Clarity, sources and accountability.

How Catholic Answers 101 Is Written

Catholic Answers 101 continues the work of the Sts. Peter and Paul Catechism Ministry, founded in 2007. The site is run by one person. To keep up with the amount of writing this ministry puts out, from full apologetics pieces to the “Explained Like You’re Five” series, I use AI-assisted tools for grammar, structure, clarity, and editing. These are the same kind of tools now built into most modern writing software. What these tools do not do is supply the substance. The research, the sources, the doctrine, and the pastoral aim of every article are mine, and I check every piece against Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the teaching of the Church before it goes up.

I want to explain this because AI-detection tools have become common, and they are not a good test of who wrote something or whether it is true. Even the companies that build these tools admit their scores are not fully accurate. Clear, simple writing, which is exactly what the “Explained Like You’re Five” series is built to be, is often flagged as “AI-written” simply because it is easy to follow and uses a set pattern. A detection score says nothing about whether an answer is faithful, accurate, or good for the reader’s soul.

What the Church Says About This

The Church does not tell Catholics to reject these tools. She asks for care and good judgment instead.

In January 2025, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education released a note called Antiqua et Nova, on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence, approved by Pope Francis. The note states plainly that AI should not be seen as an artificial form of human intelligence, but as a product of it, and that the word “intelligence” applied to a machine “can prove misleading” (Antiqua et Nova, no. 35).

The note also teaches that real human knowing is more than gathering facts or finishing tasks. It requires “the person’s openness to the ultimate questions of life” and an “orientation toward the true and the good,” something no machine can supply on its own (Antiqua et Nova, no. 6). This matters for a site built on apologetics. Answering a hard question about the faith takes more than facts lined up in order. It takes judgment about what a person actually needs to hear, and charity in how it is said. That can only come from a person, so it stays with me, not with any tool I use.

Pope Leo XIV made a similar point in June 2025, telling a conference on AI ethics that any use of these tools has to be measured against “the integral development of the human person and society” (Message to the Second Annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 17 June 2025). That is the standard I hold myself to here. A tool may help me shape a sentence, but the truth, the doctrine, and the care for the reader are mine to answer for.

The Catechism also teaches that man is drawn by his very nature toward the truth, and is “bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth,” and to “direct [his] whole life in accordance with the demands of truth” (CCC 2467). That obligation, not a machine’s score, is what should be used to judge whether an answer on this site is trustworthy. As St. Augustine reminds us, the faith we hold is worth nothing if it is only the parts we happen to like. It has to be the whole truth, defended honestly.

A Standing Invitation

If you ever find a real error, whether of doctrine or of fact, in anything published here, please write to me. That kind of correction is always welcome.

Message the editor: editor@catholicanswers101.com

Godwin Delali Adadzie

Founder, Catholic Answers 101

Sources Cited

Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and Dicastery for Culture and Education. Antiqua et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence. 28 January 2025. Vatican.va.

Pope Leo XIV. Message to Participants in the Second Annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Corporate Governance. 17 June 2025. Vatican.va.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2467.