AI on Campus: Catholic Press Spotlights Benedictine’s Approach
How can Catholics professionals thrive in the post-AI workplace — and when should Catholics, in good conscience, refuse to use AI?
Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, is emerging as a leader in answering those questions. EWTN News, the National Catholic Register; the Kansas City Catholic Key and Aleteia all reported on Benedictine College and AI as school began.
“Pope Leo XIV told the College of Cardinals he planned to focus on how artificial intelligence is changing our world. Benedictine College in Atchison heard the message and got to work,” reported Karen Ridder at the Catholic Key.
Benedictine College’s Center for Technology and Human Dignity, which launched in September 2025 on the same day that Pope Leo canonized Saint Carlo Acutis.
“The center offers ideas on how students can prepare for professions by being realistic about the proper use of technology on the job, and to address issues the growth of technology may present in the workplace,” Ridder added.
EWTN News reported that Benedictine College’s “Academic Misconduct” statement was recently updated “to clearly state that AI cannot be used ‘in place of a student’s own effort,’ in order to respect the learning process and the special connection between students and their academic work, which should reveal the students’ own personalities and convictions.”
It also reported that the college’s annual Symposium on Transforming Culture on “The Church in an Algorithmic Age” which brought together “intellectuals and students from many fields and business sectors to discuss the ethical questions and social implications for transformative technologies such as AI.”
Mariele Courtois, a Benedictine College theologian, is the director of the Center for Technology and Human Dignity, and she helped organize the AI-themed Symposium.
“Students are going to be living in a highly technological world, and they will need to consider how to pursue holiness and vocation in that landscape,” Courtois is quoted saying by the Catholic Key.
Dr. Courtois (shown above) told Aleteia that every discipline at the college is expected address AI — how it can be used, the ways it should never be used, and how to build the skills needed use it.
“The campus also engages in continuous discussions with students, faculty, and staff to learn about AI and grapple with its related ethical questions,” she added
In her interview with the Catholic Key, she said that Benedictine students have already begun questioning technology.
“Students are already very aware of how easily one can become attached to digital devices and how that can affect their personal growth and their relationship with other people,” Courtois told the paper.
She said that the college teaches students to follow St. Carlo Acutis in this regard.
“Saint Acutis said we should put technology through the vortex of Christ. This includes turning technology over to Christ and acknowledging Christ as the purpose of human life. Doing this changes our relationship with technology,” said Courtois.
The Catholic Key also reported that Courtois is producing a documentary series addressing issues of technology and the faith. The series, called “Still Human,” will tackle questions of Catholic social doctrine, ethics, emerging technologies and transhumanism.
Episodes will be available at media.benedictine.edu.
Image courtesy Catholic Key
