Integrating Virtual Technologies into Jesuit Spiritual and Apostolic Formation
A group of 40 Jesuits from diverse socio-cultural, regional, and academic background gathered in the Florence Campus of Gonzaga University, Italy, from 5 through 12 July, 2026 for a combined AI workshop and a conference to discuss the topic: “integration of virtual technologies into Jesuit spiritual and apostolic formation.” While the workshop (5-10 July) was organized by Gonzaga University in collaboration with the office of the General Assistant for Jesuit Formation, the conference (11 & 12 July) was with the AI and Faith organization.
The overarching question of the workshop was, “What does it mean to integrate virtual technologies into Jesuit spiritual and apostolic formation in the rapid adaptation of AI in everyday life?” The conference topic was, “Ignatian Discernment over AI Relationships: From Agentic Assistants and AI Companions to Virtual Friends and Romantic Partners.” In his welcome address, Fr. Mark Ravizza, S.J., appreciated the efforts of Gonzaga University and AI and Faith organization in organizing this workshop to address the new realities of AI. In particular, he invited participants to reflect on issues that are relevant to Jesuits’ intellectual and spiritual formation, pedagogical issues, community concerns or apostolic realities.
The AI Workshop:
The AI workshop probed four interrelated themes: 1) Ontology of the emergent networked virtual self and spiritual life; 2) Integration of AI into Jesuit Pedagogy; 3) Integrating AI into Jesuit Apostolate; and 4) Broader Perspectives – AI colonialism and virtual eschatology.
- Ontology of the Emergent Networked Virtual Self and Spiritual Life: While speaking on this topic, Fr. Tim Clancy, S.J., traced the various phases of technology evolution from the time of oral communication to literate communication to virtual communication. He also pointed out that the church actively responds to the ever-emerging realities of the world—faith, justice, ecology from the past to the newest reality of virtual technologies like AI. Evoking the image of the construction site of humanity in the age of AI mentioned in the encyclical of Pope Leo, Magnifica Humanitas, digital natives and Gen Z are jointly invited to the construction site to build humanity and to define one’s true persona in the midst of ‘demons’ of virtual reality such as fragmentation, paranoia, superficiality and over dependency on technology to live one’s virtual identity. In fact, we are placed in the web of networked virtual worlds where one is neither fully present nor fully absent in the most important.
- Integration of AI into Jesuit Pedagogy: Reflecting on the history of Jesuits’ contribution in the field of education from the 16th century including the famous Ratio Studiorum, Anthony Fisher and Randy Rosenberg reiterated that Jesuit pedagogy continues to meet the challenges of the world. They argue there is an urgent need to integrate AI in education not for merely production of content but assimilation of knowledge, not of outsourcing and abdicating human creativity, but to augment human creativity responsibly, creating things with a sense of ownership and enduring values such as cultivating virtues, enhancing common good, and preserving human dignity things, to mention a few, rather than focusing on immediate outputs. Some examples of AI integration into Jesuit pedagogy were demonstrated: ZagAI, an AI teaching assistant both for teachers and students and a demo of Project Media, an AI teaching assistant for diagnosing how people consume news sites on social media.
- Integrating AI into Jesuit Apostolate: Issues relating to the question of what it means to integrate AI into Jesuit apostolate, specifically, into pastoral practice and teaching AI ethics in Jesuit education were deeply discussed. The integration of AI into pastoral practice should not be limited to the use of AI in mediation applications, homilies, and spiritual directions. One needs to move from transactional exchanges to transcendental experience by strengthening and preserving human social interactions and connections and more importantly enhancing human dignity that upholds that every human person is unique and in the image of God. In this connection, Fr. Brendan McGuire addressed the question of ethical and spiritual formation of AI’s themselves as moral and spiritual agents who influence our hopes and aspirations for transcendence.
- Global Perspectives – AI Colonialism and Virtual Eschatology: Amparo Alonso highlighted that AI could mean different things to different people depending on their socio-economic-technological contexts. She further explained that AI begins much earlier than Silicon Valley. She drew participants’ attention to various ethical issues of AI —human labor, land, and minerals. For example, there is an invisible supply chain in which vulnerable children are exposed to hazardous environmental conditions in procuring essential minerals for AI chips.
The AI Conference:
At the start of the conference, Greg Cootsona, Executive Director of AI and Faith and Mark Graves, Research Director at AI and Faith, introduced the participants to various aspects of AI and Faith organization including the objectives, missions, achievements, organizational structure, and its resources. Mark Graves introduced the participants on the role of AI as a compassionate companion to a suffering person or a deceased person or a grieving person. He addressed the question: Can AI evoke empathy to a suffering person?
The conference further explored the topic of Ignatian discernment over AI relationships by discussing three essential and interrelated areas: i) AI as an alterity technology and the conversational approach to personhood; ii) AI ethics as the moral and spiritual formation of AI’s; and iii) the care for the common home from the perspectives of Bruno Latour and Laudato Si.
With regard to the first point, how the user enters into the relationship with AI can have tremendous impact on the kind of persona (role) the user gives to AI as well as the persona the user brings into the relationship with AI. This relationship further provides AI with the user’s past data, enabling it to, what Sam Altman would say, “My AI knows me better than I know myself.” But the question is: is it a good thing? For it is not only a security risk but also a source of clutter and confusion. Moreover, it does not take into account that the user continues to evolve over the course of time, as Fr. Tim Clancy, S.J. would argue. How do we use the Ignatian discernment rules to assess the moral and spiritual significance of these AI relationships?
The second point raises the question of whether AI is merely a tool or a person. The short answer is neither. However, it has far reaching ramifications depending on how the user defines their relationship with AI from conversational personhood to a distinctive persona.
This naturally leads to the third question: what do we owe to our creations, as AI is a human creation. This in turn highlights the need for a new ontology, specifically, sacramental ontology which refers to the idea that the created things inherently point to and participate in the divine reality of God. In explaining the nuances of sacramental ontology in the context of AI as a created thing, Dan Bradley makes use of Bruno Latour’s philosophical framework of technology mediation which states that technologies are not neutral tools but they participate in shaping human action, meaning and responsibility. AI technology is not neutral and it shapes what and who we are similar to how our companions shape who we are.
To sum up, virtual technologies are not neutral and have the ability to shape our identities. Therefore, there is a greater need for Ignatian discernment not for whether to integrate virtual technologies into Jesuit formation but which technologies to use for given occasions. To this end, the Florence workshop and conference enabled the participants to recognize that the question is not so much how to use AI but how to create a conducive environment for responsible use of virtual technologies in Jesuit formation, pedagogy, spirituality and apostolate.
Views and opinions expressed by authors and editors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of AI and Faith or any of its leadership.
