While other churches have held AI-powered services in the past, the Nano Chapel’s creator, Father Radek Rakowski, believes his brainchild may be a world first.
Faced with falling attendance at Mass, which has dropped dramatically in Poland, particularly in large conurbations, the parish priest of the Łacina district of Poznań struck on the idea of bringing faith into the modern age.
“We are in the 21st century and the religious and social needs of the residents have changed,” the priest told the Arkitektura i Biznes website earlier this year. “Traditional churches are plentiful in Poznań.
“And, importantly, they stand empty and closed for most of the day. This does not make sense.”
Rakowski, who has a reputation locally for his unconventional approach to his vocation, took inspiration from the round-the-clock staffless outlets of Poland’s largest convenience store chain, Żabka.
The Nano Chapel system is similar to car sharing, with users downloading an app and creating a profile.
But then, instead of clicking to open a car door and go for a spin, they open the chapel and enter to pray, contemplate, meet other parishioners, or discuss ecclesiastical matters with the on-site cyber-assistant.
Around 100 local people already have the app, including older worshipers.
CatechismGPT?
The priest has plans to build a church for his parish, which is in a new-build residential district, but does not have the roughly 20 million złoty (€4.6 million) required.
Instead, the local devout chipped in to raise 100,000 złoty (€ 23,000) through crowd-funding site Zrzutce.pl to take over the premises of a local real estate agency. The result is a site that people can visit at any time, and which comes with free Wi-Fi and a coffee machine.
“In our parish we look for solutions for how the church can adapt to parishioners, rather than the other way around,” Rakowski told a local news service, wPoznaniu.
Visiting the facility, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily asked the ChatGPT-powered assistant a series of questions ranging from who the next head of the Polish Episcopal Conference would be, to what the Catholic Church’s position is on LGBT people, and whether the newspaper itself was against the Church. Its responses were guided by the Catechism, the Bible, and church teachings.
Rakowski told Gazeta Wyborcz the assistant gives answers that are “calming and constructive” rather than unsympathetic and “often speaks more beautifully than some priests.”
The priest spent a year working with the cyber-assistant to help train it to answer questions and give advice, including on theological and moral issues, as well as teaching it which topics to avoid.
It will not offer guidance on how to vote, for example, and if asked to hear confession will refer the parishioner to an ordained minister.
