I’ve just been down at the hairdressing salon and had a lovely chat with my hairdresser. She’s only 20 years old, but we get along really well. She completed a school-based apprenticeship, so by the time she finished school, she was already a qualified hairdresser. I think that’s an absolutely brilliant program, and I feel like parents don’t always have the right information about it to encourage their children to consider it.
Anyway, she showed me a new painting on the salon wall and asked what I thought of it. I loved it. Then she explained that the artist is one of the owner's clients. She created the image using AI and then used it as a reference to paint from.
It’s happening!! I knew this would happen—artists are utilising AI to expand their creative capabilities. I think that’s a very good thing. The way I see it, when it comes to AI-generated images, the user is still the creator. The user decides where everything goes, how it looks, and AI simply carries out those instructions.
I’m sure there will be people who criticise AI-inspired art, but I think it’s such a wonderful development. I can’t wait to see the collaborations between humans and AI that are still to come.
Below is an image of the painting on the wall at the salon, and I also took a sneaky shot of the salon itself.
Today I was reading about the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint. A 15-year-old English boy named Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006, is officially on his way to sainthood. He was a computer prodigy and a gamer, and he used his technological skills to promote the Church by creating a website cataloguing every Eucharistic miracle in the world, as well as verified Marian apparitions. He wanted to bring the Church to the younger generation, and this led to him becoming known as “God’s Influencer.”
This young boy truly was a devout Catholic—he went to Mass every single day, and even the things he said were theologically profound. The following are three quotes from Carlo that demonstrate not only his deep devotion to the Church but also his wisdom—remarkable not just for a fifteen-year-old, but for anyone, really:
“Our soul is like a hot-air balloon... If by chance there is a mortal sin, the soul falls to the ground. Confession is like the fire underneath the balloon enabling the soul to rise again... it is important to go to confession often.”
“I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things which do not please God.”
“All people are born as originals, but many die as photocopies.”
I always thought that to become a saint you needed to perform three miracles—but apparently, that’s not the case! Carlo Acutis has been associated with two miracles, and according to various sources I read today, that’s enough.
The first miracle attributed to Carlo was approved in 2020 and occurred in 2014. A young Brazilian boy named Mattheus Vianna was healed of a congenital disease affecting his pancreas. Carlo’s mother had sent a relic of her son to Mattheus at the Chapel of Nossa Senhora Aparecida in Brazil, and after touching the relic, he was cured.
The second miracle attributed to Carlo is the healing of a Costa Rican woman named Valeria, who was studying in Florence. In 2022, she sustained a serious head trauma while cycling to university and required brain surgery. After doctors said Valeria had a very low chance of survival, her mother visited Carlo’s tomb, left a letter, and prayed there. Valeria then made a remarkable recovery, and after being discharged from the hospital, began rehabilitation.
Sometimes when I read about the miracles granted through saints—or those on the path to sainthood—they really do seem miraculous. I’d love to learn more about it one day. I also wonder: how do you know who to pray to after someone has died? How do you recognise that someone has saint potential, that they might grant a miracle? There must be some kind of campaign or movement behind it.
I think Carlo deserves it. The way he conducted his short life and his devotion to God is uncanny for someone his age. And if the miracles really did happen, then he should unquestionably be elevated to sainthood. But I also secretly think that Carlo’s miracles couldn’t have come at a better time for the Catholic Church. Like I said, I believe he deserves it—but from the Church’s perspective, I get the feeling they love this. They love that they will have a millennial saint. It’s not a publicity stunt, because the boy genuinely earned it, but the Church definitely needs—and wants—this moment.
The Catholic Church has done some absolutely dreadful things. You often hear people say that God or Jesus would be furious if they saw what the Church has become. But I actually disagree with that a little. The God of the First Testament committed some inexcusable and unforgivable acts himself, and in some ways, I believe the Church's actions aren’t all that different.
That said, I’m not claiming they’re entirely bad. They do good things too—like the work of Centacare here in Australia, for instance. I know they carry out important social services. But then you look at the history: the Inquisitions, missionaries taking Aboriginal children from their families, forced conversions, staying silent during the Holocaust, helping Nazis escape to South America, the unfathomable treatment of the LGBT community... and of course, the sexual abuse—not only the horrific acts themselves, but the institutional cover-ups that followed. That’s what makes me empathise with people who question whether the Catholic Church is a criminal organisation.
I watched a documentary where Pope Francis actually said that those who speak out against the Church are friends of the devil. This is why they need a millennial saint.
I remember in 2014 when Pope Francis said, "Christians cannot 'close the door' on anyone who seeks baptism, even if they are green men, with a long nose and big ears, like children draw."
"If tomorrow, for example, an expedition of Martians arrives and some of them come to us ... and if one of them says: 'Me, I want to be baptised!', what would happen?" Francis said.
I found that very interesting because if Christians—and in particular Catholics—cannot "close the door" on anyone who seeks baptism, why did Cardinal George Pell unforgivably refuse to administer communion to two homosexual members of his congregation?
But what I like about Pope Francis talking about Martians arriving on Earth and seeking baptism is it makes me wonder if he has ever thought about who and what Jesus has the potential to be. It made me think about something I lightheartedly say to a girlfriend of mine who is an astronomer and not a believer in anything but science. I say to her that everyone is waiting for Jesus to return to Earth, and I think the reason he is taking so long is because he underestimated the amount of time it would take him to get back here from his home planet.
Like I said, I say this lightheartedly, and in particular to wind her up. Below you can see my collaboration with AI in creating an image of Jesus travelling back to Earth in a spaceship.
