Key Takeaways
- Catholic educators are moving beyond basic concerns about cheating to deeper questions about the purpose of teaching in an AI‑enhanced world.
- A “human‑in‑the‑loop” approach is emphasized: teachers remain the experts while AI serves as a supplemental tool.
- Personalized learning opportunities—such as critiquing AI‑generated work or generating grade‑appropriate materials—are being explored, but always through a discernment lens.
- Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas warns that the speed of AI answers can dull the desire to ask questions and urges schools to provide what technology cannot: shared time and trustworthy relationships.
- Dioceses like Arlington, Virginia are implementing AI literacy programs from kindergarten upward, pairing tools like PowerSchool and LUMA with clear policies on responsible use.
- Leaders stress the need for boundaries—especially in prayer and reflection—so that students remain connected to God and develop Catholic virtues rather than outsourcing their emotional and moral formation to machines.
- Professional preparation for students now includes anticipating how AI may reshape future careers, prompting schools to teach adaptability and critical thinking.
- Ultimately, Catholic schools aim to retain the irreplaceable role of the teacher as guide, ensuring that technology serves formation rather than replaces it.
Introduction: AI’s Growing Presence in Catholic Classrooms
As the new school year begins, artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept but a fixture of daily life—autocorrecting emails, powering voice assistants, recommending streaming content, and even generating images, videos, term papers, and novels. Catholic educators are confronting this rapid ascent head‑on, asking not only how AI works but how it should—or should not—be integrated into the formation of young people. Meaghan Crowley‑Sullivan, a developer of curriculum and professional learning at Loyola Marymount University’s iDEAL Institute, told OSV News that early conversations revolved around cheating and policy, but those questions have “matured” into broader inquiries about what good teaching looks like in a digital age and what human formation entails in an AI‑shaped world.
Evolving Questions: From Cheating to Discernment
Crowley‑Sullivan explained, “Those questions haven’t disappeared; they’ve matured. We’re seeing more schools asking, what does good teaching look like in this new digital age? What do students need to learn? What should we be protecting—not only in our instruction, but also in the way we’re approaching instruction? And ultimately, what does human formation look like in an AI‑shape world?” This shift reflects a growing awareness that technology must be evaluated not just for convenience but for its impact on the moral and spiritual development of students. The emphasis is on discernment: recognizing AI’s possibilities while asking whether its use promotes Catholic values.
Empowering Parents and Families
Beyond students and teachers, schools are recognizing the need to guide parents. Crowley‑Sullivan noted that educators are “helping parents understand what these technologies are, and what their children are encountering… and how they can establish healthy norms and have more meaningful conversations around AI at home.” By providing resources and workshops, Catholic schools aim to create a shared language around AI so that families can reinforce healthy boundaries and encourage critical thinking outside the classroom.
Teaching the Teachers: Human‑Centered AI
Professional development for teachers is a cornerstone of responsible AI integration. Shannon Tabaldo, director of iDEAL, stressed that when training educators, they “lean heavily into that ‘human in the loop’ conversation.” She described AI as “just a tool—it’s there to give you additional resources and capacity you’ve never had before,” but reminded that “you’re still the expert.” In Catholic schools, the focus remains on the human person: “we always go back to, what are we really trying to do with this tool?” This mindset ensures that technology augments, rather than replaces, the teacher’s role as mentor and guide.
Personalized Learning Opportunities
Crowley‑Sullivan and Tabaldo—both parents themselves—have observed AI being used for personalized learning in practical ways. Students can critique an AI‑generated paper or image, ask the system to transform their poetry into perfect iambic pentameter, or request grade‑ and reading‑level‑specific materials. Teachers can employ AI to assess learning patterns, simulate conversations with historic figures, and tailor small‑group instruction. Crowley‑Sullivan emphasized, “The Catholic approach isn’t about being afraid of technology or refusing to innovate. It’s very much about discernment, recognizing the possibilities, and asking whether we can use this in ways that promote our values.” This balanced stance seeks to harness AI’s strengths while guarding against overreliance.
Papal Guidance: Pope Leo XIV on AI and Education
The educators’ reflections echo Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. The pontiff warned that “rapid technological transformations reveal just how unprepared we are on the educational level. Educating people about the use of AI, then, involves teaching them to decide when and for what purpose it ought not to be used.” He added that “the speed and ease with which answers or summaries can be obtained risk extinguishing the desire to ask questions.” Pope Leo XIV urged schools “not to follow the pace of the digital world, but to offer that which the digital sphere by itself cannot provide, namely a shared time for learning and developing trustworthy relationships.” This magisterial voice provides a theological framework for Catholic educators navigating AI’s promises and pitfalls.
A Framework for Discernment: The Catholic Companion Framework
To operationalize such guidance, Crowley‑Sullivan developed the “Catholic Companion Framework for Technology and Innovation.” Already in use by dioceses across the nation and downloaded globally, the framework assists educators, leaders, and families in evaluating emerging technologies through a Catholic lens. Leslie Lipovski, assistant superintendent for student learning and teaching excellence in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, shared that her diocese formed a working group to shape AI policy. In kindergarten through eighth grade, the focus is on AI literacy—students learn what AI is and how it can be used for good or ill—without logging into tools like ChatGPT. At the high school level, teachers adopt varied approaches: some revert to paper‑and‑pencil essays to preserve authentic writing practice, while others demonstrate responsible AI use, showing students how to harness the tool without compromising integrity.
Practical Tools in the Diocese of Arlington
The Diocese of Arlington leverages PowerSchool, a cloud‑based student information system managing data, grades, attendance, and communication, alongside LUMA—an intelligent classroom assistant created by cyber‑educator Michael Hargadon that supports both teachers and students. These platforms exemplify how Catholic schools can integrate technology that streamlines administrative tasks while preserving space for human interaction. Lipovski cautioned, however, that even with such aids, “the teacher is the most important part; the teacher is necessary to guide the students when it is appropriate to use AI, and when it is not appropriate.” The diocesan strategy therefore centers on maintaining the teacher’s irreplaceable role as formator.
Awareness and the Limits of Convenience
Lily Abadal, a partner at Catholic school consultants Partners in Mission and a professor at the University of South Florida, observed that early reactions to ChatGPT often dismissed it as a fleeting trend. She said, “For the first couple of years after ChatGPT was released, it seemed to a lot of people that it might just be a trend… They also were not necessarily aware of how it actually worked, and the extent to which students had both access to it, and the kind of things they were capable of producing with it.” Abadal acknowledged AI’s capacity to make tasks faster and easier but warned that “there are places in which faster and easier is not good, and not formative in terms of how it shapes students.” She stressed that learning often requires grappling with difficulty, a process essential for cultivating Catholic virtues. “One of the best gifts we can give students in terms of how to interact with AI,” Abadal concluded, “is to show them where technology belongs in their life, and where it does not.”
Preserving Prayer and Human Connection
Stephen Eschenfelder, director of campus ministry at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School in Spring Hill, Florida, underscored the need for spiritual boundaries. As a former seminarian with a degree in moral philosophy, he declared, “There has to be a boundary with AI—and I think that turning to God in prayer has to be the boundary.” He observed that in theology classes, students often rely on AI for reflective assignments, thereby outsourcing personal contemplation. “We have to switch things up, and how we give assignments—because it’s reflective material… a lot of it is, what do you think about this? How do you feel about this?” Eschenfelder warned that dependence on AI and social media can disconnect students from their emotions, hindering the interior life essential to Catholic formation.
Preparing Students for an AI‑Shaped Future
Eschenfelder also voiced concern about the professional implications of AI, describing a “massive iceberg of change” looming over his students’ future careers. He recounted an incident where a student sheepishly admitted that a slide‑show presentation was AI‑generated, noting, “They robbed themselves of the ability to learn something.” The same students expressed amazement that he would write a novel by hand rather than asking AI to compose it. “They couldn’t understand that,” he said, hinting at exasperation. Nonetheless, all interviewees agreed that AI is here to stay and that schools must adapt. Lipovski summed up the Catholic imperative: “Our goal as Catholic schools is to hang on to that humanity—because the teacher is the most important part; the teacher is necessary to guide the students when it is appropriate to use AI, and when it is not appropriate.” She concluded, “We can’t just turn this over to machines.”
Conclusion: A Discerning Path Forward
The conversation among Catholic educators reveals a clear trajectory: moving from reactive policies about cheating to proactive, values‑driven discernment about AI’s role in formation. By grounding their approach in Scripture, papal teaching, and a commitment to the human person, schools are crafting policies that harness AI’s potential for personalized learning while safeguarding the spaces where prayer, reflection, and authentic relationships thrive. As AI continues to evolve, the Catholic classroom’s challenge—and opportunity—lies in ensuring that technology serves the mission of forming whole persons who remain rooted in faith, critical thought, and compassionate action.
AI in the Catholic classroom: As a new school year starts, what role does it play?