Magis Center launches AI app on faith, science
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Father Robert Spitzer, SJ, founder of the Magis Center, delivers the opening keynote address at the inaugural Wonder Conference on Jan. 13, 2023. / Credit: Word on Fire/ScreenshotWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 21, 2025 / 16:26 pm (CNA).Magis Center released this week an artificial intelligence (AI) app designed to provide instant, science-based answers to questions about the Church and Catholic moral teachings.MagisAI was announced Oct. 20 by the Magis Center, an organization created by philosopher and author Father Robert Spitzer, SJ, to explore the relationship between science, philosophy, reason, and faith. The free app draws information from Spitzer's 20 books including "Christ, Science, and Reason" and "Science at the Doorstep to God."The app provides spoken answers to users' questions accompanied by the text and reference. If the answer is too technical or confusing, the app can provide simplifications as needed, the Magis Center reported."Whether you're a teacher helping...
Father Robert Spitzer, SJ, founder of the Magis Center, delivers the opening keynote address at the inaugural Wonder Conference on Jan. 13, 2023. / Credit: Word on Fire/Screenshot
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 21, 2025 / 16:26 pm (CNA).
Magis Center released this week an artificial intelligence (AI) app designed to provide instant, science-based answers to questions about the Church and Catholic moral teachings.
MagisAI was announced Oct. 20 by the Magis Center, an organization created by philosopher and author Father Robert Spitzer, SJ, to explore the relationship between science, philosophy, reason, and faith. The free app draws information from Spitzer's 20 books including "Christ, Science, and Reason" and "Science at the Doorstep to God."
The app provides spoken answers to users' questions accompanied by the text and reference. If the answer is too technical or confusing, the app can provide simplifications as needed, the Magis Center reported.
"Whether you're a teacher helping students navigate secular questions, a parent guiding your family, or anyone seeking clarity on faith, magisAI equips you with instant, credible answers grounded in reason, science, and Church teaching," the organization wrote.
MagisAI covers a wide range of topics within the Church including Catholic doctrine, Christian life and morality, and Scripture and history. It provides evidence for God and Jesus with explanations rooted in science, philosophy, and history, the organization wrote. It also answers science-based questions from quantum cosmology to evolution.
Through its question-and-answer format, magisAI says it addresses "the real challenges Catholics face in today's secular environment." It combats issues including cultural pressure, faith formation gaps, accessibility of knowledge, and language barriers by offering answers in 40 different languages.
MagisAI follows a number of new Catholic AI tools created to provide prompt and accurate information to those hoping to further their understanding of Church teaching, including Longbeard, Magisterium AI, and Truthly.
While Catholic companies are working to use the technology for good, it is important that Catholics remain aware of the harms of AI and potential threats to human dignity, the Vatican said. As AI has become a controversial topic, Pope Leo XIV has said that addressing the challenges of the technology will be a theme of his teaching.
In a September explanatory note on media, the Vatican wrote: "As Catholics we can and should give our contribution, so that people — especially youth — acquire the capacity of critical thinking and grow in the freedom of the spirit."
"The challenge is to ensure that humanity remains the guiding agent," the note said. "The future of communication must be one where machines serve as tools that connect and facilitate human lives rather than erode the human voice."
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Cardinal Pietro Parolin speaks at the release of Aid to the Church in Need's "Religious Freedom in the World Report 2025" at the Vatican on Oct. 21, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Iba´n~ez/CNAVatican City, Oct 21, 2025 / 14:07 pm (CNA).Authoritarian regimes are among the main drivers of religious discrimination and persecution in 52 countries, according to an Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) report. The pontifical foundation, alongside Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, released the Religious Freedom in the World Report 2025 at the Vatican on Tuesday, highlighting the need for the Church to bear witness to the millions of people who face threats of persecution and violence.The cardinal decried the "year on year" increase of violations affecting more than 5.4 billion people worldwide at the report's launch and stressed the need for governments to acknowledge religious freedom as an "inalienable right," as asserted by both the Second Vatican Council document Dignitat...
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A view of the Vatican Apostolic Library in 2021. / Credit: Franco Origlia/Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Oct 21, 2025 / 15:56 pm (CNA).Reports circulating in media outlets and on social media in October 2025 allege that the Vatican has opened a prayer room for Muslims in the Apostolic Library.Claim: The Vatican Library has opened a prayer room for Muslims.CNA finds: The library does allow Muslim scholars a room in which to pray while they are on site doing research in the Vatican's extensive archives.Breakdown: In mid-October 2025, sensational news coverage rocketed around internet media outlets and social media feeds: The Vatican is "allow[ing]" a "designated Muslim prayer room" in its Apostolic Library (National Review); the library has "add[ed] a Muslim prayer room" (The Dallas Express); the Vatican has "[set] up [a] dedicated Muslim prayer room at [the] heart of [the] pope's 500-year-old library" (GB News); the Holy See has "open[ed]" a "Muslim prayer room in [the] Apostolic Librar...
