On the feast of St. Clare 2023, we offer a prayer for the responsible use and governance of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI).
Since 1958, when Pope Pius XII named St. Clare to be the patron saint of television (from the Greek meaning “distant vision”), she has been associated with technology and screens. This was based on the reported miraculous vision St. Clare received in 1252 when, too ill to attend midnight mass on Christmas, she was able to see and hear the entire mass alone in her room.
Pope Pius said in 1958 that television “can be the source of very great wealth, but also of great troubles.” In 2023, there are similar concerns about a new “distant vision,” AI, which offers potentially transformative benefits in scientific research, health, and education–but also potentially terrifying threats to humanity.
Franciscan theologian Sr. Ilia Delio writes of the need to look deeply at artificial intelligence in her book “Re-Enchanting the Earth: Why AI Needs Religion.” She argues that AI represents the latest extension of human evolution, which has implications not only for science but also for religion. She says, “Religion is the response of collective consciousness and human action in the process of development. It is about ultimate concern, but even more, it is about cosmic tethering…”
Efforts are now underway to develop clear and responsible guidelines for AI, for example in the U.S. Senate and Europe, efforts that deserve our prayerful attention. Concerned that AI be governed responsibly and used only for good, and inspired by St. Clare’s vision and words, we offer this prayer excerpted in part from St. Clare’s second and third letters to Bl. Agnes of Prague. Click the button above to download and print.