Author
Dr Piotr Jantos
Zainteresowania badawcze: prawo kanoniczne, prawo własności intelektualnej, prawo nowych technologii. Adwokat kościelny, radca prawny.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3354-4800
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CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 Deed
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62266/PK.1898-3685.2025.37.25
SUMMARY:
Aim: The aim of this article is to examine, in the context of the Catholic Church’s teaching on artificial intelligence, which provisions of the Code of Canon Law could most appropriately address the following issues: the use of AI tools designed for Catholics as a means of social communication, the protection of the rights of the faithful in connection with the use of AI, and the development of artificial intelligence models intended for Catholics within commercial initiatives.
Methods: The method used in the preparation of this scholarly article is the dogmatic–legal method, which consists in conducting a legal analysis of the norms of canon law and the Church’s teaching with regard to the issue of using artificial-intelligence tools dedicated to Catholics in the context of deepening the faith, the pastoral activity of the Church, and the activities of commercial entities.
Results: As a result of the conducted research, the study presents the current direction of papal teaching on the use of artificial intelligence tools, with particular emphasis on the need to distinguish properly between artificial intelligence and human intelligence, the issue of the integral development of the human person, the necessity of safeguarding human dignity, the protection of the right to privacy, and the need to ensure appropriate oversight of the development and use of artificial intelligence tools. Based on an analysis of the Church’s teaching, the study identifies which canons of the Code of Canon Law may potentially be most appropriately applied in the context of the use and development of artificial intelligence tools intended for Catholics.
Conclusion: The Catholic Church, which takes part in the discussion on the use and development of artificial intelligence, can actively employ AI technology in its pastoral activity. In the Church’s teaching on this subject, strong emphasis is placed on the need to ensure appropriate oversight of this technology and to use it in a manner that safeguards human dignity and the right to privacy. The provisions of the Code of Canon Law create possibilities for the use of artificial intelligence in the fulfilment of the Church’s mission, while at the same time providing the legal framework necessary to ensure that AI technologies intended for Catholics do not develop entirely outside the Church’s supervision.
Originality: The issue of the canonical foundations for the use of artificial intelligence tools designed for Catholics—whether in pastoral activity, in ensuring appropriate oversight of their development, or in safeguarding the rights of the faithful—is, at present, addressed only marginally in scholarly literature. By outlining this set of problems, the present article offers a contribution to the ongoing discussion on this topic.
Keywords: artificial intelligence, integral human development, human dignity, right to privacy, protection of the rights of the faithful, oversight.
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