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St. Francis Xavier’s relics draw 12,000 in Goa, India, for decennial exposition

November 21, 2024 Catholic News Agency 0
Indian Christians pay their respects to the remains of St. Francis Xavier during the 17th exposition of the saint’s body at the Se Cathedral in Goa on Nov. 22, 2014. / Credit: PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Nov 21, 2024 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

St. Francis Xavier lived the life of a missionary, baptizing tens of thousands in India and Japan. In death, he continues to give himself to Christ’s Church, as his relics offer pilgrims spiritual consolation in Italy and India.

The saint’s right arm is kept in Italy, while a toe is in India after it was reportedly bitten off by an overzealous pilgrim. But the most intact relic of St. Francis Xavier is his body (nearly whole), which is displayed for veneration every 10 years — in a glass casket to avoid any more toe-related incidents.

At least 12,000 people gathered in the western state of Goa, India, on Thursday for the opening of a decennial exposition of the saint’s partially incorrupt remains. Thursday marked the beginning of a 45-day event where St. Francis Xavier’s relics — normally kept in a casket in the Basilica of Bom Jesus — are displayed at the nearby Se Cathedral for veneration.

Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi celebrated the morning Mass at the Basilica of Bom Jesus, joined by more than 400 priests and bishops. Afterward, attendees processed through the streets with the four-century-old glass casket on a carriage to Se Cathedral, less than 1,000 feet away.

Local reports called the exposition an opportunity for religious unity, as many religious groups in India respect the Catholic saint. In anticipation of the decennial exposition, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the saint “a symbol of peace,” while locals affectionately call Xavier “Goencho Saib,” meaning “protector of Goa.”

The celebration takes place amid growing violence toward Indian Christians, which has “skyrocketed” according to a 2024 report by U.S. Christian leaders who urged the U.S. State Department to add India to the watchlist for religious freedom violations.

To prepare for the exposition, the Goa state government built 33 cottages for pilgrims, with a total capacity of 400 people per day. They expect 8 million to visit the relics during the 45-day period. The last exposition, in 2014, received at least 5.5 million people.

While a group of people traditionally carries the casket on their shoulders, this year’s exposition featured an electric carriage, which an organizer said is being employed to avoid chaos. Goa authorities provided more than 700 police personnel for security and traffic.

The display will continue until Jan. 5. Pilgrims may visit his relics from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the cathedral.

Behind the relic

St. Francis Xavier (1506–1552) was one of the first Jesuits to evangelize vast portions of Asia. He was born into nobility, but his family lost everything when he was young. As a young man, he attended university, where his friend, St. Ignatius of Loyola, encouraged him to give his life to God. Xavier was initially resistant to the call but eventually became a Jesuit priest and missionary. 

During his seven years in India, Xavier brought tens of thousands into the Church. While he was there, Xavier lived on rice and water in a hut with a dirt floor, teaching children about God and visiting prisoners and the sick. Xavier later left for Japan, where he instructed the first generation of Japanese Catholic converts. He died of illness on his way to China, at Shangchuan Island. He was buried on the island in his priestly vestments. Xavier’s body was found to be incorrupt after his remains were exhumed within a year after his death on Shangchuan Island in 1552. His body was brought to Malacca first, and then to Goa in 1554. Xavier was canonized in 1622. His feast day is Dec. 3.

Xavier’s remains have been through more than just a change in location. In 1614, his right forearm was removed at the request of Pope Paul V. The relic of his arm has been kept in Rome since, except for a brief visit to Canada, when the arm was flown in a case in an airline seat across Canada

This was not the first time Xavier had body parts removed. At the first exposition of his body in 1554, a Portuguese woman, Dona Isabel Carom, reportedly bit off one of his toes to keep as a relic. The story goes that the toe began to gush blood. The toe is now kept in a reliquary in Goa.

Going back even further, one account recorded that upon finding Xavier’s intact body on the island, Jose Bravo, a Portuguese sailor, cut off a chunk of flesh from Xavier’s knee to prove to his captain that the remains were incorrupt. 

Xavier’s body was displayed several times after his death, but the tradition of semi-frequent public exposition began after rumors circulated in 1782 that Xavier’s body had been replaced by another’s remains. The church held a public exposition to address the rumors, beginning a tradition of expositions on special occasions. In recent decades, the tradition has been observed more consistently. This is the 18th exposition of its kind, a part of the saint’s 472-year legacy.

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No, ‘AI Jesus’ isn’t actually hearing confessions: fact check

November 21, 2024 Catholic News Agency 0
null / Credit: Image created using OpenAI’s DALL·E through ChatGPT

CNA Staff, Nov 21, 2024 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

Numerous news reports in recent days reported that a new artificially intelligent “Jesus” has begun taking people’s confessions at a Catholic church in Switzerland. 

Claim: A holographic “AI Jesus” has been created and deployed at a chapel in Switzerland specifically to hear confessions.

CNA finds: St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne, a historic parish church, recently installed “an innovative project that explores the use of virtual characters based on generative artificial intelligence in a spiritual context” in collaboration with the Immersive Realities Research Lab at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

The AI program was reportedly trained with content from the New Testament, with the goal of allowing the “Jesus” avatar to verbally respond, in one of 100 languages, to questions about the Bible from people entering the confessional. 

(Numerous reports described the “Jesus” avatar as a “hologram,” which is a 3D projection created with lasers; but a Deutsche Welle video of the installation in action showed that the artificial face of “Jesus” merely appeared on a curved computer monitor behind the confessional screen.) 

The installation is titled “Deus in Machina” (a Latin phrase meaning “God in the machine” and a play on the more commonly used literary phrase “Deus ex machina”). An announcement from the lab said the project, which is described as an “art exhibit,” “encourages thinking about the limits of technology in the context of religion.”

The breakdown: Despite being placed in the confessional booth, the parish notes on its website that the AI installation is intended for conversations, not confessions. Confession, also called penance or reconciliation, is one of the seven sacraments of the Church and can only be performed by a priest or bishop, and never in a virtual setting.

A theologian at the Swiss parish said the project is also intended to help to get religious people comfortable with AI and reportedly said he does see potential for AI to help with the pastoral work of priests, given that AI can be available any time, “24 hours a day, so it has abilities that pastors don’t.”

Peter Kirchschläger, an expert in theological ethics, opined to Deutsche Welle in response to the theologian’s comments that “we should be careful when it comes to faith, pastoral care, and the search for meaning in religion. This is an area in which we humans are actually vastly superior to machines. So we should do it ourselves.”

The Swiss art project is the latest in a series of attempts — including an embrace of the technology at the Vatican itself — to make AI work in service of the Catholic faith, which so far has yielded mixed results. 

CatéGPT, for example, an artificial intelligence chatbot designed by another Swiss, engineer Nicolas Torcheboeuf, aims to provide answers to questions about Catholic teaching by drawing on authoritative documents. Other similar AI-based services have gained popularity, such as the U.S.-based Magisterium AI

Less successful was an AI “priest” created and unveiled earlier this year by the California-based apologetics apostolate Catholic Answers, which was criticized by some users for its video game-like priestly avatar. Moreover, at least one user managed to goad the priestly character into hearing their confession, prompting a statement from the apostolate in which it promised to replace the priest character with a lay character named “Justin.”

The verdict: The “AI Jesus” project exists, but it’s not intended to hear people’s confessions, or to replace a priest. Rather, it’s an art exhibit created by researchers at a local technical university in concert with theologians who say they want to raise questions about the use of technology in religious settings and to demonstrate the ability of AI to answer questions about the Bible. 

We rate this claim misleading.

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