All posts tagged: Catholicism

As UFOs go mainstream, the jury is out on what the existence of alien life might mean for religion

As UFOs go mainstream, the jury is out on what the existence of alien life might mean for religion

Published by Sam Flores

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In “Disclosure Day,” out Friday, Steven Spielberg is once again inviting audiences to ponder the existence of extraterrestrial life — and the implications it would have for religion on Earth. But Spielberg is hardly the only one making headlines of late about UFOs and the possibility of life on other planets. What was once considered fringe or conspiratorial has in recent months popped up everywhere from the White House to the Catholic Church, as public fascination with unidentified anomalous phenomena — or UAPs, as the government calls them — becomes more mainstream. The Pentagon in May made public large swaths of UFO files with very little context, leaving curious sleuths to piece together their own interpretations. The dump came just weeks after former President Barack Obama set off a media frenzy for stating unambiguously in an interview that aliens are real, though he later tempered that take. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” the former president, who made a surprise visit to …

Returning to the fold? Some young Spaniards embrace Catholicism and can’t wait for Pope Leo’s visit

Returning to the fold? Some young Spaniards embrace Catholicism and can’t wait for Pope Leo’s visit

Published by Sam Flores

Until three years ago, Sara Cabral’s faith experience was on trend with other Southern European youth — a “Catholic but never practicing” upbringing with little relevance to her life on Spain’s Canary Islands. Then she listened to a song from a faith youth group that felt as if God were speaking to her. She joined the group, and now in addition to its weekly adoration with music sessions, Cabral is excitedly preparing to attend Pope Leo XIV ’s Mass in Gran Canaria with her friends. “You get a restlessness about an emptiness that you don’t know how to fill,” Cabral, 26, says of her embrace of Catholicism. “God is the one looking for you first, but you need to go meet him.” On trips to Spain this month and France in September, Leo will find thousands of young people like her in these traditionally Catholic but now staunchly secular countries, where historic churches are abundant and Mass attendance is sparse. Church leaders and some experts see the success of youth movements and the surge in …

AI has a bias toward Catholicism, researchers say

AI has a bias toward Catholicism, researchers say

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Most popular artificial intelligence models are biased toward Catholicism and against a number of other religious traditions when asked about converting to a faith, according to new research assembled by a group of religious colleges. The findings were unveiled on Tuesday (May 26) alongside a speech by Elder Gerrit W. Gong, one of the 12 apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered to attendees of an AI ethics summit taking place this week in Athens, Greece. “As AI amplifies and compounds religious bias at scale, more users may misunderstand the contribution faith and belief can make to moral and ethical AI grounding,” Gong said, according to his prepared remarks, referring to the new research. The studies were presented as three academic papers produced by the Consortium for Evaluating Faith and Ethics in AI, a new collaboration between Brigham Young University, which is affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Baylor University, which is Baptist; the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic university; and Yeshiva University, which …

Pope Leo calls on Catholics to ‘move beyond’ just war theory in new encyclical

Pope Leo calls on Catholics to ‘move beyond’ just war theory in new encyclical

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — While Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical mostly focuses on AI, it also includes language that suggests that Catholics move past their longstanding reliance on just war theory, offering an assessment of armed conflict likely to spark debate among Catholics and non-Catholics alike. The Catholic tradition has long drawn on saints like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas to teach that war is permissible in a very narrow set of circumstances — where war is justified as a last resort to respond to damage that must be “lasting, grave and certain.” Per church teaching of just war theory, the war must also be likely to be successful and create less harm than the harm eliminated. Since becoming pope last year, Leo has been clear he intended to take a firm stand against war. His first words greeting the world after his election were, “Peace be with you all!” in a speech that went on to call for peace that is “unarmed and disarming.” More recently, in his Palm Sunday homily in March, Leo said, “This is …

Synod study group calls for greater role for laity in the selection of bishops

Synod study group calls for greater role for laity in the selection of bishops

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — A study group established by Pope Francis after the Synod on Synodality has called for a greater role for the laity and clergy in the selection of bishops, especially by involving the diocesan priests’ council and pastoral council. The study group was set up in response to the synod’s call “to expand consultation with the faithful People of God, and to involve a greater number of lay people and consecrated persons in the consultation process.” The practical suggestions put forth by the study group represent a substantial expansion of the role of the laity and clergy in the process of choosing their bishop — and hark back to our current pope’s namesake. Pope Leo the Great in the fifth century believed a true bishop should be elected by the clergy, accepted by the people and ordained by the bishops of the surrounding dioceses. This was a system of checks and balances that would have been loved by the writers of The Federalist Papers. The clergy would meet and vote in the cathedral and then …

Marco Rubio may lean on a complicated Catholicism with Pope Leo

Marco Rubio may lean on a complicated Catholicism with Pope Leo

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Shortly after Pope Leo XIV was elected last May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, himself a Catholic, was asked about his thoughts on the newly minted pontiff’s comments signaling deep concern for immigrants. After defending President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts — which Pope Leo would end up publicly criticizing — Rubio, the son of immigrants, downplayed the pope’s political relevance. “I don’t view the papacy as a political office,” Rubio said. “I view it as a spiritual one.” But when asked by White House reporters on Tuesday (May 5) about his meeting with the pope slated for later this week, the secretary suggested Leo may have significant political cachet after all. “The pope is obviously the Vicar of Christ, as a Roman Catholic, but he’s also the head of a nation-state,” Rubio said, outlining his hopes for partnering with the Holy See on various topics, such as religious liberty. “It’s an organization that has a presence in over 100-something countries around the world, and we engage with the Vatican quite a bit …

Themes of peace and human dignity have been central to Pope Leo as he marks his first year in office

Themes of peace and human dignity have been central to Pope Leo as he marks his first year in office

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — When he was elected pope on May 8, 2025, Robert Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV, greeted the crowd with Christ’s words to his disciples: “Peace be with you.” Peace has become a central theme of the pontificate of the first American pope. In recent months, opposing the war in the Middle East, Leo has said that the “world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants.” He led a “Prayer Vigil for Peace” on April 11, 2026, in which he criticized how the name of God has been used to justify war and death. He has also said that “military action will not create space for freedom” because true freedom can come only from patient dialogue. Prayer vigil for peace. Combined with his calls for peace is Leo’s equally outspoken emphasis on human dignity. In an age where power is concentrated in the hands of a few, the pope has urged Christians to make a “radical choice in favor of the weakest.” Technological advances, especially the rise of artificial intelligence, …

‘Just war’ has guided Catholic thinking on conflict for centuries – including criticism of Iran war

‘Just war’ has guided Catholic thinking on conflict for centuries – including criticism of Iran war

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — Since the beginning of the Iran war, Pope Leo XIV has frequently called for peace, cautioning that the “delusion of omnipotence” makes military force seem preferable to diplomacy. Although U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, criticized some of the pope’s comments, a growing choir of Catholic voices has criticized the conflict by invoking the concept of “just war” – an evolving tradition that has guided Christian thinking about war and peace for 1,500 years. In March, the archbishop of Washington said the war failed “to meet the just war threshold.” A month later, the prelate leading the U.S. military’s Catholic chaplaincy delivered a stark assessment: The war was not justified. The Vatican’s secretary of state raised similar concerns. Many faiths have teachings about when war is or is not considered justified, including Judaism, Islam and Hinduism. In the Christian just war tradition, battle is never holy – “God does not bless any conflict,” in Leo’s words – but it is sometimes considered necessary. That tradition traces its roots to the fifth-century …