The “Catholic” AI Movement: A Modernist Shell Game
The cited article from EWTN News reports on the Builders AI Forum (BAIF), a group positioning itself at the intersection of artificial intelligence development and “Catholic moral framework.” Its new CEO, Vincent Higgins, expresses a vision of BAIF acting as “soldiers” for the man known as “Pope Leo XIV,” anticipating his rumored first encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas. The article presents this as a proactive, ethically-grounded engagement with a transformative technology. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, this narrative is not merely inadequate; it is a profound and dangerous manifestation of the post-conciliar apostasy, a naturalistic humanism stripped of supernatural purpose, serving the illegitimate structures of the “Church of the New Advent.”
Factual Deconstruction: The Illusion of “Catholic” Authority
The foundational premise of BAIF is its claim to provide a “Catholic moral framework.” This is categorically false. The organization operates in full communion with and under the auspices of the conciliar sect, whose leaders since John XXIII have been, at best, suspect and, according to the immutable doctrine of the Church, manifest heretics who have ipso facto lost the Papacy and all ecclesiastical jurisdiction. As St. Robert Bellarmine definitively taught, a manifest heretic “by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” The “Pope Leo XIV” referenced is not the Vicar of Christ; he is the latest in a line of usurpers occupying the See of Rome. Therefore, BAIF’s mission is not to serve the Church, but to lend a veneer of “Catholic” legitimacy to the technological agenda of the antipapal regime and its globalist allies. Its 2025 Vatican conference was not an event of the Catholic Church, but a meeting held within the walls of the conciliar abomination of desolation.
Theological Bankruptcy: A “Kingdom” Without Christ the King
The article’s entire focus is on “humanity,” “human dignity,” and the “beauty of humanity” in contrast to machines. This is a direct repudiation of the immutable Catholic doctrine on the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), which established the feast of Christ the King, declared unequivocally: “the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” He condemned the secularism of his day, which “denied Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations,” and warned that when “God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The BAIF vision, centered on a vague “humanity” and “responsible AI,” is precisely the secular, naturalistic error Pius XI anathematized. It proposes a societal order built on human reason and “dignity” while remaining silent on the absolute, non-negotiable requirement that all human law, all social organization, and all technological development must be subordinate to the law of God and the reign of Christ the King. The rumored encyclical title Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”) is a screaming testament to this apostasy. It inverts the Catholic order: it places man, not God, at the center. This is the core error of Modernism, condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici gregis and Lamentabili sane exitu, which seeks to replace the supernatural with the natural, the divine with the human.
The article’s language is dripping with the Pelagian optimism of the “new morality.” Higgins speaks of AI enabling “personalized learning” and filling “gaps in your knowledge,” promising a future where technology solves human problems. This is a denial of Original Sin and the necessity of grace. Catholic social teaching, as found in Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno, is rooted in the Fallen state of man and the need for justice tempered by charity, which itself is a supernatural virtue. A “Catholic” framework that does not begin with man’s utter dependence on God’s grace, the necessity of the Sacraments for salvation, and the ultimate end of eternal life is a fraud. It is a moral philosophy, not theology. It is of the world, not of the Church.
Symptomatic Analysis: The Omission of the Supernatural
The gravest accusation against the BAIF narrative is not what it says, but what it omits. There is not a single mention of:
- The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the unbloody re-presentation of Calvary, the source and summit of Christian life.
- The Sacraments as necessary means of grace instituted by Christ.
- The state of sanctifying grace as the only valid foundation for any truly moral action.
- The Final Judgment and the eternal destinies of souls (heaven or hell).
- The duty of every society and state to publicly recognize and obey Jesus Christ as King, as defined in Quas Primas.
- The absolute primacy of the salvation of souls over all temporal concerns.
This silence is not accidental; it is theological. It is the hallmark of the conciliar sect’s “humanism.” The “Catholic” framework being sold is one where the Church’s role is to “lead the message” on ethical AI, not to convert nations to the one true faith. This is the “national conversion without evangelization” error identified in the analysis of the false Fatima apparitions, but applied to the entire modern world. The goal is a well-ordered, dignified, technologically advanced global society that remains in its sins, with the “Church” providing a benign, spiritualized ethical gloss. This is the “duty of the public reign of Christ the King over all nations” reduced to a committee on algorithmic bias.
Critique of the “Clerics” and the Lay “Soldiers”
The article quotes Higgins stating BAIF will “take its cues and our lead from Holy Father” and hopes to be seen as “kind of his ‘soldiers’ in service to that mission.” This is a perfect encapsulation of the new, democratized, and activist “Church.” The layperson is no longer a member of the Mystical Body, called primarily to sanctify themselves through the Sacraments and their state in life, but a “soldier” in a corporate-style mission for the “Holy Father.” This flattens the hierarchical, sacramental structure of the Church into a non-governmental organization (NGO) with a spiritual marketing department. The true Catholic doctrine, as expressed in Quas Primas, is that rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor and obey Christ; it is not that the Church’s mission is to advise them on “human flourishing” through technology. The article’s tone is that of a corporate press release, not a theological declaration. This bureaucratic, managerial language is the linguistic symptom of the Modernist infection—the replacement of the language of sin, grace, and redemption with the language of “stakeholders,” “disruption,” and “human potential.”
The “Rerum Novarum” Mirage and the Evolution of Doctrine
Higgins connects “Pope Leo XIV’s” choice of name to Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, suggesting a continuity of “Catholic social teaching.” This is a crass example of the “hermeneutics of continuity” condemned by the true Catholic faith. Rerum Novarum (1891), while addressing industrial problems, was written by a valid Pope for a Catholic world. It presupposed the Social Kingship of Christ and the duty of states to recognize the Church. It did not speak of a “pluralistic” society where the Church is one “voice” among many. The rumored Magnifica Humanitas, coming from an antipope in 2026, would be an act of doctrinal evolution—a “development” of doctrine in the Modernist sense condemned by St. Pius X (Proposition 54 of Lamentabili: “Dogmas, sacraments, and hierarchy… are merely modes of explanation and stages in the evolution of Christian consciousness”). It would use the language of Leo XIII to advance the humanistic, secularized agenda of the Vatican II revolution. The article treats this as a plausible and positive development, demonstrating its complete captivity to the principle of doctrinal evolution, which is heresy.
Conclusion: A Tool of the Globalist Apostasy
The Builders AI Forum is not a Catholic organization. It is a modernist initiative, a project of the conciliar sect designed to make the Church’s “voice” relevant in the technocratic globalism of the 21st century by stripping it of its supernatural content and reducing it to a provider of “ethical” frameworks for a world that rejects Christ. Its leaders are not “soldiers” of Christ; they are functionaries of the apostate hierarchy. Their “Catholic moral framework” is a syncretic blend of residual Catholic sentiment, Enlightenment humanism, and Silicon Valley utilitarianism. It offers the world a “Catholic” seal of approval for its technological ambitions while the souls of billions perish without the Sacraments, the faith is denied in public life, and the true Church suffers persecution from within and without. The only legitimate response of a Catholic is to reject this entire edifice as a work of Satan, to have no part in it, and to pray and work for the restoration of the true Church and the public reign of Christus Imperat.
Source:
New CEO of Catholic AI group hopes members will be Pope Leo’s ‘soldiers’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 02.04.2026