Angelus News | May 17, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 10

NATION
■ Op-ed: Transitional deacons
no longer necessary
Is it necessary to become a deacon before
ordination to the priesthood? A prominent
Catholic deacon doesn’t think so.
In a new cover story for America magazine,
Deacon William T. Ditewig followed up on
an October 2023 joint interview in which
Cardinals Robert McElroy of San Diego and
Blase Cupich of Chicago questioned the
need for the transitional diaconate.
Ditewig, the former executive director for
the USCCB’s Secretariat for the Diaconate,
wrote that not only is now “the perfect time
to re-envision the diaconate as a whole,” but
“I would go so far as to say it is long past time
to do so.”
Too often, Ditewig claimed, the diaconate
is treated like an apprenticeship, dismissing
the sacramental grace specific to a deacon
and instead treating it as “on-the-job
training.” Referring to seminarian deacons as
“transitional” and other deacons as “permanent,”
makes the problem worse, Ditewig
argued.
“To think of the diaconate as a temporary
stop on the road to somewhere else minimizes
the sacramental significance of where one
is already,” he wrote.
A homeboy’s high honor — President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to LA’s
Father Greg Boyle, SJ, during a ceremony at the White House May 3. The 69-year-old alumnus of Loyola
High School established Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles in 1992 to improve the lives of former gang
members. The other Catholic honorees were former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (left), retired Sen.
John Kerry, Olympian swimmer Katie Ledecky, and longtime TV commentator Phil Donahue. | OSV
NEWS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, REUTERS
■ Catholic
Answers’ AI
priest gets
faculties revoked
An artificial intelligence
(AI) avatar of a Catholic
priest created by popular
apologetics website Catholic
Answers didn’t last
very long in ministry.
A screenshot of “Father Justin.” | CATHOLIC ANSWERS
“Father Justin,” a
3D-animated parish priest who would answer questions about
Catholicism, quickly averaged some 1,000 interactions an hour
after launching April 22. But concerning stories started to emerge,
like reports that he was claiming to be a real priest from Assisi, and
appearing to hear confession and offer absolution.
Two days later, Catholic Answers pulled the plug, announcing
that they would work on a new AI lay apologist named “Justin.”
“We chose the character to convey a quality of knowledge and
authority, and also as a sign of the respect that all of us at Catholic
Answers hold for our clergy,” said the organization’s president,
Christopher Check. “Many people, however, have voiced concerns
about this choice.”
■ Miami archbishop slams Biden,
DeSantis on Haiti policy
Miami’s archbishop slammed both President Joe Biden
and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for their approach to
the Haitian migrant crisis.
“What President Biden has done is unconscionable
when you think of the fact that he’s deported over
28,000 Haitians back to Haiti in the last three years, at
a time when Haiti has been in a political, social, and
economic free fall,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski told
Catholic News Agency April 29. “If a house is on fire,
you don’t force people to run back into the burning
house.”
After months of unrest, gangs now control Haiti’s
capital city and prime minister Ariel Henry resigned last
month after two months in exile. Despite an estimated
2,500 Haitians being killed or injured in the first quarter
of 2024, the U.S. resumed deportation of illegal Haitian
migrants in April.
Wenski also criticized DeSantis for deploying state
troops throughout South Florida to “stop the potential
influx of illegal immigration” from Haiti.
“They are speaking about them as if they were an invasive
species, [when] they’re human beings,” said Wenski.
May 17, 2024 • ANGELUS • 5