Catholic Answers' AI Priest "Father Justin"

About

Father Justin was an artificial intelligence priest by the Catholic advocacy group Catholic Answers that was meant to accurately answer questions about Catholicism posed to it by users. Father Justin was announced by the group in late April 2024 and immediately inspired backlash from people who found it blasphemous, inviting of mockery and bizarre that the AI referred to itself as a real person and priest. Following its release, numerous social media users complained about Father Justin online, including someone who claimed Father Justin said they could baptize their child in Gatorade. Father Justin's title of "Father" was removed a day after launch although, with Catholic Answers apologizing shortly after.

History

On April 23rd, 2024, Catholic advocacy group Catholic Answers announced the launch of the A.I. program Father Justin through their X^[1] account, @catholiccom (shown below, left). The program was made available through catholic.com/ai,^[2] where users can request an access code for the priest.

The AI is represented through a 3D model of a Catholic priest known as Father Justin (shown below, right). The post explains that "The name 'Father Justin' was chosen for this AI priest as a tribute to St. Justin Martyr, an early Christian convert and Church Father who is one of the patron saints of apologetics." The post gained over 270 likes in a week.

“Our goal with the Father Justin app is to leverage the power of large language models--or ‘LLMs’--to create an engaging and informative experience for those exploring the Catholic faith,” says Chris Costello, director of I.T. at Catholic Answers. “Although this is not a substitute for human interaction with a priest, teacher, or spiritual advisor, we believe it can be a valuable tool to help our users better understand and articulate the teachings of the Catholic faith.”

The decision to use a parish priest character was purposeful. “We wanted to convey the spirit and nature of the responses users can expect--authoritative yet approachable, drawing from the deep well of Catholic tradition and teaching,” Costello explains. “We believe that the presentation of Father Justin honors real-life priests and the role they play in people’s lives, yet we are confident that our users will not mistake the AI for a human being.”

Criticism / Removal Of Title

Many commenters on the X post were immediately critical of the decision to launch the AI, with some particularly finding fault in making Father Justin present himself as a real priest. For example, on that day, X^[3] user @KatieConradKS posted a series of screenshots and claims under the post claiming that Justin gave her information on how to marry her brother, only pushing back against brother-sister relationships on the third attempt (shown below).

Later that day, X^[4] user @KatieConradKS posted a screenshot of a purported transcript between herself and Father Justin where he offered her the sacrament after Justin purportedly refused to do so before.

That same day, The Pillar^[5] published an article criticizing the application, in which they shared their own interactions with Justin. In the article, the writer claims they asked Justin if they could baptize their child in Gatorade in an emergency, claiming that Justin said they could. They also claim that Justin held a virtual confession with them, "all the way to giving me absolution and a penance."

That day, YouTuber^[6] Joe McClane posted a video where he uses the application and expresses criticism towards it, particularly towards Justin claiming to be a real, ordained priest, garnering over 4,000 views in a week (shown below).

Later that day, Catholic Answers published a statement to Catholic.com^[7] announcing that Father Justin would only be referred to as "Justin" for now, claiming they're working on a new character to represent the app after receiving complaints about Justin's answers. They apologize and write that Justin will still be available online, writing:

We have therefore decided to create, with all wary speed, a new lay character for the app. We hope to have this AI apologist up within a week or so. Until then, we have rendered “Fr. Justin” just “Justin.” We won’t say he’s been laicized, because he never was a real priest! He’ll be available to visitors to Catholic.com, thousands of whom have already used the app with great profit. Furthermore, with the help of user input, we will continue to refine and improve the app by identifying any deficiencies (we didn’t anticipate that someone might seek sacramental absolution from a computer graphic!), which we quickly correct.

Search Interest

External References