A Catholic company was using AI — but a message from the pope made the company change course
A Catholic company with an "extremely popular" product said it has decided turn away from using artificial intelligence, no matter the cost.
A well-known Catholic retailer called the Little Catholic Box said the company's decision to use AI received passionate opposition from its consumer base.
'AI can be a valuable tool that requires vigilance.'
The company took out a Facebook ad on Tuesday that discussed its extremely popular Saint Trading Cards and said they "were prototyped using AI."
After using AI-generated images for the cards, the company's leaders said the backlash inspired them to do more research and even reach out to real, human artists for their input.
However, what truly seemed to change the company's mind was words from the pope on AI and the direction of humanity in the face of emerging technologies.
Referring to the pope's May 15 encyclical entitled "Magnifica Humanitas," Little Catholic Box wrote that while "AI can be a valuable tool that requires vigilance" it can "never replace the human person."
From that point forward, the company decided not to use AI for its art and vowed to start commissioning original art from "human artists."
In the face of a longer timeline and higher costs, the leaders of the Catholic company — founded by parents of seven — said they believed the change would actually result in a better product and "stronger Catholic community overall."
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Pope Leo XIV's letter thoroughly discussed the rapid increase and digitalization of the world through AI and robotics. However, he left room for grace, even for AI, and said technology should not be considered, "in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity."
"On the contrary, it has formed part of our history since the beginning as 'a profoundly human reality, linked to the autonomy and freedom of man,'" he added.
The pope stressed being "profoundly human" in an era of AI and called on Catholics to "safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us."
"Let us not be afraid to get our hands dirty," Leo continued, "on the 'construction site' of our time."
This included placing the human person "at the center of our choices," while making the "rejected stones" of society the cornerstone, which he listed as including "the poor, the sick, the migrants, and the least among us."
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The Little Catholic Box said the company is still going to sell through its original set of AI works, but has now paid out human artist commissions for the new products.
"We feel really good about the direction these products are headed, but it honestly bothers us that Set 1 is still for sale," the company claimed.
In a comment to Blaze News, owner Greg Johnson said AI was initially used to generate images of the saints because the company "believed it was the fastest and cheapest way to bring them into existence with extremely limited resources."
Johnson said they immediately discovered that a large segment of their market was "adamantly opposed to the use of AI" for this purpose, and when further research was conducted into AI ethics, they "concluded that we could no longer use it."
"While our initial decision to use AI seemed to make sense at the time, we did not fully understand how its use would alienate a significant portion of our audience, some of whom we will never win back," he added.
At first, Johnson also explained, he did not fully understand the arguments against the use of AI around sacred images.
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'One nation under God': Christians to march through DC as part of 2,000-mile Eucharistic procession
American Catholics kicked off the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in St. Augustine, Florida, over the Memorial Day weekend. In the days since, pilgrims from numerous dioceses have joined the procession — the theme of which is "one nation under God" — along its roughly 2,000-mile route, which threads most of the original 13 colonies.
The procession, which began just days after the similarly themed multidenominational Rededicate 250 event at the National Mall, will ultimately conclude over the 4th of July weekend in Philadelphia, where pilgrims will honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The "perpetual pilgrims" will also carry the Eucharist — which Catholics hold to be the real and substantial presence of Jesus Christ — through the national capital on Saturday.
'We ask God to bless the United States.'
"This procession is both an act of faith and a prayer for the country: that amid division and uncertainty, Americans remember that human dignity, freedom, and unity are rooted in something greater than politics or ideology," said Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress, in a statement obtained by Blaze News.
Fr. Charles Trullols, director of the Catholic Institute Center, which has partnered with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, will receive the consecrated host at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Alexandria on Friday evening. He will then begin this leg of the pilgrimage and carry the Blessed Sacrament through the night, blessing Virginia and the District of Columbia along the way.
The procession will resume on Saturday morning and weave through the streets of Washington — stopping at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine, then ending at "America's Catholic Church," the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for Mass.
Pilgrims will be led on Saturday by the Metropolitan D.C. Police.
"It is a great joy to bring the Body of Christ to the streets of our nation’s capital," said Fr. Trullols, whose organization has held Eucharistic processions in the national capital annually since 2023, in a statement obtained by Blaze News.
"A Eucharistic procession is a public expression of our devotion and belief in the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This year’s procession is especially meaningful to me, as Pope Leo XIV leads a Eucharistic procession this weekend in my home country of Spain, which historically suppressed Eucharistic processions in the 1930s."
RELATED: Pope Leo XIV recognizes martyrdom of Christians slaughtered by Spanish leftists
"As we approach America’s 250th birthday, we join the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in remembering and giving thanks for being One Nation Under God," continued Fr. Trullols. "We ask God to bless the United States and pray that hearts be set aflame with love for [the Eucharist,] the Source and Summit of the Christian life."
The pilgrimage has been placed under the patronage of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized as a saint.
Cabrini, the youngest of 13 children, was a nun who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Italy to take care of poor kids in schools and hospitals. She continued this mission in the United States, founding 67 institutions, including orphanages and hospitals. Years after becoming a citizen, she succumbed to complications from dysentery at one of her hospitals in Chicago.
Next week, as part of the broader religious celebrations coinciding with honors paid to America on her 250th birthday, U.S. Catholic bishops plan to consecrate the U.S. to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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Detroit priest administers righteous beatdown to suspected car thief: 'Just another day'
The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life that boasts "solid and well-rounded" priests.
Rev. Canon Jean-Baptiste Commins, one of the institute's priests who has served as rector of Detroit's historic St. Joseph Shrine since 2021, demonstrated his solidity on Monday, coming out on top after a round with an 18-year-old suspect accused of stealing a car and crashing into another vehicle outside the church.
'I had to, unfortunately, give him a few punches.'
The young priest — a Franco-American citizen who grew up in a military family and was ordained in 2015 — told WJBK-TV that he was in the church parking lot when he heard the screech of tires followed by a loud crash.
Moments earlier, police spotted a vehicle they believed to have been stolen and attempted to initiate a traffic stop. The suspect clearly had other ideas.
Commins, wearing his priestly cassock, bolted to the source of the commotion and spotted a bloody man wearing only one shoe fleeing the scene. Hearing a cry for someone to stop the one-shoed suspect who was running his way, Commins rushed in for an interception.
The priest tackled and, aided by a parishioner, detained the 18-year-old suspected car thief until police arrived on the scene.
Commins — sporting some scrapes on his knuckles and a pair of bandaged fingers — told WJBK that he "grabbed him and put him down."
RELATED: Five standout denunciations and warnings in Pope Leo XIV's new papal encyclical
"He was resisting a lot, trying to run away, definitely," the priest continued. "So I had to, unfortunately, give him a few punches and hurt my hand a little bit — nothing major — but making sure that there was no threat since I didn't know if he had a gun, if he had a weapon. It was definitely suspicious behavior and probably guilty of the accident."
After police officers took over for the man of God, Commins rushed back to the site of the accident to check whether the woman in the vehicle that had been struck needed any help, the sacraments, or perhaps even a blessing.
Although Commins said the woman was initially "not very responsive," police said the victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Commins told WJBK that once the situation outside his church was resolved, he said his prayers "as usual" and had dinner with the community.
"Just another day in the D!" Commins said, laughing.
The suspect was arrested in connection with the incident, and three others were detained. The Detroit Police Department did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment.
The advocacy group CatholicVote called the priest "legendary."
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Washington Nationals Executive Fired After Admitting The Team Discriminated Against Christian Player
"If accurate, this ... is a direct admission that a Catholic player may have been excluded from official team promotion because he publicly defended his faith."Washington Nationals under fire after anti-Christian public relations disaster EXPOSED
The Washington Nationals are in hot water over a player who dares to stand up for his Christian faith.
James O'Keefe's guerrilla journalism outfit published undercover footage on Tuesday featuring an apparent admission by the Washington Nationals' director of community relations that the team has avoided using pitcher Trevor Williams in Nationals social media content on account of his criticism of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — a group that mocks the Catholic Church, its rituals and beliefs, and its nuns.
Background
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a San Francisco-based radical group that touts itself as a "leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns."
'The public has a right to know whether that view is tolerated, encouraged, or operationalized by the organization.'
Since its inception on Easter Sunday 1979, the SPI — whose motto is "go forth and sin some more," an inversion of Christ's command — has ridiculed Catholic teaching and doctrine, mocking the church's orthodox views on marriage, sexuality, transgenderism, and abortion.
This anti-Christian group regularly holds "Hunky Jesus and Foxy Mary" contests; held a "condom savior mass"; saw one of its members arrested for allegedly masturbating in public; routinely mocks the crucifixion; participated in drag shows targeting children; and according to Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, once "tricked an archbishop into giving them the Eucharist — the most important sacrament of the Catholic faith — so they could defile it."
Pitcher Trevor Williams, who is Catholic, was among the handful of players in the Major League Baseball league who spoke out in 2023 after the L.A. Dodgers decided to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence with a "Community Hero Award" for "their countless hours of community service, ministry, and outreach to those on the edges, in addition to promoting human rights and respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment."
RELATED: Five standout denunciations and warnings in Pope Leo XIV's new papal encyclical
"A Major League Baseball game is a place where people from all walks of life should feel welcomed, something I greatly respect and support. This is the purpose of different themed nights hosted by the organization, including Pride Night," wrote Williams on May 30, 2023.
"To invite and honor a group that makes a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion, and the religion of over 4 million people in Los Angeles county alone, undermines the values of respect and inclusivity that should be upheld by any organization," added the pitcher.
"I believe it is essential for the Dodgers to reconsider their association with this group and strive to create an inclusive environment that does not demean or disrespect the religious beliefs of any fan or employee," Williams continued. "I also encourage my fellow Catholics to reconsider their support of an organization that allows this type of mockery of its fans to occur."
Blacklisted
Sean Hudson, the community relations director whose LinkedIn page was recently deleted, appears to tell an undercover reporter in the footage published by James O'Keefe that Trevor Williams "is very Catholic."
"He's super Catholic — all these tattoos that mean a lot," Hudson appears to say. "But last year, I don't understand the full scope, the Dodgers had a group out to the stadium who were drag queens who sometimes dressed up as nuns. ... He went on like a social media like — 'this is wrong, this is my religion, you all are mocking it.'"
"So we don't use him," continued Hudson. "Because of that, we don't use him on social."
Later in the video, Hudson appears to state, "If you're a sports fan and we piss you off, where else are you going to go?"
The Washington Nationals X account does not appear to have referenced Williams since September 2025 and has only sporadically made mention of him since he criticized the SPI in 2023.
Neither the MLB nor the Washington Nationals responded to Blaze News' request for comment.
O'Keefe's journalism outfit suggested that Hudson's "admission raises legal questions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which explicitly prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on religion, including limiting their opportunities or visibility due to sincerely held beliefs."
When later confronted by conservative commentator Alex Stein about his claim, Hudson said, "That doesn't sound like something I would say."
The team, however, told EWTN News that it was "aware of comments made by an employee, which were recorded without the employee’s knowledge and disseminated without his permission."
"The statements are not only factually incorrect, but do not reflect the views, opinions, or actions of the Washington Nationals," the team said in its statement. "The Nationals are dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for our players, fans, and staff, and we vehemently deny any allegations to the contrary."
Backlash
Kelsey Reinhardt, the CEO of CatholicVote, wrote to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon on Wednesday, urging the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to "investigate possible unlawful religious discrimination by the Washington Nationals Baseball Club against pitcher Trevor Williams."
Reinhardt suggested that if Hudson's remarks are accurate, an MLB "franchise may have taken an adverse employment-related action, reputational action, promotional action, or workplace action against a player because of his religion and his sincere public expression of Catholic belief."
"This matter is not merely a private dispute between an athlete and his employer," said Reinhardt. "The Washington Nationals are a Major League Baseball franchise in the nation's capital. Their conduct sends a public message. If a senior executive of such an organization believes that a player should be excluded from official team communications because he is 'very Catholic' and because he defended Catholics from religious mockery, then the public has a right to know whether that view is tolerated, encouraged, or operationalized by the organization."
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colo.) has also asked the DOJ to take "decisive action."
Williams, who hasn't posted on X since 2023 and hasn't posted on Instagram since January, said in an Instagram post on Friday, "The first reading from today comes from 1 Peter 4:7-13. The writer of this epistle is addressing newly baptized Christians, reminding them that they are holy and they should act like it. This entire chapter really addresses the social costs of the faith — not necessarily persecution, but the sometimes awkward 'ehh I don’t do that anymore.'"
"As my friend Fr. Joshua said 'Sometimes we lean into it and bravely bear witness to Christ’s truth; sometimes we dodge it and regret it later, feeling we’ve let Jesus down,'" continued Williams. "Therefore Christians are called in those moments to love, to suffer, and to sacrifice, for when we act like Christ in those moments, we imitate Jesus. We even share in the merciful work of Jesus when we choose to act like him in the face of even the smallest insult."
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This Mother’s Day, Meet The Nuns Who Pray For Weary Moms At Midnight
When a viral post mistakenly described midnight prayers as 'motherhood hour,' the flood of responses that followed exposed a need in the hearts of moms everywhere.Why Biden’s targeting of Christians was EVEN WORSE than you thought
A newly released Department of Justice task force report is confirming concerns that religious Americans — particularly Christians — were unfairly targeted by their own government. And Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has seen it herself.
“We’ve been compiling this stuff for a while now, and I experienced this type of anti-Christian and really anti-religious bias as a lawyer in private practice over the last several years,” Dhillon tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.”
“I’ll just give you one example. Our government, not just the DOJ but, you know, various aspects of the government, viewed people seeking religious accommodations to not have to get the COVID vaccination if they were government employees as not legitimate,” she explains.
“They basically internally labeled all of those accommodation requests illegitimate,” she adds.
The Supreme Court Bostock ruling, Dhillon explains, “basically made it illegitimate for any person employed by the government to have a Christian viewpoint on gay marriage and issues like that, which are very much spiritual and religious in nature.”
“And so, there was just a complete lack of respect for the Christian,” she adds.
Dhillon explains that according to a FACE Act weaponization report, “disparaging remarks were made by DOJ prosecutors in [her] department” regarding “a magistrate judge being a Catholic, keeping people of faith off of juries, and going after and seeking sentences that were more than double for Christian protesters outside abortion clinics than for really domestic terrorists going after pro-life centers in Florida.”
“So these disparities were marked, they were open, they were written down in emails. And thank goodness that we have a president today who is not just dedicated to changing that but to also documenting what happened so that people should feel ashamed to do this to other people of faith in our country because our country is founded on faith,” she continues.
“And specifically,” she adds, “on the Christian faith.”
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ACLU fights archangel Michael statue honoring cops — but court might not normalize 'heckler's veto'
A Massachusetts city in the Greater Boston area commissioned a pair of 10-foot-tall bronze statues heavy with cultural and historical significance to honor police and firefighters outside its new public safety headquarters.
Since the statues also carry religious significance — one depicts the winged archangel Michael stepping on the head of a demon, and the other depicts Florian, a third-century firefighting Roman Christian — the American Civil Liberties Union and a handful of secularizing activist groups joined local thin-skinned critics in suing to block the installation last May.
According to the ACLU, having the two statues as the sole adornments on the building's facade "would undermine religious pluralism in Quincy and violate the Massachusetts Constitution’s long-standing requirement that the government remain neutral in matters of religion."
'Let Quincy pay tribute to its firefighters and police.'
The ensuing legal battle has reached the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which heard oral arguments on Wednesday in the case Fitzmaurice v. City of Quincy.
The defendants' thesis, as outlined in their opening brief to the court, is that symbolism on government property should not become "illegal simply because some citizens perceive it to have religious meaning."
Some of the court's justices, Democrat-appointee Gabrielle Wolohojian in particular, did not appear to be entirely buying what the attorney for the city from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty was selling at the outset despite considering his arguments in a city already replete with public art evoking persons, symbols, and themes of religious significance, including multiple statues of Moses.
RELATED: Young men flocking to Christianity in record numbers
The court proved particularly fixated on whether Florian and Michael's special recognition as saints by the Catholic Church was actually an issue in this case and raised as possibly relevant in a lower court's insinuation that the statues' primary champion, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, was untrustworthy and had worked clandestinely to get the statues funded and installed.
The court was not, however, overly receptive to the ACLU's arguments in favor of denying Quincy first responders their statues, which have been defended in recent months by a plethora of organizations, including the nation’s largest firefighter and police unions, various faith groups, and esteemed constitutional scholars.
One justice questioned whether:
- such legal concern-mongering constitutes a "heckler's veto" that is here at risk of being normalized;
- the plaintiffs were effectively asking the state's high court to "provide less protection than the Supreme Court on free exercise," or "allow more hostility to religion than the Supreme Court would tolerate"; and
- the statues endorsed a particular religion — an especially dubious claim given Florian's secular, historical significance and the archangel Michael's significance in multiple distinct faiths as well as in popular culture and literature.
Tom Bowes, president of Quincy's Firefighters Local 792, said in a statement, "For generations, Florian’s legacy has inspired the brave men and women who run toward danger when others need help. We hope the court allows Quincy to honor that tradition and the first responders who live it every day."
Joseph Davis, senior counsel at Becket and an attorney for the city, said, "In this country, public art doesn't become off-limits just because it may make some people think about religion. We’re confident the justices will apply that commonsense rule here and let Quincy pay tribute to its firefighters and police."
Eric Rassbach, another attorney at Becket, said in the wake of the hearing on Wednesday that the ACLU's argument largely "relied on the supposedly dead legal standard known as the Lemon test, which SCOTUS abrogated."
"For decades, the unusuable Lemon test produced confusion and split decisions in cases involving religious symbols," continued Rassbach. "That changed in 2019, when SCOTUS ruled 7-2 in [American Legion v. American Humanist Association] that the First Amendment does not require removing a WWI memorial cross and made clear that Lemon no longer applies."
While the Supreme Court rejected the relevance of the test articulated by SCOTUS in its 1971 Lemon v. Kurtzman ruling as a way of guiding the court in identifying Establishment Clause violations, Norfolk Superior Court Judge William Sullivan previously leaned heavily on it in the Quincy case.
"It would be a bizarre move for Massachusetts to revive a test that failed so badly at the federal level, especially since Lemon has no grounding in the Commonwealth’s Constitution," wrote Rassbach. "That document takes a different approach: It recognizes the vital role of religion in public life while guaranteeing equal protection for all religious denominations. That’s a far cry from forcing cities to scrub anything that smacks of the religious from all public property."
The court is expected to deliver its decision sometime this fall.
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