Pilgrims of Hope (9): Future

The series “Pilgrims of Hope” is a monthly spiritual contribution to the Holy Year – a collaboration between the international Generalate of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis and the Muenster-based German church publication “Kirche und Leben” (“Church+Life”). Our topic in October: Hope for Future

“The Future of Thinking” — this was the recent cover story of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. It featured a major interview with the American scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil (77), who has been fascinated by technology since childhood and has contributed to the development of artificial intelligence ever since he first encountered a computer in New York in 1960, at the age of twelve. Kurzweil is convinced that in just four years, by 2029, AI will be more intelligent than humans. It will then be possible, he says, to make that knowledge directly accessible to humans through implants in the brain. “Merging with AI is the only way not to be dominated by it,” says Kurzweil, without offering any ethical evaluation of this development.

What is possible — and what is right? Are we allowed to do everything that is possible? These questions have always occupied humanity, not only in science and technology, but also when it comes to our personal life paths. That was already true in the 13th century. Back then, the patron saint of our religious community, Francis of Assisi, the son of a wealthy merchant, could have chosen a life of luxury and comfort. Yet after personal, physical, and spiritual crises, he decided at the age of 25 to take the more difficult path, the one that was right and meaningful for him. Inspired by the Gospel, he gave away his worldly possessions to serve God and others. He could not have foreseen how profoundly his decision would shape the future: many people joined him, and to this day, the Franciscan orders and lay communitiescelebrate his life and work every year on the Feast of St. Francis in early October.

Predicting the future remains impossible, even with AI. We can only try our best to prepare for the challenges that new developments bring. And we can take a stand when it comes to the Christian and Franciscan values that guide us and will continue to shape our life and work in the future: to refuse to reduce people to their thinking and performance, and instead to see each person as a unique and precious creation of God — as a whole being of body, soul, and spirit.

Since the founding of our community in 1844, this holistic understanding has guided our commitment to people in sickness, old age, and need. It also shapes the education and formation through which we prepare the young members of our international order for their future. Of course, the young women in Poland, Japan, and India receive solid professional training — for example, to become nurses, doctors, teachers, social workers, pastoral assistants, auditors, lawyers, or theologians, and eventually to take on leadership roles within our community. The curriculum includes English as the common language of our congregation, as well as the traditions and customs of each culture — such as special dances or the tea ceremony. At the same time, we emphasize deep spiritual and emotional formation, enabling our sisters to bear witness through their service to God and humanity, and to live a human life in all its fullness — a life in which AI will surely play a role in the future, both on the curriculum and, hopefully, through medical progress that our sisters can use for the good of their patients.

Returning to Ray Kurzweil: he leaves no doubt that he considers some developments inevitable, saying, “The advancement of AI is a global competition — if we don’t take part, other countries will.”

Perhaps we Christians should claim the freedom to start a parallel competition for the future, a competition in humanity. Because if we don’t lead the way, who will?

This article was published in German, online and in print, in the Diocese of Muenster’s magazine, “Kirche+Leben” (Church+Life), in July 2025.

By Schwester M. Rita Edakkoottathil and Claudia Berghorn