(OSV News) — 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 “laicization” to just “Justin.” “We’re no less resolved to make good use of this technology to continue our work of apologetics and evangelization,” Christopher Check, president of Catholic Answers, told OSV News. “We regard this (incident) as an opportunity to take some feedback and move forward with it.” Check’s team deb ..read more

By Jean Gonzalez ORLANDO, Fla. (OSV News) — A bill recently signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been described by a farmworker advocate as “inhumane” and draconian. DeSantis, who usually has public signing of bills, signed HB 433 in a closed door session April 11, along with other bills. Opponents of HB 433 say it hurts farmworkers and any workers who labor under Florida’s sun because it prohibits counties or municipalities from creating their own heat exposure requirements for those who work outside, giving the state the sole authority to determine the standards. It also preempts ..read more

(OSV News) — A new AI priest, launched by a Catholic teaching apostolate to answer questions about the faith, has been “laicized” after sparking more backlash than belief online. The nonprofit apologetics website Catholic Answers debuted a “Father Justin” interactive AI app April 23, aiming “to provide users with faithful and educational answers to questions about Catholicism,” according to an announcement that day by the organization. Father Justin — a bearded, bushy-browed white male in clerical attire, who sat placidly overlooking the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy’s Perugia pro ..read more

NEW YORK (OSV News) — A portion of a new interview with Pope Francis will air tonight on the “CBS Evening News” at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, according to a release from the CBS News Communications office. Norah O’Donnell, anchor of the nightly news show since July 2019, conducted the pre-recorded interview, which will air during a special edition of the broadcast overlooking the Vatican, the release stated. The interview takes place ahead of the Vatican’s first World Children’s Day, scheduled for May 25-26. In a letter released March 2 marking the upcoming day, Pope Francis told children that they ar ..read more

(OSV News) — parishioner was stabbed outside a historic San Francisco church April 21, where the city’s Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone was administering the sacrament of confirmation. The San Francisco Police Department told OSV News that officers arrived just before 1 p.m. Sunday at Sts. Peter and Paul Church, where an adult male was found “suffering from an apparent stab wound.” The victim was then taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, said police. A 25-year-old suspect named Marko Asaulyuk was arrested and booked into San Francisco County Jail, charged with attempted ..read more

By Gina Christian and Kate Scanlon (OSV News) — Catholics working to address the nation’s fentanyl problem told OSV News a new congressional report naming China — and blaming its government — as the key source of the drug is important but old news, and that healing rising rates of addiction ultimately demands divine assistance. On April 16, the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party released a 64-page document on the CCP’s role in the fentanyl crisis. The synthetic opioid and its analogues claim “over 200 Americans daily ..read more

By Rocio Rios , OSV News (OSV News) — En solo unas semanas, la vida de Amayrani Higueldo va a dar un paso de profunda riqueza espiritual. Su vida cambiará radicalmente. Ella es uno de los 24 jóvenes que participarán de la Peregrinación Eucarística Nacional, que empezará entre el 17 al 19 de mayo — el fin de semana de Pentecostés — y que concluirá con el Congreso Eucarístico Nacional, que empieza el 17 de julio. “Es una gran bendición. Algo único en mi vida, porque ¿quién puede decir que ha caminado dos meses con Nuestro Señor? No es algo común. Esta experiencia significa todo para mí espiritua ..read more

(OSV News) — When people are impacted in their daily lives by strong examples of priests and religious faithfully living out their vocations, Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of Columbus believes that’s when vocations to the priesthood and religious life flourish. Bishop Fernandes, who spoke with OSV News ahead of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on April 21, said that he has tried to build “a culture of vocations” in his diocese, which has seen a doubling in the number of vocations to the priesthood over the past two years. When he was ordained as bishop on May 31, 2022, he observed that there w ..read more

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (CNS) — Aunque los problemas alrededor del mundo corren el riesgo de sumir a la gente en el pesimismo, los cristianos están llamados a perseguir su vocación de ser “hombres y mujeres de esperanza”, dijo el Papa Francisco. “Como individuos y como comunidad, en la variedad de los carismas y de los ministerios, todos estamos llamados a ‘darle cuerpo y corazón’ a la esperanza del Evangelio en un mundo marcado por desafíos epocales”, escribió el Papa en su mensaje para la Jornada Mundial de Oración por las Vocaciones del 21 de abril. Desafíos globales como la guerra, la migraci ..read more

(OSV News) — By any measure, Louis Anthony “Lou” Conter, a Catholic hero of World War II who died April 1 at his home in Grass Valley, California, at age 102, led a celebrated life. Conter’s funeral Mass will be celebrated April 23 at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Grass Valley, followed by burial with full military honors. Born in Ojibwa, Wisconsin, on Sept. 13, 1921, Conter graduated from high school in Colorado. He escaped a hardscrabble life — at age 7, he hunted rabbits in Kansas, where his family was living, in order to provide dinner — and a job in a Hormel meatpacking plant by enlistin ..read more