When in Rome
I visited Rome during the last week of May. I was there for the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation’s (CAPP) annual International Conference.
CAPP is a lay-led, pontifical organization founded by St. John Paul II to promote the knowledge and practice of Catholic Social Teaching. I’ve been working with CAPP-USA, the American arm of the foundation, for nearly eight years. In all that time, I’d never been to the conference.
The event is a multi-day gathering of minds from business, entertainment, law, tech, public policy, and many other areas.
This year’s theme was all about spirituality in a fragmented world.
This year, I was invited, not just as a long-time partner of CAPP and president of Yellow Line Digital, but as a speaker. It was an honor to participate in a breakout session tackling AI, digital communication, and our responsibility to infuse new technologies with human dignity.
Aside from the glorious sightseeing and spiritual refreshment to be had by visiting the beautiful churches and soaking in the history and culture of Rome, the trip was illuminating.
The Importance of Catholic Social Teaching
Working with CAPP-USA has been my formation in Catholic Social Teaching. We recreated the website, rejuvenated social media channels like LinkedIn and YouTube, introduced new ones like Substack and Instagram, launched email campaigns, and grew the brand’s authority in search and AI results. This year more than 200,000 will visit the site, and thousands more will engage authentic magisterial teaching online.
This experience led to the Fondazione inviting me to speak about the perils and promises of AI during the annual conference. My own story began by helping CAPP establish a brand identity and has transformed me into one of the few digital strategists for Catholic Social Teaching.
The annual conference is a beautiful example of the mission given by St. John Paul II to the original members: “promote the knowledge and practice of Catholic social teaching.”
Catholic Social Teaching is indispensable to solving modern problems.
I believe that.
Rooted in the principles of the dignity of the human person, solidarity, and subsidiarity, it results in the common good. It lifts up the poor, defines and defends rights given by God, guards against tyranny, diagnoses civilizational cancers, promotes the centrality of the family, and always reminds the world that Christ alone is the source of happiness.
The world is fragmented. It has tried nearly everything to be happy. And it keeps coming up short. This has only made the hunger for truth greater than ever before.
Well… the Church has a feast prepared for all of us who are starving.
The Challenges and Rewards of AI
The conference focused on the very human challenges presented by the rapid evolution of AI across the world. This was greatly blessed by happening the same week as the release of Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.
My breakout session specifically tackled the consequences for digital communications. What do marketers, filmmakers, artists, musicians, influencers, writers, and creators have to understand if we want to keep pace with technology while grounded in Christ’s unchanging reign.
While I am a vocal critic of AI, ironically, I presented on the tremendous potential AI possesses for evangelization.
Yes, “Faces and voices are sacred,” as Pope Leo reminded us.
Yes, we have to be vigilant because there is a growing temptation to treat AI not merely as a tool, but as an “omniscient ‘friend,’ a source of all knowledge, an archive of every memory, an ‘oracle’ of all advice.”
“We cannot consider AI to be morally neutral,” Pope Leo warns. An unchecked dependence on AI will erode our “very desire to form genuine human connections.”
At the same time, Pope Leo underscores that “we can better understand why AI can be a valuable tool”.
This is why I listed three ways AI might help promote the Gospel if we respect the ethical constraints conscience demands:
- My work with CAPP-USA is pure evangelization. It distills profound and at times, dense, magisterial teaching, into bite-sized snippets, digestible articles, charts, graphs, infographics, and summaries. Without diluting the flavor or abandoning the truth, we make this rich treasure clear and relevant to everyday life. AI helps! What would take months becomes weeks or even days since AI can help source, organize, translate, and disseminate.
However, and this is indispensable, the task of proclaiming the truth remains irreducibly human and ecclesial. AI will never replace witness, conscience, discernment, and the living transmission of the faith.
- People approach Catholic social teaching through different anxieties, responsibilities, and states of life. With AI’s assistance, we can better understand the questions people are asking and the environments in which they seek meaning, allowing us to communicate the Church’s teaching more effectively across generations.
- Finally, we can actually learn from AI. It takes humility. We need to have a comprehensive grasp of how AI increasingly mediates what societies see, trust, prioritize, and even believe.
The conference concluded with a private audience with the Pope, wherein he reminded us of our choice between the “City of Man” built on pride and the “City of God” built on love.
The question before us is not whether humanity will shape AI — the question is whether AI will be shaped by a civilization still capable of recognizing the sacredness of the human person. This is not merely a technological challenge; it’s a spiritual one.
A question raised at the conference struck me: “Where is Your Heart?”
The Impact on Yellow Line Digital’s Mission
What does the conference have to do with digital marketing and Yellow Line Digital’s mission to build Digital Cathedrals?
The premise of Digital Cathedrals finds its source in Catholic Social Teaching.
The Church urges us to engage technology, like social media and AI, not to be afraid of it. To find ways to use skill and invention for the glory of God without either overly depending on man-made means or ignoring the pace and direction of their evolution.
Digital Cathedrals are online spaces that set people on paths to in-person communion with God and stronger relationships with others.
These are the goals of the Church’s social doctrine as well.
The question of “Where is your heart?” is essentially asking, why do this? Why evangelize? Why build Digital Cathedrals? Why make Jesus and His Church the most important thing in your life?
Changing the world cannot remain academic or theoretical. It can’t be contained to speeches and presentations.
Digital Cathedrals must be built.
Not with stone or code. But by hearts.
Evangelization must be alive.
It lives in the streets. It flourishes in the drama of the world. It seeks out pain and questions and awkward uncertainty. It does not hide from the responsibility of bringing the light of the truth to the dark recesses where we distract ourselves with money, power, pleasure, and even nobler sentiments like philanthropy, empowerment, and sustainability.
And in our current age, so much of the journey begins with a digital engagement.
Where is My Heart?
There is no such thing as “minimal” Catholic social teaching. A good enough effort. A mediocre Digital Cathedral.
We do either great work or poor work. Great work furthers the kingdom of God. Poor work strips it of its flavor and depth and pushes people away from happiness. Everything in between is ignored by algorithms and people and devolves into noise that ruins lives.
AI cannot build Digital Cathedrals. It cannot evangelize. It cannot make disciples of all nations.
These remain human tasks.
Where is my heart?
My answer must be sure. My heart is for Christ. For the Church. It is for sharing the overwhelmingly good news that God wants and loves every person who ever lived and pursues full union with everyone.
For individuals, this union with God is called happiness. For societies, it is called flourishing.
What to Do Next?
If you are a diocese, purpose-driven nonprofit, ministry, or parish, take a look at your content.
Are you evangelizing or just updating? Are you offering real value for mundane, everyday pain points, family drama, social issues, government action, and chronic suffering?
Don’t be discouraged. Let’s use that zeal.
If you feel underwater, our Health Check is an audit of your entire ecosystem that can help you take a step back and see the big picture. It gives clarity and insight. It will show you what’s working and what’s not and equip you with a plan to proceed confidently.
Thanks for reading, and let’s collaborate.
Join the conversation! Shoot me an email at mconnors@yellowlinedigital.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
