Largely missing during October synod meetings, over 200 parish priests gather outside Rome for meetings

AI priest “Father Justin,” a chatbot used to answer questions about the Catholic faith, has been renamed “Justin” and swapped out his virtual clerics for a button-down shirt after facing backlash from online users just one day after launching.

In this special “Deep Dive” episode of “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle paints a comprehensive picture of seminary formation today and the challenges formators are seeing.

While reductive narratives depict priests as perfect heroes or evil villains, said writer and producer Father Stephen Fichter, the truth is more complicated.

During Lent, Pope Francis said, Catholics—and especially Catholic seminarians—should rediscover the joy of simplicity, and pay less attention to their appearance and more to their prayer lives.

Members at last October’s synod, which included cardinals, bishops, women and men religious, lay men and women, noted their concern with the almost total absence of parish priests at the synod assembly.