CNA Staff, Feb 6, 2025 /
16:20 pm
Catholic International University (CIU) is launching a master’s degree program designed to form Catholic-minded students in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
The fully remote Catholic university was founded in 1983, well before the rise of remote learning, with the mission to “communicate the mind and heart of the Church in support of the new evangelization.” CIU’s master of science degree in the prudential design of emerging technologies is designed to teach graduates how to integrate Christian principles into the design of artificial intelligence (AI).
The program organizers took inspiration from the growing commentary from the Catholic Church about AI, including the Vatican’s recent “Antiqua et Nova” note, which offered guidelines on the use of AI and its ethical and anthropological implications.
“The Church is most worried about preserving the dignity of the human person,” Mark Amelang, vice president of marketing and communications at CIU, told CNA.
“In order for higher education to make a difference, it must be at the intersection of science and a human-centric approach,” Amelang said.
In recent years, Pope Francis has spoken frequently about potential challenges the Church sees with AI. For instance, Pope Francis last month reflected that AI must be ordered to the human person and serve the common good rather than human dignity being “subordinated in the pursuit of efficiency.”
“Since the pope started to message about the potential challenges the Church sees with AI, we have been creating a program to address them,” Amelang said. “We have assembled some of the top Catholic AI experts to design and run our program.”
But Amelang noted that “what hasn’t yet been addressed” in Catholic circles is how much higher education could make a difference in the field of AI.
“At Catholic International, we are the only Catholic university to develop a program specifically designed to train students to make a positive impact on AI applications, ensuring that they remain person-centric,” Amelang said.
The new degree is part of a new “emerging technologies” department at CIU. What makes the department “so unique,” Amelang said, is that it brings together technology and theology.
“Most universities draw stark lines between the engineering departments and those of theology and philosophy! And to make a solution work, both sides of campus need to be integrated,” Amelang said.
Michael Pencina, board of trustees member at Catholic International University and chief data scientist and director at Duke AI Health, said that CIU is “committed to advancing technology in a way that prioritizes the dignity and well-being of every person.”
“We are shaping a future where technology advances and uplifts humanity by equipping graduates with the tools to integrate human-centered principles into applications of artificial intelligence,” Pencina said in a Feb. 6 press release.
CIU’s current president, Sophia Aguirre, has a particular interest in artificial intelligence. Before her time as president, Aguirre — an economist — took a one-year sabbatical to study AI.
“Dr. Aguirre is a well-known economist and was bothered by the seemingly poor job AI was doing with larger mathematical economic data sets. It occurred to her that the same kind of technology was also being applied to the medical field,” Amelang said. “As an academic, she felt called to research the problem.”
“This desire to make a difference in the development of AI solutions stuck with her as she was asked to lead Catholic International University,” Amelang noted.
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The program brings together technological, philosophical, and theological educators.
“As God would have it, we were able to gather some of the greatest minds in artificial intelligence that are deeply Catholic,” Amelang said. “We welcomed them into Catholic International University, where they worked alongside philosophers and theologians to create this program that teaches from the heart of the Church.”
CIU hopes to form all sorts of students — whether technically or philosophically minded.
“The program is designed to support both technically minded engineering types and philosophically, theologically inclined thinkers,” Amelang noted. “Both types of students are welcome and can thrive in this program.”
CIU changed its name from Catholic Distance University last year under Aguirre’s leadership.
“At the time of [Aguirre’s] arrival, the university was still called Catholic Distance University (CDU),” Amelang said. “She was given the task of growing the university and expanding its breadth in order to spread the joy of the truth to God’s people in more facets than just theology.”
In addition to the emerging technologies department, the university has since developed its liberal arts program as well as an ecclesial administration and management program.
To learn more about the emerging technologies department at Catholic International University, visit https://catholiciu.edu/emerging-tech/.
Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register, and CatholicVote, and she graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.