Austrian bishops adopt AI rules barring replacement of human pastoral care

AI can help the Catholic Church carry out its work, but it cannot take over the human encounters at its center. The Austrian Bishops’ Conference has adopted its first AI framework, limiting the technology to a supporting role in sacraments, preaching, liturgy and pastoral care, while requiring every diocese to appoint someone responsible for AI.

The bishops adopted the rules at their autumn plenary in Salzburg and described the central provisions in a press statement on Thursday, according to EWTN News. The framework covers the Catholic Church in Austria and its institutions. Adoption is not its effective date: the regulation takes effect when it appears in the conference’s next official gazette.

Support is permitted; substitution is rejected

The bishops acknowledge that the technology opens new possibilities for the Church’s mission, alongside ethical, legal and social challenges. Their response is to permit assistance while expressly rejecting the replacement of human relationships, pastoral conversations, community or rituals with AI.

The bishops ground the rules in the Christian understanding of the human person, the dignity of every individual and respect for freedom. They say AI should strengthen people in their responsibility rather than replace them. Its use therefore requires critical review and human oversight, guided by truth, justice and the common good.

“Replacing human relationships, pastoral conversations, community, or rituals with AI is inadmissible and is expressly rejected.”

Austrian Bishops’ Conference framework, quoted by EWTN News

An AI officer in every diocese

The framework also assigns organizational responsibility. Every diocese must appoint a person responsible for AI, and the conference is establishing a working group to coordinate cooperation across Austria. All diocesan AI officers will belong to that group, bringing the local appointments into a shared national structure rather than leaving them as separate posts.

Participation will extend beyond the diocesan officers. The conference says the working group will also include expertise from three fields, alongside representation from the Austrian Conference of Religious Orders:

• Data protection.
• Information technology.
• Theological ethics.

The adoption follows preparatory work begun a year earlier. In November 2025, the bishops’ conference established a working group led by Bishop Hermann Glettler of Innsbruck. Its task was to examine legal and ethical questions about AI as well as practical applications for the Church.

The formal document is titled “Framework Regulation on the Use of AI Systems in the Catholic Church in Austria and Its Institutions.” Publication in the next official gazette is the remaining step specified for it to take effect. That is when the adopted framework becomes operative for the Church institutions it covers.