Preach from the heart, not with AI-generated homilies, priest says

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is in full bloom in 2026, impacting virtually every professional and educational realm of society.

Mindful of this reality, Pope Leo XIV recently advised the priests of Rome to use “their brains more” rather than AI when preparing homilies, a practice that appears to be beginning to spread among some members of the clergy.

What do priests think about this trend? To delve deeper into this dynamic, ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, consulted several of them on the matter. Drawing from their different vocations and apostolates, they all shared the same conclusion: AI can be a useful tool, but it “can never replace grace.”

Conveying the word just as Christ himself did

Father Alfonso Peña, who serves at the Cathedral of Seville in southern Spain, said that AI can serve as a tool for coming up with ideas and even as a source of inspiration. However, he pointed out that it cannot replace “the priest’s pastoral discernment or spiritual experience.”

In Peña’s view, “the homily must flow from the heart of the pastor and from his relationship with God and with his people”; therefore, preaching cannot be reduced to a well-written text, “since it is born of the Word and of a concrete knowledge of the community one serves.”

“Christian preaching,” he said, “remains a living encounter with the Gospel and with people. Technology can assist, but the authenticity of faith and ministry cannot be delegated to a machine.”

Along these same lines, Spanish priest Fernando Gallego, one of the founders of the “Jóvenes Católicos” (Young Catholics) platform, emphasized that the primary mission of priests is to transmit the word of God “just as Christ himself transmitted it.”

He further pointed out that it is indispensable for words to be accompanied by deeds. “AI will always be inferior to the preaching of a priest who is consistent and authentic, one who preaches based on his own experience.” For the diocesan priest, the key — and that which “truly moves the heart” — is the “authenticity of consistency.”

God’s people ‘need more than algorithms’

On the occasion of the solemnity of St. Joseph, Alberto Figueroa, the bishop of the Diocese of Arecibo in Puerto Rico, was asked to deliver the homily just minutes before the start of the Mass, which was celebrated during a regional gathering of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM, by its Spanish acronym) in Santo Domingo.

“Upon seeing my consternation, a priest approached me and said: ‘If you like, I can ask the AI ​​to prepare a homily on St. Joseph for you.’ I thought it was a joke, for until then, I hadn’t known that such a thing was possible. I absolutely refused. I will never accept a machine writing my homilies!” he told ACI Prensa.

Due to the limited time he had available, he used the tool to review Patris Corde — Pope Francis’ apostolic letter on St. Joseph. “And with the help of the Holy Spirit, I was able to rise to the challenge of preaching that day quite acceptably.”

After sharing this personal anecdote, the prelate said that “it’s one thing to seek a reference, a text, or up-to-date information, and quite another to rely on it to do what can only be done respectably through personal effort and prayer, he said. God’s people “need more than algorithms,” he emphasized.

The machine has neither a soul nor the capacity to love

Father Ignacio Amorós, known for his commitment to digital evangelization, highlighted the “wisdom” with which Pope Leo XIV has issued guidance regarding these new challenges, which he considers to be “a vital warning” in the world of preaching.

In his view, the utility of AI as a tool is undeniable, as it enables rapid analysis, finding specific biblical texts, or the synthesis of ideas in seconds, thereby “saving the time otherwise spent physically searching through books.”

However, he emphasized that the time spent searching is also a space for God and that “there is something sacred in the very human ‘process’ of searching, reading, and reflecting.” For the priest, this effort and preparation time is “what creates space for God, allowing his ideas to be imprinted upon our own hearts. God and love are always creative and original.”

“We must leave room for him in prayer to speak to us about what we must preach, always maintaining unwavering fidelity to sacred Scripture, tradition, and the magisterium. If we outsource the entire search process to an algorithm, we miss out on that intimate, prior conversation with the Lord,” he noted.

The priest also pointed out that AI can also “overload us with information to the point of paralysis,” running the risk of falling “into a superficial intellectualism,” one that constructs discourses that are “theologically perfect, but there’s no heart in it.”

Amorós likened this situation to “the danger we sometimes face in our own spiritual lives, when we turn prayer into an intellectual discourse rather than an exchange of affection with God. The machine processes data and simulates empathy, but it has no soul, no conscience, nor the capacity to love.”

The ‘God-incidences’ of the Holy Spirit

He also emphasized that, nowadays, “people are thirsting for authenticity; they listen to and welcome whatever has truly been sifted through the heart of the priest.” For this reason, he pointed out that it is absolutely necessary to pass everything through prayer.

“Ultimately, you convey what you have inside. If the homily has not been prayed, it cannot truly penetrate the hearts of the faithful,” he said.

Amorós stated with conviction that AI “will never be able to replace the grace and the irreplaceable action of the Holy Spirit, who touches hearts.” This is something, he assured, that he has witnessed countless times in his personal experience and in his evangelization efforts on social media.

“At times, God has placed on my heart to share a specific detail, one that from a human perspective, I believed to be unimportant — only for it to turn out to be exactly what people needed to hear and the message went viral,” he said. “Or I have preached on a specific inspiration during Mass and, upon finishing, realized that there was a particular person in the pews who desperately needed to hear precisely that. These ‘God-incidences,’ this profound spiritual connection, are the exclusive work of the Holy Spirit, and no technology will ever be able to replicate them.”

For Father Francisco Javier “Patxi” Bronchalo, a priest of the Diocese of Getafe in Spain, AI can never replace a homily or a personal testimony, since priests deliver these “from experience and from what we carry in our hearts at any given moment and that is irreplaceable.”

“We should not ask ChatGPT to do that, because it impoverishes the word we offer to the faithful,” he pointed out.

Father Mario Fernández Torres, a diocesan priest from Madrid, invited priests to employ “supernatural intelligence,” which he said is the Holy Spirit, in order “to breathe pastoral life into the text after having taken it to prayer and imbued it with a more personal and spiritual dimension.”

Father Antonio Torres, a Spanish Trinitarian priest, contributed a similar idea, encouraging the use of the advantages offered by artificial intelligence, albeit “within its proper bounds.”

“The homily is an act of the spirit; therefore, it must be meditated upon and prayed over, taking into account the circumstances surrounding us and the situation of the community,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Source: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/americas/preach-from-the-heart-not-with-ai-generated-homilies-priest-says