This is a screenshot of “Father Justin,” an AI chatbot simulating a priest in order to answer questions for teaching apostolate Catholic Answers. Executives from the apologetics nonprofit Catholic Answers told OSV News they remain committed to exploring artificial intelligence, after the launch of the group’s “Father Justin” AI project sparked intense backlash online — and resulted in the character’s swift “laicisation” to just “Justin.” The nonprofit debuted a “Father Justin” interactive AI app 23 April, aiming “to provide users with faithful and educational answers to questions about Catholi ..read more

https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/budienza2404eng.mp4 Pope Francis greeted pilgrims in Italian town, Galati Mamertino, as he explained the importance of the theological virtues for a Christian life. He said that faith, hope and charity are gifts of the Holy Spirit who acts as an interior teacher. “The Christian is never alone. He does good not because of a titanic effort of personal commitment, but because, as a humble disciple, he walks behind the Master Jesus,” the pope explained. “He goes ahead on the way. The theological virtues are the great antidote to self-suf ..read more

As Anne-Marie Julian and her 10-year-old daughter Lauren walked home one Saturday in November 2020, they noticed oddly that the doors of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Darlinghurst were open. Closed most of the year due to COVID, this was an “unexpected invitation into God’s house.” They returned for Mass next morning, where Fr Brendan Purcell asked Lauren to ring the bell during consecration. But when he noticed later Lauren herself hadn’t received the sacrament, Fr Brendan asked if she had made her first Holy Communion. Lauren was scheduled to make it in three months with her classmates, a ..read more

Courtesy MJ Suttie Architects The Discalced Carmelite nuns in Mathoura in country New South Wales not only take a contemplative approach to their prayer lives, but are building their new monastery with a gentle and ancient method proven to stand the test of time. Sections of the Great Wall of China and parts of ancient cities still standing in places like Egypt, Iran and Nepal owe their beauty and immutability to rammed earth construction. There are different methods but rammed earth typically involves a mix of locally-sourced soil, clay and gravel shoveled layer by layer between a framework o ..read more

Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP lays a floral wreath at the memorial for fallen soldiers at the conclusion of the vigil Mass for Anzac Day at St Mary’s Cathedral on 24 April. Photo: Patrick J Lee As Australians prepared for dawn services, marches and games of two-up for Anzac Day, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP called on Christians to remain faithful to their role of service as “war-preventers and peacemakers”. In remarks before leading the celebration of the vigil Mass for Anzac Day held at St Mary’s Cathedral the archbishop noted more than a dozen conflicts around the globe in places such as Came ..read more

Photo credit: Omar ram This A-League Mens season is set to go down in history for the most goals ever scored in a single campaign. Impressive. Instead, we’ll probably remember it as the year we paid the price for ruining football. Goals have come in thick and fast, but so to have the red cards, which have become the new standard for “entertaining” matches in this competition. Referees have dished out nearly 40 reds this campaign. More than 18 of the 25 rounds so far have featured at least one send-off. That’s a ridiculous 72 per cent. Of those, more than eight separate rounds have included mul ..read more

Fr Toan Nguyen’s passport may soon be running out of pages, thanks to his work for God. The parish priest at St Brendan’s Catholic Church in Bankstown recently returned from his missionary trip to Vietnam, where he helps disabled orphans from the province of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu. He makes the trip annually (and sometimes more frequently through the year) as part of his Lenten penance. The trip also reminds him of his priestly promises. “When I became a priest 30 years ago the motto on my card was, ‘To the weak I became weak so that I might win the weak’ (1 Cor 9:22),” Fr Toan said. “Some of these ..read more

Photo credit: Josh Applegate So, I was on retreat last week. Before I left, I had been telling people that it was my first ever retreat, but that’s not exactly true. I did go on another one back in 2009, but there was no silence, phones were allowed and the other “retreatants” were some of my closest female friends. So, it wasn’t so much a retreat as a fun trip away with my Catholic gal pals. Confession: even though it wasn’t a silent retreat, I still managed to get into trouble for talking too much. This one was different. My laptop, phone and Apple watch all stayed switched off and in the ca ..read more

Its gleaming white church with famous mother-of-pearl altar put Western Australia’s Beagle Bay community on the map. Parishioners’ response to a group of stranded asylum seekers who wandered across it will keep it there. The remote Indigenous township near the Kimberley coastline, around 130km from Broome, was thrust into the media spotlight earlier this year when locals found two groups of men lost nearby on a searing hot morning in February. The untold story is that Beagle Bay’s Sacred Heart Catholic parish and primary school took in the strangers thought to be from Pakistan and Bangladesh ..read more

Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2023 More than a century after Our Lady asked three Portuguese shepherd children to “pray the rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world,” thousands of Sydney’s faithful are expected to gather at St Mary’s Cathedral to live out her message.  The Archdiocese of Sydney is inviting all Catholics to a procession in honour of Our Lady of Fatima on 11 May to bear witness to the beauty and richness of their devotion in song and prayer.  The Vigil Mass begins at 6pm and will be followed by the candlelight proce ..read more