Saint Meinrad gets grant to study AI’s impact on young adults' faith

Saint Meinrad Archabbey secured a $75,000 planning grant to study how artificial intelligence is already shaping the faith, work and ethical choices of Catholic young adults in Dubois County and beyond.

The grant, from Lilly Endowment, Inc., will fund a Faith and AI Summit and formal sociological research into the experiences of young adults who are navigating both a changing workplace and a rapidly changing digital world. Saint Meinrad said the effort is meant to do more than respond to new technology after the fact. The goal is to understand how AI and other digital tools are influencing how young people think about vocation, spiritual practice and their place in the Church.

The planning period runs through May 2027, giving the archabbey time to convene scholars and pastoral leaders and build a research base for future programs. If the work advances beyond planning, the practical effects could reach local parishes, Catholic employers and families trying to understand how young adults are making moral decisions at work and carrying faith into daily life.

Chase J. Cloutier, director of Saint Meinrad’s Graduate Theology Program and the project supervisor, is leading the effort. Saint Meinrad has framed the project as part of its long-running commitment to both tradition and innovation, using Benedictine wisdom as a guide for Catholic young adults who are entering the workforce or already living in it.

The grant fits Lilly Endowment’s 2026 Faith and AI initiative, which offers planning grants of up to $75,000 and later implementation grants of up to $2.5 million over as long as five years. The initiative is designed to help youth and young adults draw on Christian traditions and spiritual practices as they learn to live responsibly with AI and other digital technologies.

Saint Meinrad is not new to this lane. In 2022, the archabbey received two Lilly grants totaling more than $2 million, including $1.25 million for the second phase of its Young Adult Initiative and $999,620 for an Office for Hispanic and Latino Ministry. The Young Adult Initiative has focused on Catholic young adults ages 23 to 29 and on helping parishes rethink outreach, accompaniment and discipleship.

That broader history matters in St. Meinrad, where the archabbey traces its roots to 1854, when monks from Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland founded the community to serve German-speaking Catholic immigrants and prepare local men for the priesthood. Saint Meinrad remains one of only two archabbeys in the United States and one of 11 in the world, a reach that gives a Dubois County project unusual weight in a national debate over AI, work and faith.