Port Harcourt, Nigeria, April 11, 2025
By Fr. Okhueleigbe Osemhantie A, PhD
In a week crowned by intellectual brilliance, cultural vitality, and spiritual profundity, the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA), Port Harcourt, Nigeria, convened its 34th Theological Conference under the rousing theme: Theology, Artificial Intelligence, and Hope for Humanity. What unfolded was not merely a succession of academic presentations, but a panoramic symphony of faith, reason, and futurity — a mosaic of voices across Africa and beyond, weaving theological depth into the fabric of technological transformation. From the solemnity of the inaugural Mass to the incandescent closing festivities, CIWA stood not only as an academic institution but as a spiritual amphitheatre where ideas danced with doctrine and tradition embraced innovation.
The conference commenced with a Eucharistic celebration presided over by the Chairman of Council, Most Rev. Camillus Umoh, the Bishop of Ikot Ekpene. Very Rev. Fr. Prof. Jude Abidemi Asanbe, the Rector of CIWA’s opening remarks distilled the quintessence of CIWA’s intellectual identity. In tones both poetic and prophetic, he described theology as the soul of the Church and the conscience of the world—an enterprise that must breathe with the vitality of lived experience while remaining rooted in the eternal truths of the Gospel. He charged participants not to reduce theology to sterile theory but to craft it as a liberative, intelligent, and pastoral response to the cries and complexities of the modern age, particularly in the face of emergent technologies like Artificial Intelligence.
Amplifying this call, the keynote address by Bishop Christopher Naseri, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Calabar, reverberated with urgency and foresight. He exhorted CIWA community to storm the digital frontiers with the Gospel, warning against a disembodied spirituality that neglects the ethical architecture of technological engagement. AI, he argued, is not to be baptised but evangelised—not by sacralising software, but by humanising its usage through Gospel values. Drawing from magisterial teachings and AI platforms such as Magisterium AI and Vulgate AI, Bishop Naseri’s vision resounded like a Pauline epistle to a Church standing at the Areopagus of the digital age.
One of the intellectual highpoints of the week was the lead paper delivered by Rev. Fr. Dr. Michael Nsikak Umoh, Director of Social Communications at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria. Speaking on the theme “Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Synodality in the Church in Nigeria,” Fr. Umoh explored the transformative role of AI in shaping communication, collaboration, and inclusivity within the Church’s synodal journey. He highlighted practical applications such as virtual meeting platforms, AI-driven surveys, translation tools, and social media as means of fostering wider participation and deeper communion among the faithful. While affirming AI’s potential to enhance synodal processes, Fr. Umoh also raised critical ethical concerns, cautioning the Church to guard against depersonalization, privacy violations, and job displacement.
Among the conference’s most daring voices was that of Sr. Associate Professor Gisela Uzoukwu of Nasarawa State University, whose feminist critique unraveled the gendered ideologies coded into AI systems. In her bold re-imagination of the digital Eve, she exposed the patriarchal residues that cast female-voiced digital assistants as subservient tools in a masculinized matrix of power. Yet, within this paradox, she discerned the stirrings of theological renewal—a Sophia-centred spirituality rising from the Global South, reclaiming AI not as a threat but as terrain for redemptive reimagination. Her work summoned theology to expand its categories, placing the feminine, the digital, and the divine in critical conversation.
Equally compelling was Rev. Fr. Dr. Emmanuel Chinedu Anagwo, whose exploration of liturgical celebrations and AI blended orthodoxy with innovation. He warned against the mechanisation of sacred rituals, insisting that no algorithm can replicate the mystical presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Yet, his vision was not Luddite. Instead, it advocated for digital discernment—urging the Church in African to educate its youth in liturgical media literacy while preserving the sacral dignity of worship. “AI is not our celebrant,” he declared. “It is our servant—worthy only if sanctified by truth, tradition, and theological wisdom.”
From the digital-anthropological horizon, Fr. Prof. Inaku Egere delivered a masterstroke in theological reflection, reminding the world that while AI may imitate intelligence, it can never possess personhood. Drawing from Augustine, Aquinas, and the magisterium, he reaffirmed humanity as imago Dei, not imago algorithm. With piercing clarity, he warned against post-humanist ideologies that seek to recode human identity in data, calling instead for a theology of work, dignity, and communion—a theology in which humans are not tools, but temples.
Fr. Dr. Okhueleigbe Osemhantie Amos delivered a remarkable paper, Artificial Intelligence, Communicative Anthropology and Humanity’s Hope, at the plenary session, offering a prophetic vision for AI. He advocated for AI that empowers the marginalized rather than silencing them. Grounded in Knowledge Gap Theory and Catholic Social Teaching, his presentation envisioned a Church where the poor are active participants in technological development. He called for a theology that infuses AI with dignity, making it a vessel of grace rather than domination, and urged the global Church to align technology with the Beatitudes.
Perhaps most groundbreaking was the joint paper by Msgr. Michael Ekpenyong and Engr. Dr. Paul Okon, who dared to theologise the quantum. In a presentation that married Eucharistic theology with quantum mechanics, they envisioned a cosmic entanglement in which divine presence resonates with the mysteries of energy and matter. For them, AI and Quantum Intelligence (QAI) are not antithetical to faith but can become hermeneutical bridges, helping the Church read the signs of the times in the code of the cosmos.
All these discourses converged into the celebratory crescendo of the closing day—a carnival of culture, theology, and praise. Tribes, tongues, and traditions from across West Africa and the global Church transformed CIWA into a cathedral of inculturation. There was rhythm and reverence, feasting and festivity, crowned by the Rector’s prophetic declaration that such gatherings are not ephemeral but perennial—sacred rehearsals for the theology of tomorrow.
What CIWA offered the world this April was not just a conference—it was a kairos, a decisive moment of theological awakening. In the polyphony of its presentations, the Church heard both warning and wisdom, challenge and consolation. In AI’s echo, CIWA discerned both danger and divine possibility. Here, in the heart of Africa, theology leapt forward—not in fear, but in faith.
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