EWTN News reports (January 28, 2026) on German theologian Thomas Marschler’s attempt to enlist St. Thomas Aquinas in contemporary AI debates. The article presents Marschler, holder of a dogmatics chair at the University of Augsburg, suggesting Aquinas offers insights into AI’s philosophical implications while promoting chatbots impersonating the Angelic Doctor. This constitutes a sacrilegious reduction of Thomistic thought to serve modernist agendas.
Naturalism Disguised as Scholastic Engagement
Marschler’s assertion that Aquinas “can save us from erroneous conclusions” about AI’s implications for human nature ignores how post-conciliar institutions have systematically dismantled authentic Thomism. The University of Augsburg operates under the anti-scholastic principles condemned in Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis, which warned against theologians who “twist the doctrines of the Fathers and Scholastics to support modern errors.”
The article’s praise for AI chatbots simulating Aquinas exemplifies the naturalistic reduction of spiritual realities. When ChatGPT claims Aquinas “integrated Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine“, it reduces the Summa Theologica to mere intellectual synthesis rather than a supernatural illumination of truth. St. Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane explicitly condemned such naturalistic interpretations: “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (Proposition 58).
False Thomistic Resurgence in Service of Modernism
Marschler’s recommendation of the Thomistic Institute and Dominicans “cultivating Thomistic heritage” obscures their complicity in the hermeneutic of rupture. The article celebrates theologians like Karl Rahner – whom Pius XII’s Humani Generis condemned for “false opinions threatening Catholic doctrine” – while implying Aquinas would approve dialogue with heretical systems.
The grotesque suggestion that Grok AI could judge Aquinas “forward-thinking for his time” while criticizing his “views on heretics” inverts Catholic truth. Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors condemns the notion that “the Roman pontiff can and ought to reconcile himself with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (Proposition 80). True Thomism upholds Aquinas’ Sententia Libri Ethicorum that heretics “deserve not only to be separated from the Church but also to be excluded from the world by death” (ST II-II Q11 A3).
Omission of Christ’s Kingship Over Creation
The article’s complete silence on the Regnum Christi demonstrates the conciliar sect’s abandonment of Catholic social doctrine. Pius XI’s Quas Primas established that Christ’s kingship extends “not only to Catholic nations or those who by receiving baptism belong to the Church… but also all non-Christians, so that truly the whole human race is subject to the power of Jesus Christ.” Any discussion of technology ignoring this reality constitutes apostasy from divine law.
Marschler’s trivial question about whether “technically feasible” equals morally permissible ignores Aquinas’ teaching that human law must conform to eternal law (ST I-II Q93). True Catholic analysis would condemn AI development not subordinated to man’s supernatural end, following Pius IX’s condemnation of those who “separate civil authority from divine law” (Syllabus Proposition 56).
Symptomatic of Conciliar Apostasy
This attempted Thomistic revival occurs within structures that have systematically destroyed authentic Catholic education. The 1917 Code of Canon Law required philosophy and theology professors to teach “according to the method, doctrine, and principles of Aquinas” (Canon 1366 §2). Post-conciliar “universities” like Augsburg instead implement the modernist program condemned in Lamentabili Sane: “Christian doctrine was initially Jewish… becoming first Pauline, then Johannine, finally Greek and universal” (Proposition 60).
The article’s failure to mention that current “Dominican” communities celebrate the Novus Ordo Missae proves their Thomism is theatrical. As the true Church’s last disciplinary act before the apostasy, Veterum Sapientia (1962) mandated: “In seminaries where clerics are trained for the priesthood… let the study of the Latin language be cultivated with all diligence.” The conciliar sect’s abandonment of Latin epitomizes its rejection of Thomistic intellectual rigor.
Source:
What would Thomas Aquinas make of AI? (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 28.01.2026