Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.

We thank God for the Vocations we receive for the English Dominicans, making us currently the fastest-growing religious Order in England & Scotland. This new video introduces you to our brothers, and to our mission, and our Formation Fund needs: youtu.be/5al1umkQkE0?si…

For as much as people want to claim that the Catholic Church is “irrelevant” or a relic from a medieval past, notice how when the Church speaks on faith and morals, the world stops. Even if the world doesn’t faithfully follow the Church’s directives, the Church is still a “main character”. The Church is still a target of the world’s fluctuating emotions: anger and rage, awe and reverence, curiosity and inquiry. Patriarch Bartholomew, the woman in Canterbury, the Mormon prophet—none captures the global attention. There isn’t 24/7 news coverage on the election of the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. No one ever hears about the Dalai Lama anymore. Anthropic wouldn’t waste its time joining a Methodist convention on AI. Major news outlets and journalists wouldn’t flock to Geneva to hear what Lutherans have to say about artificial intelligence. When Islamic imams issue a fatwa, very rarely does anyone blink an eye. These religions and denominations don’t ever come off as having a moral authority beyond that of their own people. But when the Catholic Church and the pope speaks, the world stops. Maybe the vast majority of people will argue and rant against its teaching (Humanae Vitae, 1968). Maybe what is taught will win favor among world leaders (Laudato Si, 2015). But the fact remains that the Church is seen as a major player on the world’s stage. As I sit down to read Pope Leo XIV’s “Magnifica Humanitas” (Encyclical Letter on Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence), I realize that, like Catholics across millennia, I belong to not only a church, but the Church. I am a member of a supernatural society, one that continues the mission of Christ today, through His Spirit. Whether it is mocked or praised, the Church has “main character energy”, because it simply is the main character of history. And when the main character speaks, you stop for a moment to listen. Or in this case, to read a 42,300-word encyclical.

Pope Leo's first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas covers artificial intelligence, human dignity, your children's phones, autonomous weapons, doomscrolling, the mystery of the human soul, and why no machine will ever have the final word on what it means to be a person made in the image of God. The full document is available to download at ow.ly/EYjw50Z3QAT and official Vatican websites — and it's worth your time. But before you dive in, get a feel for what's inside with these 15 quotes: ow.ly/ZT9p50Z3QAU

This one document contains more moral clarity, spiritual guidance, philosophical wisdom, and pure human intelligence than all the digital ink spilled in the last decade. Please, please read it all. No matter what your religious beliefs are, please think about it, teach its ideas, discuss it, ponder it. *This* is the level of thoughtfulness we need as a society, and this is what humanity looks like. vatican.va/content/leo-xi…

Every year, I share this video of French caretakers who take sand from Omaha Beach in Normandy, and scrub them into the letters to give them the gold coloring. They do this for all 9,386 US soldiers who died. France also gave us this land as American soil. #MemorialDayWeekend

20,000 people, with an average age of 20, after having walked 100 kilometres over 3 days from Paris to Chartres Cathedral, assist a Youth Mass on Pentecost Monday, celebrated by His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke

@carleolson Prayers for your son, for the deceased, and for both families, from here at Our Lady's feet in Lourdes.

My thanks to all of you who responded to my short but urgent request yesterday. I deeply appreciate it. And I know that your prayers were answered. Many of you know that our middle child, Gavin (now 21), almost died from cancer in the summer/fall of 2024, having been given about a 40-50% of survival with aggressive chemo. Since his full recovery in October of that year, he has been working long hours (as a cook). I had not seen him for a few months, but we had a lengthy text conversation three days ago. Yesterday morning, I got a call: Gavin and a friend had been in a very serious one-car accident in Eugene. His friend, the driver, was killed instantly. (Please pray for his soul; it's a horrific situation.) Some who saw the aftermath have stated in FB posts how shocked they were that anyone survived the wreck, as the car drove directly into a large tree just off the freeway. Gavin suffered a broken vertebra, a badly broken left hand, several deep bruises, and a brain bleed. Thankfully, the bleed appears to be "minor". Yesterday afternoon/evening, he underwent about six hours of surgery for his back and hand. Both surgeries were deemed successful by the doctors. My wife and I visited Gavin today, and it was heartbreaking. Of course, we're deeply relieved that he's alive. But to see him, once again, in a hospital bed, broken and bruised and in pain, was tough, to say the least. Because he was sedated, he was not very lucid, but we spent some time with him and told him that we loved him. It appears that he will make a strong physical recovery. But our deeper concern is for his spiritual and emotional well-being. These are the sort of events that can impact and shape one's life in a variety of ways. Please keep him in your prayers if you are able, and I will provide updates. God bless you all.

The Vatican has produced a video to accompany the publication of Pope Leo XIV’s Encyclical Letter Magnifica humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the age of Artificial Intelligence

I don't know what the encyclical's impact will be on macro-level issues of AI, war, etc. But I do know persons who pick it up looking for answers to our current crises will discover an integral vision of reality (ie, below) that can transform their life if they're open to it.

“In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise it, finance it, regulate it and use it.” THANK YOU POPE LEO FOR SAYING THIS. Time for the “technology is a tool with no inherent moral position” idea to die!

Ave Maria! On the last day of our Marian Shrines pilgrimage, on the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, I was blessed to preach at the Grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes. I pointed to Mary through whom we go to Jesus: she gives us graces from her divine Son that divinise us such that she is truly Mother of God, both of Christ and of His Mystical Body, the Church.

O God, Father of mercies, whose Only Begotten Son, as he hung upon the Cross, chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother, to be our Mother also; grant, we pray, that with her loving help, your Church may be more fruitful day by day, and exulting in the holiness of her children, may draw to her embrace all the families of the peoples. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. — Collect for the feast of Mary, Mother of God. flic.kr/p/2sf2pnP This medieval painting is from the entrance to the former Benedictine church of Our Lady in Sopron, Hungary.

Pope Leo XIV’s address in English at the publication of his Encyclical Letter Magnifica humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the age of Artificial Intelligence. Do listen to all of it. It is very good.

Christopher Olah, a Canadian billionaire businessman and researcher who co-founded AI giant Anthropic, sitting in the Synodal Hall and speaking next to Pope Leo said, closing his speech: "I'd like to close with a request. We need more of the world - religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments - to do what His Holiness has done here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction. We need informed critics who will tell the labs when we are failing. We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend. Today is just the beginning - the start of a long collaboration between those of us who are building this and those who can see what we, from inside, cannot. Today is a powerful illustration of the form this global project of good will might take. Let it also be a decisive first step toward a hopeful future for magnificent humanity."

“Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.” vatican.va/content/leo-xi…

Ignorant misinformed post. Beware.

Chartres: twenty thousand young pilgrims on the road as a traditional pilgrimage speaks to a dechristianised Europe Read now: silerenonpossum.com/en/chartres-ve…

On the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China, we are invited to pray this prayer composed by Pope Benedict XVI.

"This is the day of Pentecost, alleluia. Today the Holy Spirit appeared to the disciples in the form of fire and gave to them his special gifts; he sent them into the world to proclaim that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Alleluia." - the Magnificat antiphon at Second Vespers of Pentecost. flic.kr/p/2seMT6D 📷 Stained glass window from the Cathedral of St Vitus, Prague. 🇨🇿

On the solemnity of Pentecost, which this year is celebrated on May 24, Catholics have the opportunity to gain a plenary indulgence by praying or singing the hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus”, under the usual conditions: Detachment from all sin, even venial. Sacramental confession, holy Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the pope. These conditions can be fulfilled a few days before or after performing the works to gain the indulgence, but it is appropriate that Communion and the prayer take place on the same day that the work is completed. A single sacramental confession is sufficient for several plenary indulgences, but frequent sacramental confession is encouraged in order to obtain the grace of deeper conversion and purity of heart. Find the full “Veni Creator Spiritus” at ewtnnews.com/world/us/how-c…

A Japanese Christian is fully Japanese. That should not need saying, but in Japan it sometimes does. For some people, a Japanese person stops being a “real” Japanese when they become a Christian. But Christ is not foreign to Japan. He does not belong to one nation, one people, one language, or one civilization. A Japanese Christian is Japanese. And Christian.