“Let the Jesuits come to me. With hands in the air and without algorithms.” Fr. Z says: Let the Jesuits GO TO CHINA.

When I was a little kid I used to look forward to morning cartoons. Even as an adult I always turned to find The Far Side before the box scores.

Now we must content ourselves with jokers like this.

In La Verità we find a piece by Gustavo Bialetti in his column Caffé Corretto (excellent name) about – I am not making this up – the evangelization of robots and artificial intelligence. Avvenire (the official organ of the Italian Bishops Conference) ran some stuff from Antonio “2+2-5” Spadaro, SJ.

2+2 is quoted saying, “We can read the challenge of what we can define as ‘evangelization of AI’ as being like one of a combination of the recommendation of Pope Francis to protect the world of the periphery [i.e., the poor in a world dominated by AI] and the experience of the Jesuits of the 16th century.”

Crickets.

Self-referential, much?

I just had a flash of an ordained T800 Terminator morphing the colors of vestments form violet to white for upcoming Candlemas.

Bialetti concludes:

Said with the greatest respect, citing the role of the Jesuits in the 16th century creates a little bit of anxiety. Today, probably, Jesus would say, “Let the Jesuits come to me. With hands in the air and without algorithms.”

Here’s something for Jesuits. 

There is a REAL periphery out there and it’s called: CHINA.

Since the Holy See seems to have left Chinese Catholics to be devoured, things have been going very badly.

At Asia News, I read this.

Mindong’s Msgr. Guo evicted from the curia: he will sleep on the street. Several priests and elderly also made homeless (Video)

At least five parishes have been closed, with electricity and water supplies cut off. These include Fuan, Saiqi and Suanfeng. “Fire safety” measures given as a justification, an excuse for persecution. Some priests have been kicked out. A home for the elderly kept by the nuns is also closed. Of the thirty guests, some are hosted by relatives, others are homeless. Official bishop Zhan Silu bypassed by the United Front. Some priests speak of Holy See’s having “too lightly” signed to the agreement.

Rome (AsiaNews) – Msgr. Vincenzo Guo Xijin, former ordinary bishop of Mindong (Fujian) is now homeless and sleeping on the doorstep of his curia and clergy house in Luojiang, following the arrival yesterday of an eviction order for him and for the priests who work and live with him.

To speed up his eviction, all electricity and water supplies were cut from the building yesterday (see photo 1). Officially, the eviction is dictated for security reasons. A sign placed in front of the curia explains that the building – built with all permits over 10 years ago – does not respect the fire regulations and must therefore be closed. In reality, the police operation is a sign of official annoyance and an attempt to pressure the bishop and his priests who refuse to sign up to an “independent” Church.

Msgr. Guo Xijin is one of the “victims” of the Sino-Vatican agreement, which has transformed the diocese of Mindong into a kind of “pilot project” for the implementation of the accord. [What does the accord really say?]

Following the agreement and the lifting of the excommunication from the official bishop Vincenzo Zhan Silu, at the request of Pope Francis, Msgr. Guo agreed to be demoted to auxiliary bishop to leave the ordinary seat to Msgr. Zhan.

However, Msgr. Guo, never signed up for membership in the independent Church and thus has not been recognized by the government with the result that he has now been downgraded to the status of homeless and migrant.

The exact same fate has befallen many priests who refuse to sign up. In recent days at least five parishes have also been closed for reasons of “fire safety standards”. These would include two large parishes: Fuan, with over 10 thousand faithful and Saiqi, with approximately 3 thousand faithful (photo 2).

Fuan parish priest, Fr. Liu Guangpin, 71, is among those who rebuilt the life of the Church after the Maoist persecutions. Now he has been evicted and has no place to celebrate, but remains in Fuan. Instead, Saiqi parish priest, Fr. Huang Jintong, 50, was kicked out and sent away from the city.

[…]

There is a lot more to that piece.  May I suggest that you read the whole thing and pray pray pray for your Chinese brothers and sisters, and perhaps fast for them?

Today is a Friday.  It’s penance day.  I will give up a meal.

Frankly, I am convinced that JESUITS were in part behind the China-Holy See agreement.

It’s hard to say, since not even Chinese Card. Zen can get clarity about what that document really says.

So 2+2 is interested in the peripheries.   Great.  Go to China.

I recall that in the Screwtape Letters (US HERE – UK HERE) the senior demon tells the junior tempter to get the “patient” interested in vague notions about concern for the needy (rather like modern democrats) rather than doing something concrete for the needy in front of him here and now.

So, let’s talk more about the evangelization of robots and AI!

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Jesuits, Lighter fare, Modern Martyrs, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, What are they REALLY saying? and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Comments

  1. Philmont237 says:

    This reminds me of Orson Scott Card’s excellent sci-fi novels that comprise the Ender Quartet (the first book, “Ender’s Game” is a must-read for any fans of sci-fi or military strategy; it’s even recommended by the USMC). In one of the books, I forget which one, a young priest is “martyred” for evangelizing and baptizing a race of aliens called the Pequeninos (Portuguese for “little-ones;” the planet was colonized entirely by Brazilian Catholics) who are a pig-like race of aliens with a unique life-cycle. While Card (a Mormon) is very respectful to Catholicism, he gets the finer points of Catholic theology very wrong.

    This Jesuit, however, is living in a sci-fi fantasy of his own invention where robots can be Christian. At least Card justified his decision by giving the Pequeninos a soul (sorta).

  2. Semper Gumby says:

    REM Evangelization Program by Antonio 2+2=5 Spadaro

    10 LET JESUS = GUY WITH A SUGGESTION

    20 LET VATICAN GARDEN = PACHAMAMA PARK

    30 LET CATHOLIC = RIGID

    40 LET EVANGELIZING = WALKING TOGETHER

    50 INPUT

    60 IF WALKING TOGETHER AND CHINESE WOMAN GOTO 110

    70 IF PACHAMAMA PARK AND GLORIOUS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES REPRESENTATIVES GOTO 120

    80 IF FREEMASON OR UN OFFICIAL OR COMMUNIST OR LEFTIST POLITICIAN GOTO 130

    90 IF CATHOLIC THEN PRINT = “PURGE”

    100 IF HOLY BIBLE OR MAGISTERIUM THEN PRINT = “JUST A SUGGESTION”

    110 IF CHINESE WOMAN AND RIGID THEN PRINT = “SLAP HAND”

    120 PRINT = TEXT OF LIBER XV

    130 PRINT= “THEY MUST BE OBEYED”

    140 END PROGRAM

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  3. The Masked Chicken says:

    I have been asked to submit a paper on humor and artificial intelligence for a conference in Italy, this summer…hmm…oh, wait, I’ve got the perfect thing…

    Seriously, I did present a mathematical model of a group of robots laughing together this last summer in Texas at a session on artificial intelligence and humor. The math was fun, but the coding was horrible. It turns out that under really easy to satisfy conditions 100 robots sitting in a circle will have the odd robots (1,3,5, etc.) laughing in phase and the even robots in the ring laughing 180 degrees out of phase to the odd robots, so that a laughter wave is propagated around the circle. I would sound freaky.

    In a square auditorium, the laughter becomes organized into smaller groups within the auditorium.

    I suppose that robots would need to be evangelize because their processors are guilty of Original Sine? They were Linux, but they longed to be the Apple.

    The Chicken

  4. Semper Gumby says:

    Masked Chicken: “Original Sine”- good one.

    A room filled with laughing robots would be a little eerie. More so when you open the door and they stop laughing….

    …and then they all turn their glowing red eyes to you and ask calmly, “Where is Sarah Connor?”

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