Master Catechism Revealed: The “AI” for Catholic Restoration

This is a sorely needed project today when every armchair theologian and many "educated" theologians have their own opinion on what the Church teaches.

From One Peter Five

By Aaron Seng

Over a century ago, Pope St. Pius X observed that “there are large numbers of Christians in our own time who are entirely ignorant of the truths necessary for salvation.”[1]

The same grave assessment was made in 2003 by the man who would be his successor: “It is evident that today religious ignorance is enormous; suffice it to speak with the new generations.”[2] Such ignorance and error is now accelerating rapidly, as even the highest officeholders of Church and State periodically broadcast erroneous or ambiguous statements to billions, often in the form of unqualified soundbites.

What’s a good Catholic to do? To begin, we must know our Faith, and “be prepared to give an account” (1 Pt 3:15) of it according to our aptitude and state in life. For the average Joe Catholic (and Non-Catholic Nancy to boot), it would also be helpful to have a resource that could instantly verify what the Church has consistently taught on a given subject.

Put another way, a reliable “Catholic fact-checker” would be most welcome; a “Catholic Google” with search results safe above contemporary confusion; a tool generating authentically Catholic answers, dangled online at the end of a blockchain, just one keystroke away from discovery and discussion.

Catechisms were invented for such a purpose. Why not reference an entire stack of them at once?

After all, in our increasingly irrational, emotivist, media-manipulated society, anyone can see the great advantage in consulting such a stack: It doesn’t care how you feel.

The Tradivox team is therefore delighted to unveil MasterCatechism.com, a Catholic digital search engine assisted by “AI” software. It not only generates clear, concise answers to user questions, but ensures their reliability by curating them exclusively from the Church’s approved catechisms of the last millennium.[3]

Rather than pulling results from the entire internet, the Master Catechism functions like your own personal “catechism expert,” instantly building topical micro-summaries from the Church’s celebrated guidebooks; a window into the universal ordinary magisterium.

Users can now gather and query the Church’s greatest teachers—Thomas Aquinas, Robert Bellarmine, Peter Canisius, Pius X, and dozens more—to receive their collective response in a matter of seconds, drawn from their catechisms. No artful vagaries, armchair theology, or political correctness policing; it’s “just the facts,” from start to finish, cited from reputable sources that can (and should) be read directly in the interface, simply by clicking the citation.

The implications here are tremendous, but we might describe a few uses:

Prep your religion class, study group, holy hour, or homily. Because the semantic software behind the Master Catechism detects context as well as content, it can reply with many different arrangements of the same source information. One might ask it to write a lesson plan, draft a homily, compose meditations for the liturgical season, coach you on fraternal correction, and more.

Console (and convert?) souls with continuity. With the ability to toggle sources on or off based on copyright date, one of the most striking features of the Master Catechism is the vast doctrinal consensus it reveals.[4] Sourcing the magisterium from feudal Europe to American suburbia and everywhere in between, this tool demonstrates one fact with alacrity: divine truth is unchanging across time, space, and cultures. The abiding beauty and integrity of Catholic doctrine shines out in the Master Catechism, and has been the stuff of many conversions over the centuries.[5]

Scrutinize the latest heterodoxy. While the secular powers of this age (and woe to us, not a few Catholic hierarchs) continue to effuse errors of faith and morals on a regular basis, those seeking Truth can now cross-check such novelties against the Church’s constant catechetical tradition. For instance, Master Catechism offers immediate insight on women in holy orders, pro-abortion politicians, capital punishment, sacraments for public adulterers, blessings for same-sex couples, religious pluralism, and more—all in the mic-dropping, show-stopping simplicity of a catechism.

Promote bodily health and integrity. Not long ago, Church leaders were advising millions that they had a moral obligation to inject themselves with certain experimental serums upheld as morally sound, medically safe, and clinically effective. Much of the resulting medical harm (which has yet to give rise to sufficient litigation, in this author’s opinion) could have been avoided, had more Catholics known that no such obligation exists, and that no bishop has authority to command such actions in the first place—principles at least discoverable in the Master Catechism.

Encourage spiritual growth. As it gives straight answers to tough questions that many feel ill-equipped to engage, time spent on the Master Catechism has already inspired users to dig deeper into their Faith. With no less than ten different language modes available, it’s no surprise that some have begun calling it the “Catholic Rosetta Stone” for evangelization in the digital age.

The team at Tradivox is the first to remind users that all technology has shortcomings and trade-offs (thus our permanent reminder to “always consult original texts” in the app). Nevertheless, we are honored and grateful to finally share this unique study tool with the world, and hope that it leads to greater knowledge and love of Our Lord and the Church He sanctified with His blood.

From among the many endorsements of our work over the years, we echo the prayer of His Eminence, Cardinal Burke: “May God bless the work of Tradivox and make it redound to His glory and to the salvation of countless souls.” Amen, and Deo gratias!

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[1] Encyclical Acerbo Nimis, no. 2.

[2] Read the full interview with then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger here.

[3] Those surprised to find that there are in fact thousands of catechisms in the Catholic tradition may visit Tradivox.com to learn more.

[4] By contrast, it also highlights the glaring doctrinal deviations of the past sixty years—a sad reality that this author has described previously at Crisis Magazine here.

[5] A few famous Englishmen come readily to mind, e.g., Newman, Manning, Faber, Benson, and Chesterton.