A full to-do list? No time to write a homily? HomilyWriterAI has everything a busy priest or deacon needs: Scripture, Church Fathers, Catholic commentaries, and magisterial sources.
This website says that it was created for priests “who need more time for prayer, people, and pastoral care”.
Other AI tools offer help for Anglican pastors. And there is one site, AlignedAI, which composes sermons for all denominations – you only need to upload your creed.
Associate Professor Pauline Hope Cheong, from the University of Arizona, recently discussed the use of AI tools like these in religious contexts in a lecture at the Centre of Technology and Human Futures based at Notre Dame Australia’s Sydney campus.
Dr Cheong said that there are many AI tools available across the Christian landscape to assist clergy in writing their sermons or homilies.
“Increasingly, AI chatbots are becoming integrated into sermon preparation, allowing religious leaders to generate outlines, thematic structures and illustrative material to help more clergy accomplish more things, more quickly.”
Dr Cheong said that these sites promise to save time and optimise a religious leader’s practice. Instead, she said, they only show how AI tools can innovate in the field of communication. They do not aid in faithful contemplation.
Her comments echo Pope Leo XIV’s observations earlier this year. Priests should resist “the temptation to prepare homilies with artificial intelligence,” he said. “To give a true homily is to share faith,” and AI “will never be able to share faith.”
The AI sermon apps highlight proficiency and optimisation in their marketing blurbs, according to Cheong.
“One prominent AI sermon application invites clergy to use the tool to effortlessly and quickly create engaging sermons. The language is rather dramatic, often emphasising extreme temporal compression, and not just acceleration.”
In a Q&A after her lecture, Cheong also expressed concerns regarding AI sermon chatbots which celebrate and promote “radically accelerating” the liturgical process.
“One of the AI sermon applications I’ve been researching actually said on their website that their mission was to expedite God’s mission on earth,” she said.
“These AI sermon tools have tied these new technologies to ideas of stewardship and eschatology.
