Bishop Steven<br />
Maekawa, OP, was<br />
ordained as bishop of<br />
the Diocese of Fairbanks,<br />
Alaska. He now shepherds<br />
the largest geographical<br />
diocese in the<br />
United States, covering<br />
409,000 square miles. He<br />
travels by plane, snowmobile<br />
or boat to visit 37<br />
out of the diocese’s 46<br />
parishes. Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society supports this<br />
region to ensure Catholic<br />
communities can receive<br />
the sacraments and develop<br />
local leaders.<br />
FIVE CARDINALS SHOW THEIR SUPPORT<br />
500 PARISH<br />
PARTNERS<br />
NATIONWIDE<br />
Since formally establishing<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society’s<br />
Parish Partnership<br />
program in 2018, nearly<br />
500 parishes nationwide<br />
have joined our mission<br />
to support poor faith communities<br />
across the country.<br />
Twenty-one parish<br />
partners are uniting with<br />
us this Lenten season to<br />
continue this work. Learn<br />
more by visiting<br />
catholicextension.org/<br />
parish-partners, and<br />
read about the transformative<br />
impact of these<br />
partnerships on page 40.<br />
Five U.S. cardinals attended Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society’s Spirit of Francis Award Dinner<br />
in New York this past November to honor<br />
Archbishop Roberto Octavio González Nieves<br />
of San Juan, Puerto Pico. The cardinals showed their<br />
appreciation for his commendable leadership following<br />
multiple natural disasters. Pictured with the<br />
archbishop (center) from left to right are Father Jack Wall and Cardinals Christophe<br />
Pierre, Wilton Gregory, Blase Cupich, Daniel DiNardo and Timothy Dolan.<br />
NEWS BRIEFS
16<br />
BUILD <strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 17<br />
Roots<br />
Religious priests served<br />
emancipated slaves<br />
in the South<br />
Deacon James Bryant<br />
preaches at Most Pure Heart of<br />
Mary Church in Mobile, Alabama.<br />
In 1909, <strong>Extension</strong> <strong>magazine</strong><br />
published the words of<br />
one of the first Black priests<br />
ordained in the United<br />
States, Father John Plantevigne,<br />
as he spoke at a<br />
missionary conference in<br />
Washington, D.C. “The Negro,” he<br />
said, “shall be treated as a man and<br />
not a problem.”<br />
His statement, sadly, would have<br />
been met with much skepticism<br />
by many Catholics at the time.<br />
The pastor belonged to St.<br />
Joseph’s Society of the Sacred<br />
Heart, better known as the Josephites,<br />
who stood in solidarity with<br />
the Black community. This order,<br />
which was originally founded in<br />
England, established its presence<br />
in the U.S. shortly after the Civil<br />
War to serve newly emancipated<br />
slaves. In the late 1800s the Josephites<br />
became an independent<br />
American Catholic order.<br />
For more than a century, Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society has supported<br />
the work of the Josephites<br />
as they minister to Black<br />
Catholics.<br />
At a time when seminaries<br />
refused to accept Black students<br />
and Southern Catholic<br />
churches followed Jim Crow laws,<br />
which forced many indignities<br />
upon Black Catholics, the Josephites<br />
took an alternative approach.<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> printed letters<br />
from Josephite priests, hoping<br />
that their voices and perspectives<br />
would help change people’s hearts.<br />
For example, Father John J.<br />
In back, parishioners at St. Therese of Lisieux in Gulfport, Mississippi, welcome visitors. Front,<br />
from left to right: Father Tom Connery, pastor of St. Theresa in Belleview, Florida; visiting priest<br />
Father Michael Trail from Chicago; Bishop John Ricard, superior general of the Josephites; Bishop<br />
Louis Kihneman of Biloxi; and Marcia Wheatley, operations manager of St. Theresa in Belleview.<br />
Why many Black<br />
Catholics trace roots to<br />
Josephite parishes<br />
Albert, SSJ, in an article on how<br />
the Church discriminated against<br />
Black Americans, wrote, “The<br />
Church should be what it professes<br />
to be—Catholic. … It is not the private<br />
property of a single race—it<br />
is Catholic. As such, any tendency<br />
toward exclusiveness should be<br />
immediately booed. What right<br />
have we to make pharisaical distinctions<br />
in the House of God?”<br />
Close to the altar<br />
The Josephites established<br />
churches specifically for Black<br />
Catholics to provide worship<br />
spaces free of prejudice. Father<br />
Albert wrote that in these churches<br />
“the colored Catholic gives free<br />
scope to a growing Faith. The children<br />
sing in the choir; the boys<br />
serve on the altar and all of them<br />
have equal opportunities of seeing<br />
In 1909,<br />
<strong>Extension</strong><br />
<strong>magazine</strong><br />
shared the<br />
words of<br />
Father John<br />
Plantevigne,<br />
SSJ, one<br />
of the first<br />
Black priests<br />
ordained in<br />
the United<br />
States.<br />
and hearing and praying to their<br />
heart’s content.”<br />
The vision of the early Josephites<br />
came to fruition through their 150<br />
years of tireless, faith-driven work.<br />
They established parishes, schools,<br />
a seminary and an interracial community<br />
of priests. They founded<br />
what has become the largest Black<br />
Catholic fraternal organization of<br />
men and women in the country, the<br />
Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver.<br />
Their current superior general,<br />
Bishop John Ricard, SSJ, put<br />
it simply: “If not for the Josephites,<br />
there would be very few Black<br />
Catholics.”<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society has<br />
been working in solidarity with<br />
the Josephites, mostly in the Deep<br />
South, by helping to build or repair<br />
their churches, support religious<br />
education for children, and simply<br />
keep the doors of their vibrant<br />
parishes open.<br />
Empowering generations<br />
Following the Emancipation,<br />
millions of formerly enslaved people<br />
were forced to continue to<br />
labor in poverty in the fields without<br />
the means to improve their<br />
lives. “It was a huge challenge at<br />
the time,” said Bishop Ricard.<br />
In response, the Josephites<br />
opened the first Catholic schools<br />
for Black students. They worked<br />
with orders of women religious<br />
such as the Sisters of the Blessed<br />
Sacrament, founded by St. Katharine<br />
Drexel, to staff the schools.<br />
The community has served over<br />
170 parishes in over 35 dioceses<br />
throughout the U.S. The education<br />
and care provided in these missions<br />
transformed entire families<br />
and communities.<br />
The churches and schools gave<br />
their children, and their children’s<br />
children, a chance at a better<br />
life. Many prominent Black leaders<br />
today come from families that<br />
have been going to Josephite parishes<br />
for generations. Archbishop<br />
Shelton Fabre of the Archdiocese<br />
of Louisville, Kentucky, a prominent<br />
Black Catholic leader, grew<br />
up going to St. Augustine Church in<br />
New Roads, Louisiana. The church<br />
was founded by the Josephites in<br />
1922 and has been supported by<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society.<br />
The influence of the Josephite<br />
missions, which were largely<br />
based in the South, extends into<br />
the entire country. As millions of<br />
Black Americans moved north in<br />
the Great Migration, they took their<br />
faith with them. Today, Black Catholics<br />
across the country trace their<br />
roots back to Josephite-founded<br />
parishes.<br />
Passing the baton<br />
Josephite parishes today are<br />
places of light and joy in their<br />
communities.<br />
Bishop Louis Kihneman shepherds<br />
the Diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi,<br />
which includes six historically<br />
Black parishes, four of which<br />
were founded by the Josephites. “I<br />
just love to celebrate with them,”<br />
he said. “They really bring a tradition<br />
of faith, which I think in many<br />
ways helps us as a Church at large<br />
to stay alive in the spirit, because<br />
they’re very spirit filled.”<br />
In January of this year he celebrated<br />
Mass at St. Peter the Apostle<br />
Church. The parish’s church was<br />
completely destroyed in Hurricane<br />
Katrina in 2005. In 2018, Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society helped construct<br />
a new church—modeled after the
18<br />
BUILD<br />
Roots<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 19<br />
original design, but larger. When<br />
the new church was constructed,<br />
Bishop Kihneman said, “Parishioners<br />
were dancing in the aisles.”<br />
Another Josephite parish in<br />
Mississippi is equally vibrant. St.<br />
Therese of Lisieux in Gulfport,<br />
established in 1932, is a historically<br />
Black Catholic parish that draws<br />
people because of its warmth and<br />
family-oriented atmosphere.<br />
The parishioners have great love<br />
and appreciation for their Josephite<br />
pastors. “The Josephite priests are<br />
priests who made some really serious<br />
sacrifices,” parishioner Marsha<br />
Lowe said. “They were put in areas<br />
that no one would have gone to.”<br />
The parish is, as it has been<br />
throughout decades of turbulent<br />
years for Black Americans, a safe<br />
haven in Gulfport. Today it continues<br />
outreach through community<br />
events and a food pantry.<br />
Parishioner Robert Thomas<br />
sees a vibrant future in the church<br />
through the engaged youth. “It’s<br />
good to see the young kids coming<br />
through,” he said. “We can pass<br />
the baton. Going out and visiting<br />
the sick, reaching out to the community.<br />
Understanding the importance<br />
of what this church meant in<br />
the past and what it can mean for<br />
them in the future.”<br />
A parish in Belleview, Florida,<br />
that is also named after St. Therese,<br />
has become a supporter of this<br />
Josephite parish through our Parish<br />
Partnership program. They are<br />
helping with a project to renovate<br />
the church to make it more accessible,<br />
and to help them achieve a<br />
small but significant dream of having<br />
indoor bathrooms at their parish,<br />
which will be especially helpful<br />
to elderly parishioners.<br />
Students grow in faith at Heart of Mary School, founded by the Josephites, in Mobile, Alabama.<br />
Father Tom Connery, pastor<br />
of St. Theresa in Florida, visited<br />
the “sister parish” that his flock<br />
is helping. He was struck by the<br />
deep faith and heartfelt welcome<br />
at St. Therese of Lisieux. “We found<br />
God’s presence there,” he said.<br />
Bishop Kihneman said the partnership<br />
has “enabled the people to<br />
have the sense that the Church is<br />
behind them and that the Church<br />
is ready to walk with them.”<br />
The Josephite mission moves<br />
forward<br />
In Mobile, Alabama, yet another<br />
Josephite church has a rich history<br />
and bright future. Most Pure Heart<br />
of Mary Church, built in 1908, was<br />
a spiritual beacon during the Civil<br />
Rights Movement. It harbored<br />
organizers and activists, including<br />
Martin Luther King Jr.<br />
Deacon James Bryant has<br />
served the parish for decades. He<br />
was born in 1942. His ancestors<br />
were enslaved and picked cotton.<br />
In his youth he played baseball<br />
with Major League Baseball Hallof-Famer<br />
Hank Aaron.<br />
The deacon grew up witnessing<br />
the violence and lynchings instigated<br />
by the Ku Klux Klan.<br />
He converted to Catholicism<br />
after his son began attending a<br />
Catholic school at the parish.<br />
Raised a Southern Baptist, Deacon<br />
Bryant was moved by the real<br />
presence of Christ being in the<br />
Eucharist.<br />
Today, the parish’s school,<br />
located around the corner, attracts<br />
families from many surrounding<br />
areas seeking quality education in<br />
a faith-filled environment.<br />
Deacon Bryant’s own numerous<br />
grandchildren attend the school.<br />
He teaches them and their classmates<br />
about the history of the<br />
Josephites and how their work<br />
advancing faith and social justice<br />
for Black Americans must be carried<br />
on.<br />
“We’re still here,” he said. “We’re<br />
still being blessed.”<br />
Today, families worshipping in<br />
Josephite parishes continue to fill<br />
their beloved churches with praise<br />
and gratitude. They walk with the<br />
Josephite priests, who are determinedly<br />
carrying on the mission<br />
they began 150 years ago.<br />
INSPIRE Features of faith<br />
THE COWBOY PRIEST 20 | THE POPE AND AI 29 | A MULTICULTURAL VOCATION 34<br />
Young adults<br />
played in<br />
a soccer<br />
tournament as<br />
part of a ministry<br />
retreat co-hosted<br />
by Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
and the Southeast<br />
Pastoral Institute<br />
(SEPI). See story,<br />
page 36.
20 INSPIRE<br />
Feature Story<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 21<br />
ASSOCIATE<br />
PASTOR<br />
DEVELOPS A<br />
SPIRITUALITY<br />
STEEPED IN<br />
A RANCHER’S<br />
LIFE<br />
It is a basic tenant of Catholic<br />
belief that “grace<br />
builds upon nature,”<br />
meaning that we don’t<br />
need to change who we<br />
are as people to give glory<br />
to God. After all, God created<br />
us in His image and<br />
likeness. Therefore, we need only<br />
to perfect or build upon the foundation<br />
that God already created.<br />
At his core, Father Bryce Lungren<br />
is a cowboy by nature, having<br />
grown up on a ranch in Wyoming<br />
as the descendant<br />
of homesteaders.<br />
WYOMING’S<br />
Throughout his life he<br />
has remained close to<br />
this spectacularly gorgeous<br />
western land.<br />
cowboy<br />
He felt that when<br />
he was called to be a priest, God<br />
was not asking him to abandon the<br />
“cowboy way” that grounded his<br />
identity, but rather to bring those<br />
PRIEST<br />
inherited values of his parents and<br />
grandparents and his closeness<br />
to the land with him as he serves<br />
God’s people.<br />
Ordained in 2018, Father Lungren<br />
is based at St. Matthew’s<br />
Parish in Gillette, Wyoming. As<br />
associate pastor, his primary responsibility<br />
is to serve the parish’s<br />
surrounding missions in the small<br />
towns of the northeast corner of<br />
the state. On Sundays, he travels<br />
220 miles in his pickup truck,<br />
dubbed his “white horse,” to say<br />
Mass at three missions.<br />
The iconic “praying cowboy”<br />
image from the cover of <strong>Extension</strong><br />
<strong>magazine</strong> in 1961.<br />
PHOTO RON WU<br />
Father Bryce Lungren<br />
definitely feels “home on the<br />
range” as he poses in front<br />
of the refrigerated trailer that<br />
stores the beef he personally<br />
raises, butchers and packages.<br />
All of the churches have been<br />
built with Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
support, and all of the miles<br />
Father Lungren travels are fueled<br />
with support from Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society donors.<br />
While in seminary, Father Lungren<br />
discovered that the way to<br />
be a happy priest would be to live<br />
an authentic life—true to the Gospel<br />
and true to who he is as a person:<br />
a cowboy. His grandfather, on<br />
whose ranch Father Lungren grew<br />
up roping and branding cattle,<br />
would say these words: “Always<br />
wear your hat.” He interpreted<br />
this to mean, “Never stop being<br />
the man God created you to be.”<br />
And so, along with the Roman<br />
collar, he wears his cowboy<br />
hat, a big metal belt buckle and,<br />
on occasion, cowboy boots with<br />
spurs. His cowboy persona is not a<br />
“shtick” or public relations stunt.<br />
He described his grandparents’<br />
and his parents’ influences<br />
of faith, family and hard work as<br />
“an endless school of virtue that<br />
motivated me to be the best man<br />
I can be.”<br />
This compelled him to take his<br />
cowboy values and convert them<br />
into a Catholic spirituality. Last<br />
year he published a book titled<br />
The Catholic Cowboy Way: Finding<br />
Peace and Purpose on the<br />
Bronc Called Life.<br />
The book links the virtues and<br />
ideals of the iconic American<br />
cowboy with that of the Catholic<br />
spiritual journey.
22 INSPIRE<br />
Feature Story<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 23<br />
He describes the cowboy as “a<br />
man who is humble, not in a hurry,<br />
and has a broad perspective of life,<br />
always looking toward a brighter<br />
day. He usually rides for another<br />
man’s brand, travels light and is<br />
willing to sacrifice himself to accomplish<br />
whatever task is at hand.<br />
Yet he does it with a light heart.”<br />
Father Lungren contends that<br />
“Jesus has much of the same<br />
disposition [as the cowboy].<br />
He knows He’s on a mission.”<br />
That mission is on behalf of the<br />
“brand” of God the Father.<br />
RANCHER AND RELIGIOUS LEADER<br />
So what does it mean in daily<br />
practice to be a cowboy priest? Father<br />
Lungren does everything a<br />
city priest would do. He teaches,<br />
he administers the sacraments, he<br />
buries the dead, he counsels and<br />
he consoles.<br />
But the cowboy lifestyle remains<br />
part of his life and ministry.<br />
At his first assignment, he<br />
served at the Wind River Reservation,<br />
where he encountered a wild<br />
horse. Being the natural cowboy<br />
that he is, he caught the horse and<br />
tamed it in service of the ranch.<br />
He named the horse Chief.<br />
Eventually, he found and tamed<br />
a second horse that he called Mollie.<br />
These horses are somewhat of<br />
a metaphor for Father Lungren’s<br />
life. He never intended to be a<br />
priest, but God pulled him into His<br />
service, and he discovered a new<br />
and beautiful purpose along the<br />
way.<br />
After high school, he was happily<br />
ranching, competing in rodeos<br />
and engaged to the rancher’s<br />
daughter, whom he described as<br />
“the girl of his dreams.” That was<br />
ABOVE Father Bryce Lungren<br />
produces quality meat for his local<br />
community.<br />
RIGHT Father Lungren rides a<br />
horse he tamed.<br />
also when he first began to hear<br />
the call to priesthood, fueled by<br />
his love of the Mass.<br />
Much like his wild horses, God<br />
eventually drew Father Lungren<br />
in closer, and helped him see that<br />
“when we discover our vocational<br />
mission in life, we discover happiness.”<br />
Even though he never wanted<br />
to be a priest, he says he is happier<br />
than he ever could have imagined<br />
now that he is doing what God<br />
created him to do in this world.<br />
He openly said, “I am not a<br />
desk-job priest. It’s not in my<br />
nature. Sure, that is part of my<br />
priestly responsibilities, but I<br />
don’t have to take off my hat to do<br />
so. I can still be Bryce even when<br />
Father Lungren comes to call.”<br />
And a rancher he remains.<br />
On the side, Father Lungren operates<br />
a small ranching co-op that<br />
produces quality meat for his local<br />
community. Every year he receives<br />
a dozen “heiferettes” that have<br />
been rejected by other ranchers<br />
because they are infertile or cannot<br />
sustain the herd. He receives<br />
these 1,000-pound rejected cows<br />
and takes them to a parishioner’s<br />
pasture, where they graze for four<br />
months and “fatten up” to 1,400<br />
pounds.<br />
In his spare time, Father Lungren<br />
will personally slaughter,<br />
hand butcher, package and freeze<br />
the meat of these cows in a refrigerated<br />
trailer that he procured. He<br />
then distributes the meat through<br />
his local co-op, which now has 150<br />
members.<br />
“There is so much satisfaction<br />
in cutting a steak or grinding<br />
hamburger in order to feed someone<br />
I know. I gladly work late into<br />
the night, not for money, but for<br />
love,” he said.<br />
He added that this satisfaction<br />
is reminiscent of his grandmother<br />
at the family ranch who would say,<br />
“It’s no fun to cook for one.” He<br />
learned that joy comes in feeding<br />
PHOTOS RON WU<br />
others. “What wisdom our elders<br />
have to teach the younger generations!”<br />
he said.<br />
WE NEED MORE COWBOYS<br />
One of the most iconic pieces<br />
of original art ever produced by<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society in its<br />
118-year history is the image of a<br />
cowboy praying his rosary in an<br />
open prairie, much like the topography<br />
of eastern Wyoming.<br />
For decades, people have written<br />
to Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
requesting copies of this image<br />
which first debuted in <strong>Extension</strong><br />
<strong>magazine</strong> in 1961.<br />
It seems that the Catholic cowboy<br />
way speaks to the hearts of<br />
American Catholics. In other<br />
words, Father Lungren is onto<br />
something. “The Church needs<br />
cowboys even more than the<br />
world does,” he said. “She needs<br />
more courageous and confident<br />
men and women who seek the<br />
truth, who don’t give up and who<br />
are proud to be Catholic. Above all<br />
though, she needs more authenticity<br />
and less hypocrisy.”<br />
In Father Lungren’s cowboy<br />
parlance, being authentic is to be<br />
“raw and real.” He said the cowboy<br />
spirit has roots in “hardworking”<br />
Jesus Christ. “He was all<br />
about getting the job done, and he<br />
knew how to have fun.”<br />
Perhaps there is a little inner<br />
cowboy in all of us waiting to be<br />
let out. Father Lungren likens the<br />
ups and downs of the spiritual life<br />
to a bucking bronco. “It’ll dump<br />
you if you’re not careful,” he said.<br />
But if you put your mind to it<br />
and keep going, “it’s a dance that<br />
never gets old.”
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HOW CAN WE USE IT<br />
FOR THE BETTERMENT<br />
OF HUMANITY?<br />
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS for many a<br />
chilling technological revolution that has<br />
arrived at our doorstep. The notion that a<br />
robot can exceptionally mimic human intelligence<br />
is something that keeps many<br />
people up at night.<br />
Artificial intelligence has, in fact,<br />
been around for almost 70 years. The<br />
term “AI” was actually born in 1956<br />
through the emergence of cybernetics—the<br />
science of control in machines<br />
and humans. In the 1980s, AI gradually<br />
progressed with the rise of expert systems,<br />
which is the component of artificial<br />
intelligence that emulates the<br />
decision-making ability of a human<br />
expert. And now in the last 15 years,<br />
AI has progressed further thanks<br />
to massive data and new computing<br />
power. Many people are already<br />
familiar with the newest crop of<br />
AI tools like ChatGPT, which was<br />
launched in late 2022.<br />
So artificial intelligence has been<br />
here among us for quite some time.<br />
But like most technologies, it took<br />
a while to evolve. And now that it<br />
has, it is becoming a bigger part of<br />
daily life in society.<br />
As with any technological innovation,<br />
it has the potential to<br />
be used for good or evil, just like<br />
those that came before it. The<br />
cotton gin sped up textile production,<br />
but also prolonged the<br />
institution of slavery in the U.S.<br />
The industrial revolution created<br />
cheaper and more accessible<br />
goods, but also led to<br />
dangerous work conditions,<br />
greater pollution and child labor.<br />
Social media’s debut al-<br />
ARTIFICIAL<br />
ABOVE We prompted AI to create a<br />
realistic photo of the conversion of Saul<br />
as he is being blinded by a light from<br />
heaven on his way to Damascus, after<br />
which the former zealous persecutor of<br />
the Christian church becomes St. Paul<br />
the Apostle.<br />
lowed us to connect with old<br />
friends, but also gave way to<br />
easier dissemination of hate<br />
and disinformation.<br />
Many people feel that we<br />
are on the brink of perhaps<br />
another, even greater, revolution<br />
with the dawn of AI.<br />
In his January 1 message to<br />
the world, Pope Francis expressed<br />
a mix of sentiments:<br />
openness to this latest technology<br />
with a heavy dose of<br />
caution. He warned against<br />
any use of the technology<br />
that would distort reality; be<br />
used as a weapon of war; or<br />
in any way become detrimental<br />
to the well-being of<br />
the poor, the innocent and<br />
the young.<br />
“We rightly rejoice and<br />
give thanks for the impressive<br />
achievements of science<br />
and technology, as a result of<br />
which countless ills that formerly<br />
plagued human life<br />
and caused great suffering<br />
have been remedied,” said<br />
Pope Francis. “At the same<br />
time, techno-scientific advances,<br />
by making it possible<br />
to exercise hitherto unprecedented<br />
control over reality,<br />
are placing in human hands<br />
a vast array of options, including<br />
some that may pose<br />
a risk to our survival and endanger<br />
our common home.”<br />
You can read Pope Francis’<br />
full message, called “Artificial<br />
Intelligence and Peace,” on<br />
page 29.<br />
INTELLIGENCE<br />
IS HERE<br />
UPSIDE OF AI?<br />
Some speculate that AI offers<br />
tremendous benefits. Could<br />
it lead to more medical breakthroughs,<br />
even finding the cure to<br />
cancer? The pope said, “If artificial<br />
intelligence were used to promote<br />
integral human development,<br />
it could introduce important innovations<br />
in agriculture, education and<br />
culture; an improved level of life for<br />
entire nations and people; and the<br />
growth of human fraternity.”<br />
If we learn to use it appropriately<br />
and harness it ethically, AI could serve<br />
as an augmentation—and not a total<br />
replacement—of human intelligence.<br />
“Human” is the key word here. Humans<br />
must be the drivers of this technology.<br />
The technology should not drive us.<br />
According to an Associated Press<br />
report, the definition of artificial intelligence<br />
hits these four areas: AI helps<br />
to process data, AI<br />
does not have a mind<br />
of its own, AI depends<br />
on data that humans<br />
feed it, and AI produces<br />
results from human-fed<br />
information.<br />
Those last three points are essential in<br />
helping us understand artificial intelligence.<br />
AI is reliant on us human beings to tell it<br />
what we want it to create. Based on our instructions,<br />
our own thought-out prompting<br />
based on our human knowledge, emotions,
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IMAGE BEFORE COMMUNITY INPUT<br />
IMAGE AFTER COMMUNITY INPUT<br />
and moral understanding, it<br />
will then attempt to create<br />
what we are thinking about.<br />
As the drivers of this upand-coming<br />
technology, humans<br />
must provide ethical<br />
guidance on using this tool.<br />
As Pope Francis mentioned<br />
in his message, “Freedom<br />
and peaceful coexistence are<br />
threatened whenever human<br />
beings yield to the temptation<br />
to selfishness, self-interest,<br />
the desire for profit and the<br />
thirst for power. We thus have<br />
a duty to broaden our gaze<br />
and to direct techno-scientific<br />
research towards the pursuit<br />
of peace and the common<br />
good, in the service of the integral<br />
development of individuals<br />
and communities.”<br />
He continued, “Artificial<br />
intelligence ought to serve our<br />
best human potential and our<br />
highest aspirations, not compete<br />
with them.”<br />
AI AND OUR CATHOLIC FAITH<br />
Using this approach to AI,<br />
we at Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
wondered if this new<br />
technology could also assist<br />
as a tool in deepening our religious<br />
sensibilities and potentially<br />
serve as a tool of catechesis<br />
and evangelization.<br />
To demonstrate this, we<br />
employed a new AI system,<br />
Midjourney, to create vivid<br />
religious art that speaks to<br />
our Catholic faith and traditions.<br />
The system responded<br />
to prompts based on Catholic<br />
theological ideas that we<br />
fed it regarding the lives of the<br />
saints, Catholic traditions and<br />
biblical moments.<br />
When prompting AI, one<br />
can ask for different features,<br />
concepts and certain<br />
variations. When we first<br />
prompted AI for the images<br />
in this <strong>magazine</strong> story, we got<br />
fair returns, but not what we<br />
felt to be the most spiritually<br />
accurate portrayal. This is an<br />
important realization when<br />
working with AI. Humans<br />
must be able to recognize<br />
when AI makes something<br />
that isn’t quite right. AI does<br />
not comprehend errors in the<br />
same way humans do. So, we<br />
must then use our reasoning<br />
to guide AI in fixing the issue<br />
in order to create something<br />
that is theologically accurate<br />
and captivating.<br />
INCLUSIVE APPROACH TO AI<br />
Pope Francis suggests that<br />
when considering how to use<br />
AI, we should include the<br />
voices of many stakeholders,<br />
The initial image of Our Lady<br />
of Guadalupe, above left,<br />
generated by artificial intelligence<br />
is beautiful, but is also lacking in<br />
indigenous features.<br />
Based on the feedback we<br />
received regarding the first image,<br />
Latina Catholic leaders in Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society’s Mujer Valiente<br />
(“Valiant Woman”) program helped<br />
guide us in prompting artificial<br />
intelligence to generate this more<br />
accurate depiction, above, of Our<br />
Lady of Guadalupe.<br />
including the poor. We took<br />
that approach in this AI experiment.<br />
For example, in<br />
including the voices of many,<br />
we sought help in generating<br />
an image of Our Lady of<br />
Guadalupe. We asked Latina<br />
Catholic leaders in Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society’s Mujer<br />
Valiente (“Valiant Woman”)<br />
program to weigh in on our<br />
initial images and how they<br />
believe Our Lady of Guadalupe<br />
should be depicted.<br />
Their responses, filled with<br />
love, joy, holiness, and creativity,<br />
led us to better<br />
prompting of the AI generator<br />
and the creation of the final<br />
image you see here. These<br />
women remarked that the<br />
initial image of Our Lady of<br />
Guadalupe was beautiful, but<br />
it was inaccurate in that she<br />
lacked indigenous features—<br />
which are key to her apparition<br />
story. As Blanca Primm,<br />
director of Hispanic ministry<br />
for the Diocese of Knoxville,<br />
Tennessee, said, “It invites<br />
me to pray and is very pretty<br />
too, although her appearance<br />
is not as mestiza (mixed ancestry).”<br />
The leaders we asked are<br />
of varying ages, educational<br />
backgrounds and experiences.<br />
They share a deep love<br />
of the Catholic faith, have a<br />
desire to deepen that faith<br />
and are committed to sharing<br />
their faith with others. These<br />
are the exact right agents for<br />
AI. They are an example of<br />
those people Pope Francis<br />
described who can properly<br />
show us how artificial intelligence<br />
can serve to create<br />
something good.<br />
So we want to know what<br />
you think: Can artificial intelligence<br />
help us more vividly<br />
tell the stories of our<br />
faith? Take a close look at the<br />
AI-generated images from<br />
theology and Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society history in these<br />
pages. You be the judge.<br />
Send us your thoughts at<br />
<strong>magazine</strong>@catholicextension.org.
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Artificial intelligence helped us<br />
visualize what conversations<br />
between holy friends St. Francis<br />
and St. Clare of Assisi might have<br />
looked like.<br />
Father Francis Clement Kelley<br />
established Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society in 1905 to bring the<br />
sacraments to remote faith<br />
communities across the country. The<br />
mission first spread by way of the<br />
railways, with priests riding into tiny<br />
frontier towns to celebrate Mass from<br />
the backs of rail cars.<br />
Inspired by our early history, we<br />
prompted artificial intelligence to<br />
create an image showing Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society’s chapel car<br />
pulling into a small Montana<br />
town for Mass to be celebrated with<br />
the people. We gave AI the original<br />
image of our chapel car, seen above,<br />
so it could compute what the rail car<br />
looked like, and how people in the<br />
early 1900s should be presented.<br />
At the beginning of the<br />
New Year, a time of<br />
grace which the Lord<br />
gives to each one of<br />
us, I would like to address<br />
God’s People,<br />
the various nations, heads of state<br />
and government, the leaders of the<br />
different religions and civil society,<br />
and all the men and women<br />
of our time, in order to offer<br />
my fervent good wishes for<br />
peace.<br />
MESSAGE FROM<br />
HIS HOLINESS<br />
POPE FRANCIS:<br />
ARTIFICIAL<br />
INTELLIGENCE<br />
AND PEACE<br />
1. THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE<br />
AND TECHNOLOGY AS A PATH<br />
TO PEACE<br />
Sacred Scripture attests<br />
that God bestowed his Spirit<br />
upon human beings so that<br />
they might have “skill and<br />
understanding and knowledge<br />
in every craft” (Ex<br />
35:31). Human intelligence is<br />
an expression of the dignity<br />
with which we have been endowed<br />
by the Creator, who<br />
made us in his own image and likeness<br />
(cf. Gen 1:26), and enabled us<br />
to respond consciously and freely to<br />
his love. In a particular way, science<br />
and technology manifest this fundamentally<br />
relational quality of human<br />
intelligence; they are brilliant<br />
products of its creative potential.<br />
In its Pastoral Constitution Gaudium<br />
et Spes, the Second Vatican<br />
Council restated this truth, declaring<br />
that “through its labours and its<br />
native endowments, humanity has<br />
ceaselessly sought to better its life.”<br />
[1] When human beings, “with the<br />
aid of technology,” endeavour to<br />
make “the earth a dwelling worthy<br />
of the whole human family,” [2]<br />
they carry out God’s plan and cooperate<br />
with his will to perfect creation<br />
and bring about peace among<br />
peoples. Progress in science and<br />
technology, insofar as it contributes<br />
to greater order in human society<br />
and greater fraternal communion<br />
and freedom, thus leads to the betterment<br />
of humanity and the transformation<br />
of the world.<br />
We rightly rejoice and give<br />
thanks for the impressive achievements<br />
of science and technology, as<br />
a result of which countless ills that<br />
formerly plagued human life and<br />
caused great suffering have been<br />
remedied. At the same time, techno-scientific<br />
advances, by making<br />
it possible to exercise hitherto unprecedented<br />
control over reality, are<br />
placing in human hands a vast array<br />
of options, including some that<br />
may pose a risk to our survival and<br />
endanger our common home. [3]<br />
The remarkable advances in new<br />
information technologies, particularly<br />
in the digital sphere, thus offer<br />
exciting opportunities and grave<br />
risks, with serious implications<br />
for the pursuit of justice and harmony<br />
among peoples. Any number<br />
of urgent questions need to<br />
be asked. What will be the consequences,<br />
in the medium and<br />
long term, of these new digital<br />
technologies? And what impact<br />
will they have on individual<br />
lives and on societies, on international<br />
stability and peace?<br />
2. THE FUTURE OF ARTIFICIAL<br />
INTELLIGENCE: BETWEEN<br />
PROMISE AND RISK<br />
Progress in information<br />
technology and the development<br />
of digital technologies in<br />
recent decades have already begun<br />
to effect profound transformations<br />
in global society<br />
and its various dynamics. New digital<br />
tools are even now changing<br />
the face of communications, public<br />
administration, education, consumption,<br />
personal interactions<br />
and countless other aspects of our<br />
daily lives.<br />
Moreover, from the digital footprints<br />
spread throughout the Internet,<br />
technologies employing a variety<br />
of algorithms can extract data<br />
that enable them to control mental<br />
and relational habits for commercial<br />
or political purposes, often<br />
without our knowledge, thus limiting<br />
our conscious exercise of freedom<br />
of choice. In a space like the<br />
Web, marked by information overload,<br />
they can structure the flow of<br />
data according to criteria of selec-
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5. BURNING ISSUES FOR ETHICS<br />
In the future, the reliability of an<br />
applicant for a mortgage, the suitability<br />
of an individual for a job, the<br />
possibility of recidivism on the part<br />
of a convicted person, or the right to<br />
receive political asylum or social assistance<br />
could be determined by artificial<br />
intelligence systems. The lack<br />
of different levels of mediation that<br />
these systems introduce is particularly<br />
exposed to forms of bias and<br />
discrimination: systemic errors can<br />
easily multiply, producing not only<br />
injustices in individual cases but<br />
also, due to the domino effect, real<br />
forms of social inequality.<br />
At times too, forms of artificial<br />
intelligence seem capable of influencing<br />
individuals’ decisions by option<br />
that are not always perceived<br />
by the user.<br />
We need to remember that scientific<br />
research and technological<br />
innovations are not disembodied<br />
and “neutral,” [4] but subject<br />
to cultural influences. As fully human<br />
activities, the directions they<br />
take reflect choices conditioned by<br />
personal, social and cultural values<br />
in any given age. The same must<br />
be said of the results they produce:<br />
precisely as the fruit of specifically<br />
human ways of approaching the<br />
world around us, the latter always<br />
have an ethical dimension, closely<br />
linked to decisions made by those<br />
who design their experimentation<br />
and direct their production towards<br />
particular objectives.<br />
This is also the case with forms<br />
of artificial intelligence. To date,<br />
there is no single definition of artificial<br />
intelligence in the world of<br />
science and technology. The term<br />
itself, which by now has entered<br />
into everyday parlance, embraces<br />
a variety of sciences, theories and<br />
techniques aimed at making machines<br />
reproduce or imitate in their<br />
functioning the cognitive abilities<br />
of human beings. To speak in the<br />
plural of “forms of intelligence”<br />
can help to emphasize above all<br />
the unbridgeable gap between such<br />
systems, however amazing and<br />
powerful, and the human person:<br />
in the end, they are merely “fragmentary,”<br />
in the sense that they<br />
can only imitate or reproduce certain<br />
functions of human intelligence.<br />
The use of the plural likewise<br />
brings out the fact that these<br />
devices greatly differ among themselves<br />
and that they should always<br />
be regarded as “socio-technical<br />
systems.” For the impact of any artificial<br />
intelligence device – regardless<br />
of its underlying technology –<br />
depends not only on its technical<br />
design, but also on the aims and interests<br />
of its owners and developers,<br />
and on the situations in which<br />
it will be employed.<br />
Artificial intelligence, then,<br />
ought to be understood as a galaxy<br />
of different realities. We cannot<br />
presume a priori that its development<br />
will make a beneficial contribution<br />
to the future of humanity<br />
and to peace among peoples.<br />
That positive outcome will only be<br />
achieved if we show ourselves capable<br />
of acting responsibly and respect<br />
such fundamental human<br />
values as “inclusion, transparency,<br />
security, equity, privacy and reliability.”<br />
[5]<br />
Nor is it sufficient simply to presume<br />
a commitment on the part of<br />
those who design algorithms and<br />
digital technologies to act ethically<br />
and responsibly. There is a need to<br />
strengthen or, if necessary, to establish<br />
bodies charged with examining<br />
the ethical issues arising in<br />
this field and protecting the rights<br />
of those who employ forms of artificial<br />
intelligence or are affected by<br />
them. [6]<br />
The immense expansion of technology<br />
thus needs to be accompanied<br />
by an appropriate formation in<br />
responsibility for its future development.<br />
Freedom and peaceful coexistence<br />
are threatened whenever<br />
human beings yield to the temptation<br />
to selfishness, self-interest,<br />
the desire for profit and the thirst<br />
for power. We thus have a duty<br />
to broaden our gaze and to direct<br />
techno-scientific research towards<br />
the pursuit of peace and the common<br />
good, in the service of the integral<br />
development of individuals<br />
and communities. [7]<br />
The inherent dignity of each human<br />
being and the fraternity that<br />
binds us together as members of<br />
the one human family must undergird<br />
the development of new technologies<br />
and serve as indisputable<br />
criteria for evaluating them before<br />
they are employed, so that digital<br />
progress can occur with due respect<br />
for justice and contribute to the<br />
cause of peace. Technological developments<br />
that do not lead to an<br />
improvement in the quality of life<br />
of all humanity, but on the contrary<br />
aggravate inequalities and conflicts,<br />
can never count as true progress.<br />
[8]<br />
Artificial intelligence will become<br />
increasingly important. The<br />
challenges it poses are technical,<br />
but also anthropological, educational,<br />
social and political. It promises,<br />
for instance, liberation from<br />
drudgery, more efficient manufacturing,<br />
easier transport and more<br />
ready markets, as well as a revolution<br />
in processes of accumulating,<br />
organizing and confirming data. We<br />
need to be aware of the rapid transformations<br />
now taking place and<br />
to manage them in ways that safeguard<br />
fundamental human rights<br />
and respect the institutions and<br />
laws that promote integral human<br />
development. Artificial intelligence<br />
ought to serve our best human potential<br />
and our highest aspirations,<br />
not compete with them.<br />
3. THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE FUTURE:<br />
MACHINES THAT “LEARN” BY<br />
THEMSELVES<br />
In its multiple forms, artificial<br />
intelligence based on machine<br />
learning techniques, while still in<br />
its pioneering phases, is already introducing<br />
considerable changes to<br />
the fabric of societies and exerting<br />
a profound influence on cultures,<br />
societal behaviours and peacebuilding.<br />
Developments such as machine<br />
learning or deep learning, raise<br />
questions that transcend the realms<br />
of technology and engineering, and<br />
have to do with the deeper understanding<br />
of the meaning of human<br />
life, the construction of knowledge,<br />
and the capacity of the mind to attain<br />
truth.<br />
The ability of certain devices to<br />
produce syntactically and semantically<br />
coherent texts, for example,<br />
is no guarantee of their reliability.<br />
They are said to “hallucinate,”<br />
that is, to create statements that at<br />
first glance appear plausible but are<br />
unfounded or betray biases. This<br />
poses a serious problem when artificial<br />
intelligence is deployed in<br />
campaigns of disinformation that<br />
spread false news and lead to a<br />
growing distrust of the communications<br />
media. Privacy, data ownership<br />
and intellectual property are<br />
other areas where these technologies<br />
engender grave risks. To which<br />
we can add other negative consequences<br />
of the misuse of these<br />
technologies, such as discrimination,<br />
interference in elections, the<br />
rise of a surveillance society, digital<br />
exclusion and the exacerbation of<br />
an individualism increasingly disconnected<br />
from society. All these<br />
factors risk fueling conflicts and<br />
hindering peace.<br />
4. THE SENSE OF LIMIT IN THE<br />
TECHNOCRATIC PARADIGM<br />
Our world is too vast, varied and<br />
complex ever to be fully known<br />
and categorized. The human mind<br />
can never exhaust its richness, even<br />
with the aid of the most advanced<br />
algorithms. Such algorithms do not<br />
offer guaranteed predictions of the<br />
future, but only statistical approximations.<br />
Not everything can be<br />
predicted, not everything can be<br />
calculated; in the end, “realities are<br />
greater than ideas.” [9] No matter<br />
how prodigious our calculating<br />
power may be, there will always be<br />
an inaccessible residue that evades<br />
any attempt at quantification.<br />
In addition, the vast amount of<br />
data analyzed by artificial intelligences<br />
is in itself no guarantee of<br />
impartiality. When algorithms extrapolate<br />
information, they always<br />
run the risk of distortion, replicating<br />
the injustices and prejudices of<br />
the environments where they originate.<br />
The faster and more complex<br />
they become, the more difficult it<br />
proves to understand why they produced<br />
a particular result.<br />
“Intelligent” machines may perform<br />
the tasks assigned to them<br />
with ever greater efficiency, but the<br />
purpose and the meaning of their<br />
operations will continue to be determined<br />
or enabled by human beings<br />
possessed of their own universe<br />
of values. There is a risk that<br />
the criteria behind certain decisions<br />
will become less clear, responsibility<br />
for those decisions<br />
concealed, and producers enabled<br />
to evade their obligation to act for<br />
the benefit of the community. In<br />
some sense, this is favoured by the<br />
technocratic system, which allies<br />
the economy with technology and<br />
privileges the criterion of efficiency,<br />
tending to ignore anything unrelated<br />
to its immediate interests. [10]<br />
This should lead us to reflect on<br />
something frequently overlooked<br />
in our current technocratic and efficiency-oriented<br />
mentality, as it is<br />
decisive for personal and social development:<br />
the “sense of limit.”<br />
Human beings are, by definition,<br />
mortal; by proposing to overcome<br />
every limit through technology, in<br />
an obsessive desire to control everything,<br />
we risk losing control over<br />
ourselves; in the quest for an absolute<br />
freedom, we risk falling into<br />
the spiral of a “technological dictatorship.”<br />
Recognizing and accepting<br />
our limits as creatures is an indispensable<br />
condition for reaching,<br />
or better, welcoming fulfilment as<br />
a gift. In the ideological context of<br />
a technocratic paradigm inspired<br />
by a Promethean presumption of<br />
self-sufficiency, inequalities could<br />
grow out of proportion, knowledge<br />
and wealth accumulate in the hands<br />
of a few, and grave risks ensue for<br />
democratic societies and peaceful<br />
coexistence. [11]
32 INSPIRE<br />
Message from the Pope<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 33<br />
erating through pre-determined<br />
options associated with stimuli<br />
and dissuasions, or by operating<br />
through a system of regulating people’s<br />
choices based on information<br />
design. These forms of manipulation<br />
or social control require careful<br />
attention and oversight, and imply a<br />
clear legal responsibility on the part<br />
of their producers, their deployers,<br />
and government authorities.<br />
Reliance on automatic processes<br />
that categorize individuals, for instance,<br />
by the pervasive use of surveillance<br />
or the adoption of social<br />
credit systems, could likewise have<br />
profound repercussions on the social<br />
fabric by establishing a ranking<br />
among citizens. These artificial processes<br />
of categorization could lead<br />
also to power conflicts, since they<br />
concern not only virtual users but<br />
real people. Fundamental respect<br />
for human dignity demands that we<br />
refuse to allow the uniqueness of<br />
the person to be identified with a<br />
set of data. Algorithms must not be<br />
allowed to determine how we understand<br />
human rights, to set aside<br />
the essential human values of compassion,<br />
mercy and forgiveness, or<br />
to eliminate the possibility of an individual<br />
changing and leaving his<br />
or her past behind.<br />
Nor can we fail to consider, in<br />
this context, the impact of new<br />
technologies on the workplace. Jobs<br />
that were once the sole domain of<br />
human labour are rapidly being<br />
taken over by industrial applications<br />
of artificial intelligence. Here<br />
too, there is the substantial risk of<br />
disproportionate benefit for the few<br />
at the price of the impoverishment<br />
of many. Respect for the dignity<br />
of labourers and the importance<br />
of employment for the economic<br />
well-being of individuals, families,<br />
and societies, for job security and<br />
just wages, ought to be a high priority<br />
for the international community<br />
as these forms of technology penetrate<br />
more deeply into our workplaces.<br />
6. SHALL WE TURN SWORDS INTO<br />
PLOUGHSHARES?<br />
In these days, as we look at the<br />
world around us, there can be no<br />
escaping serious ethical questions<br />
related to the armaments sector.<br />
The ability to conduct military operations<br />
through remote control systems<br />
has led to a lessened perception<br />
of the devastation caused by<br />
those weapon systems and the burden<br />
of responsibility for their use,<br />
resulting in an even more cold and<br />
detached approach to the immense<br />
tragedy of war. Research on emerging<br />
technologies in the area of socalled<br />
Lethal Autonomous Weapon<br />
Systems, including the weaponization<br />
of artificial intelligence, is<br />
a cause for grave ethical concern.<br />
Autonomous weapon systems can<br />
never be morally responsible subjects.<br />
The unique human capacity<br />
for moral judgment and ethical decision-making<br />
is more than a complex<br />
collection of algorithms, and<br />
that capacity cannot be reduced to<br />
programming a machine, which as<br />
“intelligent” as it may be, remains<br />
a machine. For this reason, it is imperative<br />
to ensure adequate, meaningful<br />
and consistent human oversight<br />
of weapon systems.<br />
Nor can we ignore the possibility<br />
of sophisticated weapons ending<br />
up in the wrong hands, facilitating,<br />
for instance, terrorist attacks or<br />
interventions aimed at destabilizing<br />
the institutions of legitimate systems<br />
of government. In a word, the<br />
world has no need of new technologies<br />
that contribute to the unjust<br />
development of commerce and the<br />
weapons trade and consequently<br />
end up promoting the folly of war.<br />
By so doing, not only intelligence<br />
but the human heart itself would<br />
risk becoming ever more “artificial.”<br />
The most advanced technological<br />
applications should not be<br />
employed to facilitate the violent<br />
resolution of conflicts, but rather to<br />
pave the way for peace.<br />
On a more positive note, if artificial<br />
intelligence were used to promote<br />
integral human development,<br />
it could introduce important innovations<br />
in agriculture, education<br />
and culture, an improved level of<br />
life for entire nations and peoples,<br />
and the growth of human fraternity<br />
and social friendship. In the end,<br />
the way we use it to include the<br />
least of our brothers and sisters, the<br />
vulnerable and those most in need,<br />
will be the true measure of our humanity.<br />
An authentically humane outlook<br />
and the desire for a better future<br />
for our world surely indicates<br />
the need for a cross-disciplinary dialogue<br />
aimed at an ethical development<br />
of algorithms – an algor-ethics<br />
– in which values will shape<br />
the directions taken by new technologies.<br />
[12] Ethical considerations<br />
should also be taken into account<br />
from the very beginning of<br />
research, and continue through the<br />
phases of experimentation, design,<br />
production, distribution and marketing.<br />
This is the approach of ethics<br />
by design, and it is one in which<br />
educational institutions and decision-makers<br />
have an essential role<br />
to play.<br />
7. CHALLENGES FOR EDUCATION<br />
The development of a technology<br />
that respects and serves human<br />
dignity has clear ramifications<br />
for our educational institutions and<br />
the world of culture. By multiplying<br />
the possibilities of communication,<br />
digital technologies have allowed<br />
us to encounter one another<br />
in new ways. Yet there remains a<br />
need for sustained reflection on<br />
the kinds of relationships to which<br />
they are steering us. Our young people<br />
are growing up in cultural environments<br />
pervaded by technology,<br />
and this cannot but challenge our<br />
methods of teaching, education and<br />
training.<br />
Education in the use of forms<br />
of artificial intelligence should<br />
aim above all at promoting critical<br />
thinking. Users of all ages, but<br />
especially the young, need to develop<br />
a discerning approach to the<br />
use of data and content collected<br />
on the web or produced by artificial<br />
intelligence systems. Schools,<br />
universities and scientific societies<br />
are challenged to help students and<br />
professionals to grasp the social<br />
and ethical aspects of the development<br />
and uses of technology.<br />
Training in the use of new<br />
means of communication should<br />
also take account not only of disinformation,<br />
“fake news,” but also<br />
the disturbing recrudescence of<br />
“certain ancestral fears… that have<br />
been able to hide and spread behind<br />
new technologies”. [13] Sadly,<br />
we once more find ourselves having<br />
to combat “the temptation to build<br />
a culture of walls, to raise walls… in<br />
order to prevent an encounter with<br />
other cultures and other peoples,”<br />
[14] and the development of a<br />
peaceful and fraternal coexistence.<br />
8. CHALLENGES FOR THE<br />
DEVELOPMENT OF<br />
INTERNATIONAL LAW<br />
The global scale of artificial intelligence<br />
makes it clear that, alongside<br />
the responsibility of sovereign<br />
states to regulate its use internally,<br />
international organizations can play<br />
a decisive role in reaching multilateral<br />
agreements and coordinating<br />
their application and enforcement.<br />
[15] In this regard, I urge the global<br />
community of nations to work together<br />
in order to adopt a binding<br />
international treaty that regulates<br />
the development and use of artificial<br />
intelligence in its many forms.<br />
The goal of regulation, naturally,<br />
should not only be the prevention<br />
of harmful practices but also the<br />
encouragement of best practices,<br />
by stimulating new and creative approaches<br />
and encouraging individual<br />
or group initiatives. [16]<br />
In the quest for normative models<br />
that can provide ethical guidance<br />
to developers of digital technologies,<br />
it is indispensable to<br />
identify the human values that<br />
should undergird the efforts of societies<br />
to formulate, adopt and enforce<br />
much-needed regulatory<br />
frameworks. The work of drafting<br />
ethical guidelines for producing<br />
forms of artificial intelligence can<br />
hardly prescind from the consideration<br />
of deeper issues regarding the<br />
meaning of human existence, the<br />
protection of fundamental human<br />
rights and the pursuit of justice and<br />
peace. This process of ethical and<br />
juridical discernment can prove a<br />
precious opportunity for shared reflection<br />
on the role that technology<br />
should play in our individual and<br />
communal lives, and how its use<br />
can contribute to the creation of a<br />
more equitable and humane world.<br />
For this reason, in debates about<br />
the regulation of artificial intelligence,<br />
the voices of all stakeholders<br />
should be taken into account,<br />
including the poor, the powerless<br />
and others who often go unheard in<br />
global decision-making processes.<br />
* * *<br />
I hope that the foregoing reflection<br />
will encourage efforts to ensure that<br />
progress in developing forms of artificial<br />
intelligence will ultimately<br />
serve the cause of human fraternity<br />
and peace. It is not the responsibility<br />
of a few but of the entire human<br />
family. For peace is the fruit<br />
of relationships that recognize and<br />
welcome others in their inalienable<br />
dignity, and of cooperation and<br />
commitment in seeking the integral<br />
development of all individuals<br />
and peoples.<br />
It is my prayer at the start of the<br />
New Year that the rapid development<br />
of forms of artificial intelligence<br />
will not increase cases of<br />
inequality and injustice all too present<br />
in today’s world, but will help<br />
put an end to wars and conflicts,<br />
and alleviate many forms of suffering<br />
that afflict our human family.<br />
May Christian believers, followers<br />
of various religions and men and<br />
women of good will work together<br />
in harmony to embrace the opportunities<br />
and confront the challenges<br />
posed by the digital revolution and<br />
thus hand on to future generations<br />
a world of greater solidarity, justice<br />
and peace.<br />
From the Vatican, 1 January <strong>2024</strong>.<br />
To see the bibliography, visit<br />
cathext.in/pope-ai.
34 INSPIRE<br />
Vocations<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 35<br />
A<br />
The Catholic Church’s universality<br />
attracted Idaho’s newly ordained priest<br />
A global<br />
vocational journey<br />
ccording to a report by the<br />
Center for Applied Research<br />
in the Apostolate, young men<br />
are four times more likely<br />
to consider becoming a<br />
priest or brother if they<br />
attend World Youth Day.<br />
Father Nelson Cintra, a<br />
newly ordained priest in Idaho,<br />
is proof of this phenomenon.<br />
Since 1985, World Youth Day<br />
has provided young Catholics<br />
the opportunity to experience<br />
how the Church transcends<br />
borders, nationalities and backgrounds.<br />
The global gathering,<br />
which occurs every three<br />
years, transforms the lives of attendees<br />
as they share their passion<br />
for their faith among their<br />
peers and with the pope.<br />
Father Cintra’s story is<br />
unique—his encounter of a<br />
Church without borders at<br />
World Youth Day mirrored his<br />
own life and vocational journey,<br />
which began a world away.<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
funded his seminarian education,<br />
but his calling followed<br />
him in his journey across the<br />
world.<br />
ONE HEMISPHERE TO ANOTHER<br />
Born in Brazil, Father Cintra<br />
grew up in a Catholic home<br />
and school. However, the early<br />
loss of his father to cancer led<br />
him to question his faith in<br />
God throughout his youth.<br />
In 1999 at age 13, he relocated<br />
to Ohio with his mother<br />
to join their American-born<br />
family members. He went on<br />
to study at The Ohio State University,<br />
where he earned an<br />
undergraduate degree in psychology.<br />
The new Buckeye alumnus<br />
was a young man with the<br />
world at his fingertips. And<br />
like many young people do, he<br />
made the adventurous choice<br />
to move across the country. In<br />
2011, he moved to Idaho and<br />
began working as a mentor<br />
at a boarding school for troubled<br />
youth. During those years<br />
in his early career, he began<br />
attending a little mission<br />
church, St. Ann’s Parish in Arco.<br />
A young Father<br />
Nelson Cintra<br />
(top row, far left)<br />
and his travel<br />
group attended<br />
the 2011<br />
World Youth<br />
Day gathering<br />
in Madrid,<br />
Spain, where<br />
he decided to<br />
devote his life to<br />
Christ.<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
helped establish the parish in<br />
1956 and supported it through<br />
the years. It was there that his<br />
faith started to rekindle.<br />
“I GIVE YOU MY WHOLE LIFE”<br />
Father Cintra’s sister encouraged<br />
him to stay connected to<br />
his Catholic faith, so in August<br />
of that year, she bought him a<br />
ticket to attend World Youth<br />
Day in Madrid. The young professional<br />
from Idaho didn’t<br />
know what to expect.<br />
Once there, he was moved by<br />
the crowd’s “visible representation<br />
of the universal Church.”<br />
He met many young people<br />
from all corners of the world<br />
who came together to rejoice<br />
“because of the Church and<br />
because of the pope.”<br />
When Pope Benedict XVI<br />
addressed the throngs of young<br />
people, Father Cintra felt as if<br />
the Holy Father was speaking<br />
directly to him.<br />
“Him saying these things<br />
very directly, very convincingly,<br />
very compellingly, spoke<br />
to me,” Father Cintra said. The<br />
pope’s words provided closure<br />
to Father Cintra’s questions<br />
about God following his<br />
father’s death.<br />
But what struck him most<br />
was being around passionate,<br />
faith-filled young adults for the<br />
first time.<br />
He listened to pilgrims speak<br />
about “how to live with God,<br />
and how to pursue holiness.”<br />
During a heavy rainstorm, he<br />
stepped away from his group<br />
for a private moment of prayer.<br />
“I give you my whole life,” he<br />
said to the Lord. “I give it in<br />
your Church.”<br />
When he returned to Idaho,<br />
he began living an intentional<br />
Christian life and opened<br />
himself up to priesthood. He<br />
entered Mount Angel Seminary<br />
and was ordained to the priesthood<br />
on June 8, 2023.<br />
His diocese covers the<br />
84,000 square miles of Idaho,<br />
and the young priest is overjoyed<br />
to be able to offer the<br />
sacraments to hungry souls<br />
like himself.<br />
“I’m going to these communities<br />
that don’t have a priest,<br />
that don’t have regular access<br />
to the sacraments, that don’t<br />
have the luxury of choosing<br />
which church they want to<br />
attend. But they are really just<br />
grateful for anything and anyone<br />
that the Church can give<br />
them,” he said.<br />
Father Nelson Cintra celebrates his first Mass as<br />
a new priest for the Diocese of Boise, Idaho.<br />
IDAHO PRIEST WITH GLOBAL<br />
PERSPECTIVE<br />
The Brazilian-born Buckeye<br />
now feels at home in Idaho.<br />
Father Cintra currently serves<br />
as parochial vicar of Pope St.<br />
John Paul II Parish and Holy<br />
Rosary Catholic School, both in<br />
Idaho Falls.<br />
“This became my home, my<br />
home parish and my home<br />
Catholic family. It’s a privilege<br />
to be here as a priest for my<br />
first assignment,” he said.<br />
While he settles into his<br />
local community as priest, he<br />
has not lost sight of the universality<br />
of the Church that first<br />
drew him to the priesthood.<br />
He returned to World Youth<br />
Day in Lisbon, Portugal, last<br />
year, celebrating Mass for people<br />
coming from all over the<br />
world, including a group of pilgrims<br />
from his diocese.<br />
He was glad to be part of the<br />
group’s transformative experience.<br />
It was a reminder of<br />
where his vocation came about<br />
and how it led him to an unanticipated<br />
permanent Catholic<br />
home in Idaho.<br />
He thanks Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society for being part of<br />
his long and winding journey to<br />
the priesthood.<br />
“The work of priestly formation<br />
is really crucial for the life<br />
of the Church,” he said. “It’s an<br />
investment that pays high dividends.”
36 INSPIRE<br />
Feature Story<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 37<br />
Young adults celebrate<br />
their love of soccer,<br />
friendship and God<br />
LEFT A team competing in the “Copa Católica” (Catholic Cup) soccer<br />
tournament prays together before one of its games. BELOW Young<br />
adults at the ministry retreat participate in Eucharistic adoration at the<br />
Lourdes Grotto of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in<br />
Hanceville, Alabama.<br />
Pope St. John Paul<br />
II famously loved<br />
sports, believing<br />
that they could<br />
serve as preparation<br />
for the spiritual<br />
life and aided the cultivation<br />
of virtues and values conducive<br />
to the Christian journey.<br />
The late pope once said to<br />
a group of competitive athletes,<br />
“The expressions of<br />
the language of sport are not<br />
unfamiliar to Christ’s disciples:<br />
terms like selection, training,<br />
self-discipline, persistence in<br />
resisting exhaustion, reliance<br />
on a demanding guide, honest<br />
acceptance of the rules of the<br />
game.”<br />
His conviction proved<br />
true once again on a playing<br />
field in Hanceville, Alabama,<br />
which was the site of a recent,<br />
inter-diocesan young adult<br />
retreat that culminated in a<br />
soccer tournament, the “Copa<br />
Católica,” featuring seven<br />
teams from five states. A group<br />
of energetic 20-somethings<br />
gathered in early November at<br />
this ministry retreat co-hosted<br />
by Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
and the Southeast Pastoral<br />
Institute (SEPI), which serves<br />
Latino Catholics in 30 dioceses<br />
of the Southeast U.S.<br />
Many participants traveled<br />
hundreds of miles to be there,<br />
from Nashville, Tennessee,<br />
to Mobile, Alabama, for two<br />
Sports can be<br />
a pathway to<br />
the spiritual life<br />
days of talks, team building,<br />
Mass and Eucharistic adoration<br />
at the Lourdes Grotto of<br />
the Shrine of the Most Blessed<br />
Sacrament. Then came the<br />
“Copa Católica”—the Catholic<br />
Cup soccer tournament.<br />
By Saturday afternoon, these<br />
young adult leaders were<br />
ready to showcase their talents<br />
on the field.<br />
It was a tournament filled<br />
with underdog stories, teamwork,<br />
inspiring wins and gracious<br />
losses.<br />
“Throughout the weekend<br />
the guys were waiting to play,”<br />
said SEPI’s Giovanni Abreu,<br />
one of the tournament’s organizers.<br />
“And what a beautiful<br />
way to end it with playing the<br />
beautiful game as brothers<br />
and sisters. No matter the result,<br />
both teams were embracing<br />
each other.”<br />
The underdogs<br />
Since many of the players<br />
came from smaller or<br />
under-funded communities,<br />
Abreu’s idea was to change the<br />
format from the traditional 11<br />
versus 11 players on the field to<br />
7 versus 7, or “fútbol rápido.”<br />
The shift to this fast-paced<br />
style of playing soccer with<br />
fewer players had teams signing<br />
up immediately across the<br />
southeastern dioceses.<br />
Six of the seven teams<br />
hailed from <strong>Extension</strong> dioceses,<br />
including Birmingham<br />
and Mobile in Alabama; Knoxville<br />
and Nashville in Tennessee;<br />
Lafayette, Louisiana; and<br />
Jackson, Mississippi. They had<br />
creative or spiritually inspired<br />
team names such as Knoxville’s<br />
“Renewed by Christ,”<br />
or Lafayette’s “Latin Cajuns.”<br />
But perhaps none were more<br />
inspiring than the under-dog<br />
and under-manned “Saints”<br />
from the Diocese of Jackson.<br />
The “Saints” team comprised<br />
players primarily from<br />
the young adult group at St.<br />
Francis of Assisi in Madison,<br />
Mississippi. The team had a<br />
few players who had to pull<br />
out in the days leading up to<br />
the conference, but the remaining<br />
five players met others<br />
from their diocese, from St.<br />
Anne’s in Carthage, who were<br />
eager to compete.<br />
The two faith communities<br />
in Madison and Carthage<br />
are an hour away from each<br />
other. The players had just met<br />
that weekend and had never<br />
played together, a contrast to<br />
many of the teams that had<br />
practiced with each other for<br />
weeks ahead of the Copa. But<br />
the beauty of both sport and<br />
spirituality is the ability to<br />
come together and learn from<br />
each other and grow closer to<br />
one another.<br />
And that can create something<br />
magnificent to watch.<br />
Despite having a team of<br />
players that hadn’t practiced<br />
together and carried just two<br />
substitutes, the Jackson Saints<br />
ended the round robin portion<br />
of the tournament as the<br />
second-best team on the field,<br />
which included a 4-0 shutout<br />
victory in their first match.<br />
It was quite the accomplishment<br />
for a makeshift<br />
team that had met just 36<br />
hours before.<br />
The beautiful game<br />
In the end, the Jackson<br />
Saints’ magic run fell short.<br />
They and the Latin Cajuns<br />
from the Diocese of Lafayette,<br />
Louisiana, fell in the
38 INSPIRE<br />
Feature Story<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 39<br />
The “Saints” from the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, were the tournament’s underdog story.<br />
semis, paving the way for an<br />
all-Tennessee final between the<br />
<strong>Extension</strong>-supported Dioceses<br />
of Nashville and Knoxville. The<br />
“Éxodo F.C.” from Nashville took<br />
home the win, 2-1, giving them<br />
the Copa Católica title.<br />
What was most impressive<br />
about the tournament was the<br />
incredible sportsmanship on<br />
display. Even after Nashville and<br />
Knoxville had played each other<br />
in a highly competitive championship<br />
finish, decided in the<br />
final minutes, both teams and<br />
their supporters were cheering<br />
each other on equally as they<br />
received their first- and second-place<br />
trophies.<br />
It was the culmination of a<br />
weekend that sharpened leadership<br />
skills, fostered teamwork and<br />
created lasting relationships and<br />
memories. Anyone that attended<br />
this ministry retreat will tell you<br />
it was special because they were<br />
drawn closer to God, and had a<br />
spiritual encounter through soccer,<br />
the game they love.<br />
Pope St. John Paul II is, no<br />
doubt, proud of these players. But<br />
even more so, he is proud of the<br />
faith and energy that they bring to<br />
the Church.<br />
IGNITE Making a difference<br />
PRIEST AND U.S. GENERAL 42 | DONOR PROFILE 44 | CONNECT 46<br />
“And he began to send them out two by two…” – Mark 6:7<br />
Donors in the Two by Two Giving Society—<br />
leaders who give at least one $1,000<br />
gift each year—walk in companionship<br />
and solidarity with poor Catholic faith<br />
communities. This esteemed group helps<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society recognize and<br />
support the hidden heroes lifting up the<br />
Church on the margins of society.<br />
Contact Kate Grogan, Development Coordinator, at 312-795-6046<br />
or kgrogan@catholicextension.org for more information.<br />
catholicextension.org/twobytwo<br />
Students from<br />
the campus<br />
ministry at the<br />
University of<br />
Montana, which<br />
is supported<br />
by Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society, climb<br />
a mountain and<br />
pray as part of<br />
a retreat. See<br />
a letter from a<br />
student, page 46.
40 IGNITE<br />
Parish Partnerships<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 41<br />
One plus one equals<br />
two. This obvious<br />
equation is known<br />
by everyone.<br />
But are there<br />
examples where the<br />
sum is greater than the addition<br />
of its component parts? In other<br />
words, where does one plus one<br />
equal something greater?<br />
Take St. Mark the Evangelist<br />
Catholic Church in Oro Valley, Arizona,<br />
and St. Anthony Mission<br />
and School in Zuni, New Mexico.<br />
They are 277 miles apart, almost a<br />
five-hour drive. But, connected by<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society’s Parish<br />
Partnership program, they add<br />
up to something extraordinary.<br />
St. Anthony Mission and<br />
School serves the Zuni Pueblo in<br />
New Mexico. Founded in 1920,<br />
St. Anthony’s school currently<br />
serves 120 students, kindergarten<br />
through eighth grade. The school<br />
is totally dependent on outside<br />
resources to operate.<br />
Father Patrick McGuire is pastor<br />
of St. Anthony. He is a missionary<br />
priest from Scotland and has<br />
an accent as thick as a tartan kilt,<br />
but his heart is entirely with the<br />
Zuni people. He deeply admires<br />
their strength in family, their<br />
sense of extended family and<br />
their awareness of the divine.<br />
The Zuni people have many<br />
struggles. Thirty percent lack<br />
access to potable water. (Father<br />
McGuire always keeps the par-<br />
Children in the Zuni Pueblo<br />
are supported by St. Mark the<br />
Evangelist in Oro Valley, Arizona,<br />
through a partnership with<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society.<br />
Moving from<br />
transactions<br />
to transformations<br />
Tucson church demonstrates the “multiplying<br />
effect” of our Parish Partnership program<br />
The Blessed Virgin Mary wearing<br />
a traditional blanket at St. Anthony<br />
Mission and School.<br />
ish facilities open so his people<br />
can fill up their containers with<br />
life-giving water.) Many families<br />
live in homes without electricity<br />
or the internet. The cycle of<br />
poverty and unemployment has<br />
afflicted generations.<br />
Father McGuire and his staff<br />
believe that the Catholic faith<br />
and education is the key for these<br />
Native American youth to break<br />
that cycle. Since 1971, Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society has supported<br />
this incredible church and school.<br />
The modest request<br />
In April 2022, Father John<br />
Arnold, pastor of St. Mark the<br />
Evangelist, visited St. Anthony<br />
Mission and School as part of<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society’s Pastor<br />
Immersion Program. The program<br />
is based on the insight that<br />
to find Jesus in our world today,<br />
we must go to the peripheries.<br />
And as Pope Francis believes,<br />
spending time with the poor revitalizes<br />
our church.<br />
Father Arnold was deeply<br />
touched by his experience in<br />
April 2022. He suggested that St.<br />
Mark should partner with Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society to help St.<br />
Anthony Mission and School. In<br />
other words, he believed that one<br />
plus one should equal something<br />
greater.<br />
Father Arnold directed St.<br />
Mark’s 2023 Advent Appeal to<br />
help St. Anthony Mission and<br />
School. He asked that young people<br />
from St. Mark’s Life Teen program<br />
speak at all the Masses on<br />
the first Sunday of Advent to ask<br />
the parish for their financial help.<br />
St. Anthony’s wish list was<br />
amazingly humble.<br />
From the simple: $35 for spiral<br />
notebooks, $15 for internet<br />
bill, $30 for crayons and coloring<br />
books—to the sublime: $600<br />
for vestments and linens for Mass,<br />
$200 for catechism materials, $20<br />
for devotional kits for families.<br />
More than an occasion for just<br />
a financial transaction, the Parish<br />
Partnership program moved<br />
everyone involved toward a true<br />
transformation.<br />
St. Mark’s teens learned about<br />
never taking for granted the abundance<br />
with which they were<br />
blessed.<br />
They learned about the Shalako,<br />
a ceremony of thanksgiving<br />
and requests for blessings.<br />
They also learned how the school<br />
teaches its students Zuni beliefs<br />
on respect and harmony with the<br />
world—teachings that, if taken<br />
by all, would change their high<br />
schools and just might change our<br />
fractured world. St. Mark’s congregation<br />
learned how beautifully<br />
Zuni culture was woven into<br />
Catholicism: the Blessed Virgin<br />
Mary who is covered by a traditional<br />
blanket, a painting of the<br />
Last Supper attended by Native<br />
American people, and the sacredness<br />
of the Zuni mountain.<br />
And, most importantly, the<br />
teens encountered Christ. As one<br />
said, “Loving like Jesus did takes<br />
immense strength and courage. But<br />
the rewards are awesome because<br />
serving others means we are serving<br />
Christ, and in the process deepening<br />
our relationship with Him.”<br />
Abundance everywhere<br />
The abundance of St. Mark mingled<br />
with the abundance of St.<br />
Anthony Mission and School. This<br />
parish partnership is a powerful<br />
example of the evergreen vitality<br />
of the Catholic faith and Catholic<br />
education at its best.<br />
For there is a space after a sum’s<br />
component parts, and there is a<br />
variable component where the<br />
Holy Spirit can move, leading us on<br />
new paths to abundance.<br />
The parish partnership of St.<br />
Mark and St. Anthony enlarges our<br />
sense of what is possible. Their<br />
young people help us see that the<br />
cycle of poverty can be broken,<br />
that high school corridors can be<br />
places of care and support, and<br />
that all of us, from Oro Valley to<br />
Zuni Pueblo and points beyond, are<br />
part of the same tribe, not so different<br />
as we think and more alike<br />
than we imagine.<br />
God magnifies and multiplies<br />
our efforts in ways that defy our<br />
finite understanding of the world.<br />
God moves our minds, which gravitate<br />
toward simple transactions,<br />
and moves them toward genuine<br />
transformations.<br />
In God’s divine wisdom, one<br />
plus one can add up to something<br />
extraordinary.
42<br />
IGNITE<br />
Feature Story<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 43<br />
Priest<br />
named<br />
general in<br />
US military<br />
Florida pastor is<br />
the highest-ranking<br />
Catholic clergyman in<br />
the armed forces<br />
If you were to visit Father<br />
Peter Zalewski at his parish<br />
in Tallahassee, Florida,<br />
you would find a busy and<br />
beloved pastor, tending to<br />
the activities of his church<br />
community and the local<br />
Catholic school—the largest primary<br />
school in the diocese.<br />
One might not realize that this<br />
pastor with many responsibilities<br />
also serves as a general in the Air<br />
Force chaplain corps. On his one<br />
day off a week, he won’t be playing<br />
golf under the Florida sun or<br />
resting in the rectory. Instead, he’ll<br />
be tending to meetings at the Pentagon<br />
or elsewhere in Washington,<br />
D.C., because he now serves as the<br />
primary advisor to the chief of the<br />
National Guard Bureau on religious,<br />
ethical and moral issues.<br />
Father Zalewski’s recent promotion<br />
to one-star general will<br />
have him serving members of<br />
both the Air and Army National<br />
Guard. The promotion ceremony<br />
on December 14, 2023, was the<br />
culmination of his nearly 40-year<br />
life in the military, which began<br />
In 2023, Father Peter Zalewski was promoted to one-star general in the U.S. Armed Services.<br />
in 1984 as a cadet at the U.S. Air<br />
Force Academy.<br />
In the early 1990s he deployed<br />
in major military operations,<br />
including serving as an intelligence<br />
officer in Operation Desert<br />
Storm in the First Gulf War.<br />
Not only did he follow in the footsteps<br />
of his father who served two<br />
tours in Vietnam, but he also followed<br />
the encouragement of his<br />
mother who helped him appreciate<br />
the meaning of service in the<br />
armed forces.<br />
Dual vocation<br />
The Florida native eventually<br />
heard the call to pursue priesthood<br />
instead of Air Force pilot<br />
training, so in 1992, he became a<br />
seminarian of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee.<br />
During that<br />
Father Peter Zalewski’s military career spans<br />
nearly 40 years.<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society supported Father Peter Zalewski’s seminarian education in<br />
the 1990s, and today he is a member of our mission committee.<br />
period, Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
funded his education. But even<br />
as he was being led to serve God,<br />
the call to serve his country never<br />
went away. As a new seminarian,<br />
he became an Air Force chaplain<br />
candidate.<br />
After ordination in 1997, he<br />
began serving as a parish priest<br />
in his diocese and as a military<br />
reserve chaplain at bases in the<br />
Florida Panhandle. He was eventually<br />
deployed again in 2008 as a<br />
“wing chaplain” to Al-Dhafra Air<br />
Base in Abu Dhabi, serving military<br />
personnel supporting our country’s<br />
difficult operations in Afghanistan<br />
and Iraq.<br />
In his remarks at his promotion<br />
ceremony, Father Zalewski<br />
thanked his parishioners at<br />
Blessed Sacrament in Tallahassee,<br />
where he is currently pastor, as<br />
well as St. Dominic in Panama City,<br />
Florida, where he was previously<br />
pastor, for always supporting his<br />
dual responsibilities.<br />
“Thank you for your support,”<br />
he said. “We have to protect those<br />
who protect us. So thank you for<br />
allowing me to do that. That means<br />
a lot to me.”<br />
As a general, Father Zalewski<br />
will provide guidance and programs<br />
directing guard chaplain<br />
personnel and supporting Army<br />
and Air guardsmen.<br />
The past 20 years of U.S. history<br />
have been marked by long wars<br />
abroad and many natural disasters<br />
in our homeland, which have<br />
demanded a great deal of sacrifice<br />
from military personnel and their<br />
families. While many of us can too<br />
easily forget their sacrifices, Father<br />
Zalewski cannot.<br />
He knows that the many sacrifices<br />
of our service members<br />
have created a toll—physical, mental<br />
and spiritual. Father Zalewski<br />
recalled his visits to military bases<br />
over these past years where he<br />
would encounter young soldiers<br />
wearing prosthetics, reminding<br />
him of what they gave on the battlefield.<br />
More troublesome, still,<br />
are the wounds that are not visible.<br />
Father Zalewski lamented<br />
that despite many efforts within<br />
the services, suicides among military<br />
personnel are not decreasing,<br />
and more efforts must be made to<br />
stem this tide.<br />
Giving back<br />
Father Zalewski feels that he<br />
has been given so much in life<br />
through the generosity of others,<br />
and he wants to spend his life paying<br />
forward those blessings. For<br />
example, when he was born at a<br />
Navy hospital, he urgently needed<br />
multiple blood transfusions to<br />
survive. He said that the young<br />
enlisted servicemen at the hospital<br />
literally gave him their blood so<br />
that he might have life.<br />
He is also mindful of the Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society donors who<br />
supported his seminarian education<br />
all those years ago. For<br />
the past 10 years he has served<br />
on Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society’s<br />
mission committee, an advisory<br />
committee to our board that<br />
helps Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
increase its impact and awareness<br />
around the country.<br />
He has also involved his parish<br />
in raising financial support for various<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> initiatives over the<br />
years. He said, “It’s been an honor<br />
to serve my country in the military<br />
and an honor to serve the Catholic<br />
Church in America through Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society’s mission<br />
committee. I see that many of our<br />
service members come from rural<br />
communities—so <strong>Extension</strong> is a<br />
direct contributor to their spiritual<br />
well-being and strength.”<br />
While Father Zalewski now<br />
possesses the highest rank in the<br />
military of any Catholic priest,<br />
he is not driven by the title or the<br />
power, but by duty. As a general,<br />
he will serve people regardless<br />
of their religious affiliation, being<br />
mindful that roughly a quarter of<br />
all active-duty military personnel<br />
are Catholic. His job will be to<br />
ensure that these young, self-sacrificing<br />
men and women, who have<br />
given so much to our country, have<br />
the spiritual care they need.<br />
Hopefully, Father Zalewski’s<br />
own life story and example will be<br />
an inspiration to them as much as<br />
it is to us.
44<br />
IGNITE<br />
Donor Profile<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 45<br />
Since its inception in<br />
1906, <strong>Extension</strong> <strong>magazine</strong><br />
has made a powerful<br />
impact in countless<br />
households across multiple<br />
generations. For<br />
example, 6,000 women passionately<br />
sewed vestments for priests<br />
in the U.S. missions through the<br />
Order of Martha that was started<br />
by Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society in<br />
1911. One of those women was the<br />
mother of the late Cardinal Francis<br />
George of Chicago.<br />
Likewise, more than 700 baby<br />
boomers remember how Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society recruited<br />
them as young adults in the 1960s<br />
to spend two life-changing years<br />
serving the poor in the U.S. They<br />
were called the <strong>Extension</strong> Lay<br />
Volunteers.<br />
But one family’s history with<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society is even<br />
more special.<br />
Lolita Hagio is a supporter of<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society. Her<br />
late mother’s life was transformed<br />
by a program in <strong>Extension</strong> <strong>magazine</strong><br />
called the “Chaperon Club.”<br />
It began in 1927 after readers had<br />
requested for years that the publication<br />
devise a way to connect<br />
them with other Catholics from<br />
around the country.<br />
Unmarried Catholics over the<br />
age of 17 were eligible to join.<br />
Interested readers mailed in brief<br />
descriptions of themselves and<br />
their hobbies. They were assigned<br />
an anonymous “club number,”<br />
their information was printed in a<br />
bulletin, and they could then start<br />
a letter-writing relationship with<br />
another member.<br />
By 1950, more than 40,000<br />
people had joined since the<br />
<strong>Extension</strong>’s pen pal<br />
club sparked love<br />
A widow’s second marriage began with<br />
<strong>magazine</strong>’s pre-tech dating service<br />
program’s inception. A <strong>magazine</strong><br />
issue from that year stated,<br />
“While we shout from the housetops<br />
that we are not a matrimonial<br />
bureau, nor do we encourage<br />
such a thing, we cannot stop<br />
certain acquaintances from ripening<br />
into deep friendships, and<br />
some into love, and we must<br />
admit that hundreds of marriages<br />
have resulted.” It can only<br />
be concluded that, for decades,<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> offered the<br />
pre-technology version of online<br />
dating for Catholics.<br />
It was through this initiative<br />
that Lolita’s widowed mother,<br />
Irene, found love in 1962 at the<br />
age of 65.<br />
Late-in-life love<br />
Irene’s husband had passed<br />
away in 1950 after 31 years of marriage.<br />
He worked for the Rock<br />
Island Railroad in Chicago, where<br />
he and Irene raised seven children,<br />
including a son who served<br />
in World War II. Ten years after<br />
her husband’s death, they had all<br />
moved away, and Irene found herself<br />
living alone.<br />
Lolita recalled visiting her<br />
mother one day.<br />
“What would you think if I got<br />
married again?” Irene asked.<br />
“Mom, that would be great, but<br />
you don’t know anybody,” Lolita<br />
replied. She was surprised<br />
and thought her mother couldn’t<br />
be serious. Her mother was an<br />
intensely shy person and not a<br />
risk taker, she said.<br />
Irene told her daughter about<br />
the gentleman she had been writing<br />
letters back and forth with for<br />
several months through the Chaperon<br />
Club program in <strong>Extension</strong><br />
<strong>magazine</strong>. His name was Albert, a<br />
widower himself, and he lived in<br />
Montana.<br />
“My mom felt it was OK to correspond<br />
with this person. She<br />
sensed that it that was a good<br />
thing that it was in a Catholic <strong>magazine</strong>,”<br />
Lolita said. “She felt that<br />
someone—of course, Himself—was<br />
guiding her up there.”<br />
To the shock of her friends and<br />
family, Irene cleared out her home,<br />
bought a train ticket, and traveled<br />
by herself to Montana. When she<br />
saw Albert waiting for her at the<br />
train station, “she knew she had<br />
made the right decision,” Lolita<br />
recalled.<br />
They married shortly after Irene<br />
arrived. The wedding took place in<br />
the <strong>Extension</strong> Society–supported<br />
faith community of Choteau,<br />
Montana.<br />
Lolita reflected that Albert was<br />
different than her father. He was<br />
an outdoorsman, with Chippewa<br />
and French-Canadian heritage. He<br />
had been a cowboy in his youth.<br />
Irene embraced his lifestyle, learning<br />
to fish and trap. They shared a<br />
strong faith and adventurous spirit.<br />
“He was such a good man. Our<br />
family just adored him and accepted<br />
him,” Lolita said.<br />
After several years in Montana,<br />
they moved to Arizona for the<br />
warmer weather. Albert passed<br />
away from cancer in 1972 in the<br />
care of Irene’s family in Chicago.<br />
Irene lived another 10 years before<br />
dying at the age of 85.<br />
Passing on the joy<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society is<br />
part of Lolita’s family story by<br />
helping her mother discover love<br />
and happiness in life. “<strong>Extension</strong><br />
<strong>magazine</strong> made all this happen. It<br />
provided a whole new life for her,”<br />
she said. “Mom was a woman of<br />
faith, and that drove her to make<br />
the decisions in her life.”<br />
Lolita’s connection to Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society is even<br />
more personal. In 1950 we helped<br />
build her own parish, St. George,<br />
in a Utah town that shares the<br />
same name. Today the parish is a<br />
vibrant, multicultural faith community<br />
where Lolita serves as a<br />
cantor.<br />
Lolita has made sure to carry<br />
LEFT The Chaperon<br />
Club is advertised<br />
through this<br />
illustration in a 1961<br />
issue of <strong>Extension</strong><br />
<strong>magazine</strong>.<br />
FAR LEFT Irene and<br />
Albert fell in love<br />
and married after<br />
meeting through<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> <strong>magazine</strong>’s<br />
Chaperon Club.<br />
on her mother’s support of Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society. She said<br />
she is “fascinated” by the work of<br />
the Catholic Church in the United<br />
States among the poor in the poorest<br />
regions. She knows that Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society’s impact is<br />
not unique to her family. It is a mission<br />
that has impacted families all<br />
across the country by building up<br />
vibrant Catholic faith communities.<br />
“It makes sense to me to support a<br />
mission like that,” she said.<br />
As a Legacy Club member, Lolita<br />
is committed to helping ensure<br />
that other families experience the<br />
same joy of faith, the enrichment<br />
of community life, and the transformation<br />
of lives and hearts that<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society brings.
IGNITE<br />
46<br />
Connect<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 47<br />
From the mail<br />
Community is grateful for the<br />
gift of the sacraments<br />
Young woman uses her education at<br />
Fordham University to advance ministry<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society funds the<br />
salary of Father Joel Perez to serve<br />
Santa Monica in Texas.<br />
Dear Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society<br />
donors,<br />
Through our Young Adult Leadership Initiative, Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society provides master’s degree scholarships<br />
and paid internships to enable young adults to<br />
become effective leaders in the Church.<br />
Dear Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society,<br />
While this is a small community, it is<br />
nevertheless a hard-working community<br />
of people full of faith that have set<br />
down roots. These parishioners tend to<br />
not take things for granted and appreciate<br />
the value of hard work. The people<br />
of this parish work together towards<br />
a common goal. To them, knowing that<br />
they can count on the support of their<br />
priest [Father Joel Perez] means the<br />
world to them. The priest and parishioners<br />
want to continue to receive the<br />
sacraments, have weekly worship service,<br />
and receive adult faith formation.<br />
› Gloria E. Vázquez | Development<br />
Project Coordinator<br />
Diocese of Laredo, Texas<br />
Thriving church revives a once “sleepy” Louisiana town<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society is supporting the operational expenses as<br />
well as religious education program costs of this mission church we<br />
helped build.<br />
Dear Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society,<br />
Yesterday I had the pleasure of celebrating Mass at St. Charles Borromeo<br />
Parish, a rural farming parish here in the Diocese of Lake Charles.<br />
The parish was celebrating its 40th anniversary, and the pastor and<br />
parishioners had requested my presence. In the brochure enclosed with<br />
this letter, there was a brief history of the parish. Since special mention<br />
was made of the gift of Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society to the building of the<br />
original church, which is still in use, I thought I would forward this to you.<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society has made a substantial contribution to the<br />
life of the Church in this area, and I wish to assure you of our gratitude.<br />
St. Charles Borromeo has only expanded and grown over the last few<br />
decades. The pastor, Father Jom Joseph of the Heralds of the Good<br />
News, informs me that the elementary religious education instruction<br />
classes have more than doubled and now number approximately<br />
80 children. This growth points to another factor which is the general<br />
increase in population. The parish has moved from a “sleepy” farming<br />
community to an area of growth for the Church, and Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society helped make it possible.<br />
› Bishop Glen John Provost<br />
Diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana<br />
Through the program, I’ve been able to deepen my faith<br />
and gain more knowledge, specifically about the ministry<br />
I do at work, both internally and externally. I am also<br />
more aware of different aspects of ministry but also in<br />
leadership. Throughout the year, it’s been exciting to be<br />
able to associate and apply what I am learning during<br />
the process of working on a project or event or being<br />
able to use it after my course is over, but also when<br />
having conversations with parishioners, coworkers,<br />
family, and friends. Allowing the Holy Spirit to act has<br />
allowed me to be inspired but also to think creatively<br />
and be able to continue to see the beauty of the Church,<br />
not just in the small picture but also the overall picture.<br />
› Valeria Flores | Young Adult Leadership Initiative<br />
scholarship recipient<br />
Diocese of Yakima, Washington<br />
College campus ministry helps students<br />
return to the Church<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society supports the University of<br />
Montana faith community, serving hundreds of young<br />
adults per year.<br />
Dear Catholic <strong>Extension</strong> Society donors,<br />
When the new year came, I decided to attend church for<br />
the first time since high school. I went to church the first<br />
Sunday of the new year, and I had this giant pit in my<br />
stomach, like the pit in your stomach you get before a<br />
speech or a football game. It was because I felt as if I did<br />
not belong in the church, so why even go? But as soon<br />
as the father gave his homily, I knew God was talking<br />
to me. There was a phrase in the homily that sent chills<br />
throughout my body. It went, “Don’t wait to be perfect<br />
to come to God but rather come to God to become perfect.”<br />
It has been just about a year since that day, and I<br />
have grown more in my faith and identity this year than<br />
I did in the rest of my life combined. I am now an active<br />
member of the Griz Catholic organization and run a<br />
Bible study through them.<br />
› Matthew Simkins | Student, University of Montana<br />
Diocese of Helena, Montana<br />
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150 South Wacker Drive, Suite 2000<br />
Chicago, IL 60606<br />
Diocese of Gallup,<br />
New Mexico<br />
Share your legacy.<br />
People like you have named Catholic<br />
<strong>Extension</strong> Society as a beneficiary of<br />
their estate to leave a lasting impact<br />
on Catholic faith communities in the<br />
poorest regions of our country.<br />
Become a treasured member of the<br />
LEGACY CLUB to positively change the lives of millions of<br />
Catholics in America for generations to come.<br />
Not sure how your estate plan can create your<br />
legacy to the Church?<br />
Contact Frances Caan, Manager of Planned Giving, at<br />
800-842-7804 or plannedgiving@catholicextension.org.<br />
Catholic <strong>Extension</strong><br />
Society is tried and<br />
true, uses its financial<br />
resources wisely and<br />
will be there in the<br />
future. It is a lasting<br />
investment.<br />
—JEANNE BEREZA,<br />
Legacy Club member<br />
since 2017<br />
Make a lasting impact by joining<br />
the LEGACY CLUB today!<br />
legacy.catholicextension.org<br />
Legacy<br />
Club