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Vatican City, Nov 13, 2025 / 15:54 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV during an address at the Vatican on Thursday called for the “prudent” evaluation of supernatural phenomena to avoid falling into superstition.

“To avoid falling into superstitious illusion, it is necessary to evaluate such events prudently, through humble discernment and in accordance with the teachings of the Church,” the Holy Father said to participants in a Nov. 13 meeting organized by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints that reflected on the relationship between mystical phenomena and holiness of life.

The conference focused on the theme “Mysticism, Mystical Phenomena, and Holiness.” Upon receiving the participants at the Vatican, the pope noted that, through constant commitment, the magisterium, theology, and spiritual writers have provided “criteria for distinguishing authentic spiritual phenomena, which can occur in an atmosphere of prayer and a sincere search for God, from manifestations that may be deceptive.”

For the pope, mysticism and spiritual phenomena are “one of the most beautiful dimensions of the experience of faith,” and he expressed his gratitude for the participants’ collaboration in shedding light on certain aspects that require discernment.

The mystical life: Intimate union with God

“Through theological reflection as well as preaching and catechesis, the Church has recognized for centuries that at the heart of the mystical life lies the awareness of the intimate union of love with God,” the pope noted.

The pontiff explained that mysticism is therefore characterized “as an experience that transcends mere rational knowledge, not through the merit of the one who experiences it, but through a spiritual gift, which can manifest itself in diverse ways, even with opposing phenomena, such as luminous visions or dense darkness, afflictions, or ecstasies.” However, he continued, these exceptional events “are secondary and not essential with respect to mysticism and holiness itself.”

The Holy Father said they can be “signs” of holiness insofar as they are “unique charisms,” although the true goal is and always remains “communion with God.”

“Extraordinary phenomena that may connote mystical experience are not indispensable conditions for recognizing the holiness of a member of the faithful,” he emphasized.

Leo pointed out that, if they are present, “they strengthen their virtues not as individual privileges, but insofar as they are ordered to the edification of the whole Church, the mystical body of Christ.”

Maintaining ‘balance’

“What matters most and what must be emphasized in the examination of candidates for sainthood is their full and constant conformity with the will of God, revealed in Scripture and in the living apostolic tradition,” he said. For this reason, he urged the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to maintain “balance.”

He added: “Just as causes for canonization should not be promoted solely in the presence of exceptional phenomena, neither should those same phenomena [be looked upon negatively] if they characterize the lives of the servants of God.”

“At the heart of discernment regarding a member of the faithful is listening to their reputation for holiness and examining their perfect virtue, as expressions of ecclesial communion and intimate union with God,” the pope noted.

At another meeting held this week at the Pontifical Urban University, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, gave a presentation on the dicastery’s norms on the discernment of supernatural phenomena, which were approved last year. The prelate addressed the complexity and challenges the Church faces in recognizing these types of manifestations.

The cardinal noted that, despite approximately 3,500 cases of beatification and canonization in the last 50 years, only three or four declarations of phenomena of supernatural origin have been issued, underscoring the difficulty of obtaining official recognition of this kind.

“It is difficult to recognize them,” he stated, according to Vatican News.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 13, 2025 / 13:50 pm (CNA).

The U.S. bishops received a briefing on the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) from Paul Scherz at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore.

Scherz, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, has studied the ethics of AI. At the Nov. 12 meeting, Scherz highlighted some of his findings and shared how the bishops should approach the technology within their dioceses.

AI technologies “have great potential to contribute to human flourishing and the common good,” Scherz said. “But note that it would be a mistake to describe these programs as intelligent in the same way that humans are.”

“They lack consciousness and any kind of subjective relationship to the world. So as Pope Leo says, ‘The person is not a system of algorithms. He or she is a creature, relationship, mystery.’ Thus, despite their power and utility, they shouldn’t be called persons or truly intelligent,” he said.

“We’re made for a relationship as created in the image of the triune God. We don’t find our good alone,” Scherz said. “Instead, our individual flourishing is enmeshed with the flourishing of those around us. Together, we see the common good in our common life.”

AI in Catholic ministries

In his discussion, Scherz highlighted three Catholic ministries that can implement AI while also detailing the potential threats. 

The “largest Catholic ministry” AI can be implemented in is health care. Since “17% of U.S. patients receive care at a Catholic institution, it’s almost certainly the ministry in which the most non-Catholics interact with the Church,” Scherz said. 

“Through these health care institutions, the Church realizes Jesus’ call to heal the sick,” Scherz said. “Health care is also a sector of the economy that has seen a rapid adoption of AI technologies.”

“For the past decade, health care technology companies have sought to put the vast scores of data embedded in their electronic medical records to use and train AI,” Scherz said. “Insurance companies are using AI to help fix and complete claims that lack incorrect information.”

The issue is the “bias from lack of diversity in training data, such as early genomics studies largely containing research subjects who were middle-class and European descent,” he said.

While AI is used to improve diagnostics and enact greater efficiency, we must be wary of the “significant dangers,” Scherz said. “Anything that restricts basic access in a biased manner would be an offense against the equal human dignity emerging from our shared participation in the image of God.”

Also, “the algorithm cannot substitute a gesture of closeness or a word of consolation,” Scherz said. “Much of what practitioners do is not a pure analytic process. They negotiate with patients to accept care, maintain the spirits of people suffering from a chronic disease, and tinker with therapy so that they better fit the complicated lives of patients.”

“A second ministry heavily affected by AI are Catholic schools,” Scherz said. Education and technology entrepreneurs “are promising a future in which AI enables personalized education for every student.”

“In this vision, AI would be a personal tutor for each child, or at least develop learning plans tailored to the individual,” but AI cannot replace teachers, because they “do more than convey knowledge,” Scherz said.

Teachers “model essential human qualities and inspire the joy of discovery. This relationship of encounter is at the heart of true education. The teacher fosters virtues and serves as an exemplar,” he said.

He also highlighted the clear threat that students will abuse AI and use it to complete writing assignments. Scherz said: “This is a crisis for schools, especially those of the liberal arts curriculum like Catholic schools, because writing is not just about producing content. Writing essays forces a student to think, to organize ideas, to argue coherently.” 

Lastly, Scherz addressed AI in the pastoral field. He said: “There is increasing evidence that people are turning to chatbots for religious resources” and AI “is becoming a standard for religious authorities.”

“People are prompting AI, or developing AI applications, that frame their responses and act in the persona of God or a religious figure,” Scherz said. “People are using AI to develop spiritual inventories or to provide spiritual direction.”

“Catholic sites are using AI to provide laypeople with access to Church teaching,” Scherz said. He explained that pastors and parishioners using AI as a research tool to find interpretations of Scripture, catechism information, or doctrine could be beneficial.

For these Catholic AI systems to work, people must actually examine the source material provided. Scherz said: “Unfortunately, people tend to rely on the AI summary, and what starts as a research tool can frequently become more than that.”

AI companions “are incredibly dangerous, especially due to AI’s tendencies toward hallucination and psychosis,” Scherz said. Also “engagement with chatbots can prevent actual encounter with pastors, as people may feel their needs are meant by AI.”

AI “also raises concerns on the side of pastors,” Scherz said. “There are increasing reports of pastors using it for the spiritual aspect of their work, like writing homilies or preparing religious education materials.”

“The problem is that, as with writing in general, homilies are in part formative — shaping the pastor as he engages with Scripture,” Scherz said. “Totally abnegating this role to AI would undermine the authenticity of the pastor’s witness.”

“Technologies provide great opportunities, but also great dangers. They can lead to injustice, alienation, and deformation of character,” Scherz said. “At the same time, AI offers greater efficiency and new capacities for serving the common good.”

Scherz said: “The emergence of AI provides the Church with an evangelical opportunity … People are asking basic questions of what it means to be human for the first time in a long time” and “the Church can provide those answers.” 

CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2025 / 13:20 pm (CNA).

Catholic hospitals in the United States are explicitly forbidden from carrying out transgender-related surgeries on individuals who believe themselves to be the opposite sex, the U.S. bishops said this week.

The prelates, gathered at the plenary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Baltimore, voted on Nov. 12 to direct hospitals to “preserve the integrity of the human body” when treating individuals with gender dysphoria.

Such individuals often seek surgery to make their bodies conform to that of the opposite sex. But in updated guidance, the bishops said that while Catholic health care providers must employ “all appropriate resources” to mitigate the suffering of such patients, they can use “only those means that respect the fundamental order of the human body.”

The new rule makes into explicit USCCB policy what the bishops expressed in a doctrinal note in 2023 when they said Catholic providers must not take part in procedures that “aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex.”

The revised directives were hailed by the Catholic Health Association, which in a Nov. 12 statement said that the rules “reaffirm the Church’s teaching on the dignity of all persons and their right to life from conception to natural death.”

The revisions “clarify and affirm current clinical practices” and “are consistent with Catholic health care practice that does not allow for medical interventions that alter sexual characteristics absent an underlying condition,” the group said. 

The organization said Catholic health care providers would continue to treat those who identify as transgender “with dignity and respect.”

In their guidelines the bishops noted that it can be “morally permissible” to “remove or to suppress the function of one part of the body for the sake of the body as a whole,” though only in very limited circumstances, such as when a body part is diseased. 

In forbidding medical practices that “aim to transform sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex,” the bishops cited the Vatican’s 2024 document Dignitas Infinita, which in part disallows “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman.”

The USCCB’s guidance comes several months after the Trump administration moved to prohibit transgender procedures performed on children at U.S. hospitals. 

Multiple U.S. hospitals earlier this year ended their child transgender programs under pressure from the Trump administration. One watchdog group determined that doctors in the U.S. performed around 14,000 “gender transitions” on underage children between 2019 and 2023. 

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to prohibit hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements from performing transgender operations or providing transgender drugs to anyone under the age of 19.

An EWTN News analysis in 2024, meanwhile, showed that nearly 150 Catholic hospitals across the United States provided children with transgender drugs or performed gender-transition surgeries on them between 2019 and 2023.

As their weeklong Plenary concludes, the Bishops of Sudan and South Sudan express being overwhelmed by the escalating violence and the appalling human conditions resulting from ongoing conflicts in both countries.

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