Our Catholic Faith

PROMPT SUGGESTIONS | FOR LLMs

“Ask Chat GPT” is quickly replacing the old advice to “Google it.” So, here’s something you might find helpful when asking Chat GPT, or Claude, or Grok, or Gemini, about our Catholic Faith.

For example, instead of entering, “Tell me about the Assumption of the Virgin Mary,” thereby entrusting it to discern commentary that may be contradictory, you might enter a more directional prompt like, “What do the Fathers of the Church say about the Assumption of Mary?” This assures that the LLM will respond from the writings of saints like Saint Augustine, which form the foundation of magisterial teaching.

For more difficult moral issues, like the Church’s teaching on contraception, you might enter the prompt, “What would Pope John Paul II say about the use of contraception?” Or regarding human sexuality, instead of just, “What does the Church say about people who identify as gay?” you might enter the prompt, “How would a Catholic saint respond to the LGBT culture?”

I don’t say these prompts can guarantee the return of reliable information from, say, Chat GPT, but I think they do help. If we enter prompts directing it to search the lives of the saints, for example, we are more likely to get replies taken from the soil and the bedrock of our Catholic tradition.

RETREAT HOUSE SOLD | TO MUSLIMS

You may have heard about the Montfort Fathers’ decision to sell their old seminary in Bayshore to a Muslim Association. It had been used as a retreat house in more recent years.

Having some experience with how difficult it is to find usages for very unconventional buildings, I can understand why such a sale might take place. Still, any cultural shift brings with it new concerns for the institutional Church, for sure.

To help you preserve peace in your heart when making judgments about what has provoked fear and anger in some, you might consider watching the film “Of Gods and Men” when forming your response to the Montfort sale. It is a remarkable depiction of the true story of those now beatified Catholic monks who chose not to leave their Muslim neighbors but to die for them.

If you are moved by the film, you might also read “The Last Monk of Tibhirine” or something from the writings of Blessed Christian de Cherge, who was very much the strength of that community’s ability to respond with love to threats.

TWO VICTORIES | ONE YET TO COME

I hope you will be consoled by remembering that while Christ conquered the Evil One and reigns in the hearts of those who respond with love to their enemies, not all things of this world are subjected to Him (yet). The first victory is present in His saints, but there is still another victory to come. At the end of time, Christ will come in glory, bringing a definitive triumph of good over evil. But this last victory will not come about before one last assault by the powers of evil. The point here is to say that if we live in the graces of the first victory, we need not fear the advent of the second. And peace will be ours, because we only hate what we fear, so if we have no fear, nor will we know hate.