ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 21, 2025 /
14:15 pm
Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and founder of the Catholic ministry Word on Fire recently warned about the proliferation of fake videos created with artificial intelligence (AI) circulating on social media impersonating him.
“The presence online of these videos generated by artificial intelligence that purport to be from me and that are not from me” is a problem that is becoming “increasingly difficult,” the prelate warned in a message posted Aug. 20 on his official social media.
Barron recounted that a few months ago, a woman told him that she felt so bad about an altercation he supposedly got into in a restaurant in Chicago, which was actually a fake video.
“I said I’ve not been in a restaurant in Chicago for about five years. Well, it was one of these AI-generated silly videos,” he explained.
He also recalled another case in which he was supposedly summoned to Rome by Pope Leo XIV for “high-level discussions.” The bishop clarified: “I’ve met Pope Leo once — it happened a couple of weeks ago in Rome; we put it up on our social media. I shook his hand and he smiled at me. That’s my one contact with him. I’m not being summoned to Rome for high-level discussions.”
A video even circulated in which he supposedly gave recommendations on how to “remove demons from your toilet.”
“My point,” Barron said, is “this is all ridiculous. And I think if you spend just a moment, you can tell the difference between an authentic video from me and one of these fakes.”
The bishop warned that this phenomenon is not harmless: “These are fraudsters. What they’re doing is making money off these things because they monetize them through ads … So it’s not just harmless fun people are having. It’s doing damage to my reputation, but it’s also doing damage to people who are being defrauded.”
In response, he urged the faithful not to be fooled: “Don’t take these silly things seriously. Don’t watch them. And what you look for is something on my YouTube channel, something on the official Word on Fire channel, and there’s a blue check you can see next to my name, the profile name. Look for that: That’s the sign that it’s a video from me.”
Finally, he called for common sense: “When you see these goofy images that are obviously generated by a computer and you hear me talking about some wild thing, I hope you have the sense to know ‘Look, that’s not really Bishop Barron speaking.’”
“It’s becoming increasingly a problem and I want you to know about it and do what you can to battle it. And God bless you,” he concluded.
Leo XIV’s concern for the ethical use of AI
Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has expressed particular concern about the ethical use of AI. On June 7, the pontiff underscored the “urgent need” for “serious reflection and ongoing discussion on the inherently ethical dimension of AI as well as its responsible governance.”
A month later, in his message to participants at the AI for Good 2025 summit held in Geneva, Switzerland, he recalled that “although responsibility for the ethical use of AI systems begins with those who develop, manage, and oversee them, those who use them also share in this responsibility.”
In his letter, the pope urged the promotion of “regulatory frameworks centered on the human person” and “proper ethical management” of AI technologies at both the local and global levels.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Diego Lopez Marina has a degree in Communication Sciences with a specialization in journalism from the University of San Martín de Porres (Peru). He began his professional career in 2015, as an editor for the Journalistic Archive area of the Diario El Comercio. In 2016 he began working as an writer for ACI Prensa and since 2018 he has been working as a web editor.
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