“Compassion,” the preacher proclaimed, is “mercy in action,” adding: “I can also show you one small rhetorical tweak that guarantees even your densest congregant won’t miss the point.”
As it happens, the preacher is an online comedian named Louisa Melcher, and the sermon is one of her skits. But the comedy is less funny when one realizes that artificial intelligence is already slipping into pastoral work.
“AI is a remarkable tool for synthesizing 2,000 years worth of Catholic thought and tradition,” says the Rev. Andrew Pinsent, who teaches at the Athenaeum of Ohio, a Catholic seminary, and has co-written a book on AI and the church. Chatbots, he suggests, can find within seconds what such church authorities as Thomas Aquinas wrote about a particular passage in scripture.
This may explain why 3 out of 4 senior Protestant pastors in America agree that “God can work through AI,” according to a 2024 Barna poll. While only 1 in 10 say they are comfortable using AI to write sermons, 2 in 5 see its merits for preparation and research. The lure is strong enough that Pope Leo XIV recently warned Catholic priests against using it.
Many Christians seem to be engaging with apps that purport to preach the faith. AI chatbots such as Text With Jesus offer round-the-clock spiritual guidance and simulated conversations with anyone from Jesus to the apostles—and even Satan, with a premium subscription. The popular Catholic prayer app Hallow adds some celebrity glamour with guided prayers from the actors including Mark Wahlberg and Jonathan Roumie, who played Jesus in the TV series “The Chosen.”
App developers and some pastors see these platforms as a way for Christianity to stay relevant among younger generations and combat a decadeslong decline in religious participation. Though Generation Z shows some signs of reversing that trend, an estimated 15,000 churches permanently shut their doors in 2025.
“AI has huge potential for Christian evangelization and to answer questions posed by a secular culture,” says the Rev. Robert Spitzer, who developed the chatbot MagisAI as a tool to educate youth about Catholicism. Trained on source data ranging from social science to scripture, the app aims to offer rational answers to questions such as “Is there evidence of life after death?”
Father Spitzer says that MagisAI is a universal voice that feels more like a pastoral figure. “You can argue with it, you can dialogue with it for sure, but we just wouldn’t call it Jesus,” Father Spitzer says. “I wouldn’t even want to try to do that, because it would be woefully inadequate.”
Such mimicry would amount to a modern fulfillment of the idolatry the Bible warns against, only now rendered in code, Father Pinsent says. “If computers become godlike things to which we look for truth or goodness, then we are projecting onto them attributes that belong properly to God.”
The imitation also falters on practical grounds, if only because AI often gets theology wrong. Even when it doesn’t, it lacks deeper understanding. “The kind of truth that AIs have is pragmatic,” Father Pinsent says. “It’s not transcendental.”
The co-founder of Hallow, Erich Kerekes, has said his app intends to serve as a “quick hook” to get users to spend more time with the Lord when it suits their schedule. His ultimate goal is for them to return to church.
Yet with any app, users typically become more dependent on it over time, not less. Chatbots are especially addictive for teenagers and the lonely, people who would benefit most from in-person religious practice. Friendship and community are a considerable part of the appeal for many young Catholic converts.
AI may be an unstoppable force, but it can’t do everything. Neither chatbots nor celebrities can replace the relational work of a pastor or the congregational nature of worship. “No matter how sophisticated AI gets,” says the Rev. Justin Bolger, Catholic chaplain for Brown University, “it will never be a substitute for another person, especially God.” The Rev. Matthew Hood, the chaplain for the Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry, urges users to remember that they’re dealing with “lines of code and not a real human being.”
Still, Father Pinsent isn’t concerned that sophisticated new technologies pose a risk to religious worship. He let out a laugh at the question. “Our church has been around 2,000 years,” he says. “We survived the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Black Death, Hitler and Stalin. I think we can survive AI.”
Ms. Koch is an associate editor of Free Expression.