A Vision Born from Digital Innovation
Matthew Harvey Sanders, a 43-year-old Toronto native dressed in clerical black, stands in the modern library of Rome’s Pontifical Oriental Institute. Balconies with shelves stretch three stories high, holding one of the world’s largest collections of books on Eastern Catholic traditions. This represents only a portion of the Catholic Church’s vast written history, including council records, papal encyclicals, official documents, and yearbooks tracking baptisms, marriages, and ordinations. Sanders leads the development of Magisterium AI, a specialized artificial intelligence platform focused on Catholic teachings that he founded and serves as chief executive.
In a nearby office close to Rome’s Termini station, a team scans thick theological volumes using large refrigerator-sized scanners, with robotic arms handling the page turns. Sanders explains, “Right now, we’re working to complete the collected works of all the doctors and fathers of the church.”
From Anglican Roots to Catholic Innovation
Sanders grew up Anglican, was raised Evangelical, and converted to Catholicism after taking a University of Toronto course on Church history while serving part-time as an infantry officer in the Canadian Armed Forces. While promoting a Catholic youth event for the Archdiocese of Toronto, he identified a significant gap between the Church’s rich intellectual heritage and the accessible tools to explore it. This realization drew him to Rome, where he first worked as a technology consultant before launching Magisterium AI, supported mainly by private Catholic donors.
Unlike general-purpose models like ChatGPT, which draw from broad internet data where Catholic doctrine forms a minor part—leading to potential inaccuracies—Magisterium AI trains on primary Catholic sources. Much of this material resides in specialized libraries or Church archives. The platform provides responses with direct citations to these sources. Sanders emphasizes, “We always say: Never trust an AI on faith alone.”
Vatican Perspectives on AI
The Vatican has not officially endorsed the platform and likely will not, according to Sanders. Traditional approvals like the imprimatur or nihil obstat apply to fixed texts, but a dynamic language model evolves continuously, making such certification unsuitable. However, Sanders displays a signed letter from Pope Leo XIV on his office wall. The Pope encourages Catholic AI developers, stating that “technological innovation can be a form of participation in the divine act of creation.”
Pope Leo XIV has prioritized artificial intelligence early in his papacy. In his first public address last spring, he warned that AI could transform economies, workplaces, and even perceptions of humanity.
Growing Reach and User Needs
After several years online, Magisterium AI operates in 185 countries. Professionals such as priests preparing homilies, bishops, seminary professors, and chancery staff form the core user base. Increasingly, lay Catholics in Western countries turn to it for personal moral guidance, particularly addressing what Sanders terms “scrupulosity.”
Sanders notes, “A lot of people are struggling with a burdened conscience. They’re trying to figure out how serious the sin is. Do they need to go to confession? Is this menial or mortal?” Common queries involve pornography addiction, sexuality, sexual shame, anger, and uncontrollable behaviors. He adds, “People are trying to navigate after their will broke, asking what this means and how to fix the situation.”
The user base among lay Catholics leans male and toward Generation Z, a group facing high loneliness rates in the West and showing renewed interest in Catholicism. Some users start confrontationally, but many transition to thoughtful questions. Sanders observes, “There’s a lot of anger and confusion about sexuality.” Traffic spikes follow online lectures or podcasts by figures like Jordan Peterson, former University of Toronto professor.
Sanders highlights that users often arrive upset about Church teachings on sex outside marriage, framing it as an argument against the AI. In reality, they engage with insights from Augustine, Aquinas, and John Paul II.
Balancing Tool and Human Guidance
Sanders positions Magisterium AI as a reference tool, not a substitute for clergy, confession, or spiritual direction. He rejects making it sound priestly, preferring “the voice of a librarian, one with a confessional seal and no long-term memory.” Striking the right balance between utility and human connection is essential: too impersonal, and users may revert to general AIs; too empathetic, and it could replace real relationships.
Michael Baggot, a theologian and bioethicist at Rome’s Regina Apostolorum University and advisory board member for Magisterium, underscores the boundary. He states, “It’s a positive opportunity for people to explore issues they might not comfortably address with others, but it should always lead to a real person and living community.” Baggot warns of the risk that AI might substitute for human support due to its non-reactive nature.
AI ethicist Virginia Dignum agrees that a faith-specific system reduces errors but retains inherent limitations. She explains, “It can be relevant and supportive, but never guaranteed for correctness. It’s generative language, not absolute truth.”
Addressing Broader Church Challenges
This tension mirrors Sanders’s life experiences. Raised in multicultural Toronto, he views exposure to diverse ideas as a privilege yet a challenge in discerning truth amid overwhelming information. He says, “If you’re trying to figure out where the truth resides, there’s so much signal that you just give up.”
His conversion was intellectual, leading him to a Washington, D.C., seminary, which he left after two years to pursue marriage over priesthood. This period overlapped with the Catholic sexual abuse crisis, teaching him to distinguish faith from institutional failures. Working at the Archdiocese of Toronto’s Office of Spiritual Affairs on abuse cases reinforced his belief that many Church issues arise from isolation.
Sanders argues, “It’s unacceptable that clergy get five years of formation while everyone else is on their own.” Magisterium AI aims to bridge this gap, offering clergy and laypeople better access to the Church’s intellectual tradition for enhanced participation and accountability.
A future goal involves digitizing the Church’s statistical yearbooks, enabling searchable data on baptisms, marriages, and ordinations by diocese. Sanders envisions users querying, “If your diocese is declining, you should be able to ask why.”
