By Josh McDermid
Artificial intelligence. Evangelisation. Apostolic mission. These were all topics addressed in a wide-ranging talk given by our recent dinner guest, the Very Rev. Dr Stephen Wang. We were delighted to welcome Fr Stephen, who is the Rector of the Venerable English College in Rome and is also known for his work on the course about the Christian faith known as Sycamore.
Given the task of speaking on the topic of priestly discouragement, rather than looking at stories of priests being discouraged, Fr Stephen instead choose to focus on four things that have encouraged him in his priesthood over the last few months.
Corpus Christi College Rector, Fr Cameron Forbes, introducing Fr Stephen Wang
Firstly, he introduced us to the book, From Christendom to Apostolic Mission. Drawing on the book, Fr Stephen discussed how we are certainly not in Christendom, but nor are we exactly in an Apostolic Mission territory, given the institutional resources we already have. He explained that we should not throw away those resources we have, even if they are imperfect, but at the same time we need to consider how we dedicate more resources to mission.
Next Fr Stephen discussed how during Lent this year he joined an evangelisation group called ‘The Genesis Mission’, which operates out of the Diocese of Plymouth in his native England. He shared some insights from the training he received in being an evangelist in everyday life, and the challenges of praying that you will be able to share your faith with strangers.
Also on the theme of evangelisation, Fr Stephen’s third point of encouragement was reading an article about the 12,000 teenagers and adults who were baptised at Easter. He shared the reflections of Archbishop Jordy of Tours who pointed out that this was not driven by evangelisation programs, but by less explicit efforts in the basic cells of the Church, the family and the parish. This, he clarified, did not mean that explicit evangelisation programs were not important, but that they predominantly nurture implicit evangelisation.
Fr Stephen Wang addressing the community
Finally, Fr Stephen explained how he has been encouraged by his research into Artificial Intelligence. He set the scene for this discussion by telling us that no matter what we think of AI, it will the biggest development in our lifetimes. Fr Stephen discussed the many opportunities that AI presents for us as Catholics, especially by raising philosophical and theological questions that modern society has hitherto failed to consider, including some ethical questions and questions about higher intelligence. He described AI as scary, beautiful, and amazing all at the same time.
With so much to consider, we spent some time in small groups discussing the many issues raised, before we came together to ask Fr Stephen questions about the topics he had raised. While Fr Stephen’s talk had to draw to a close, the conversations that stem from it continue. We sincerely thank him for his presence and all the thinking that he has stimulated.