Friday Links
October 9, 2026
Pledge Against AI Catholic Content and Text (PAACCT)
The New Sense and Sensibility Lacks Austen’s Comic Vision
Should You Study the Humanities at a Christian School as a Non-Christian?
Thomistic Artists Guild Art and Virtue Conference May 30, 2026 Keynote Speaker: Thomas Mirus
The Gardener: A Gentle Story for Families About Child Loss
Painting with Music | Fall Concert 2026
Pledge Against AI Catholic Content and Text (PAACCT)
CatholicCulture.org has composed a pledge on AI use for Catholic content. This is a very well considered pledge. I encourage everyone to read and sign it.
Editor’s note: The Pledge Against AI Catholic Content and Text (PAACCT) is an initiative of CatholicCulture.org, inviting Catholic institutions, writers, editors, artists, and media producers to stand together to uphold the essential human activities of thought and communication against the ongoing attempt to replace them with so-called artificial intelligence. By making a public commitment to eschew certain uses of AI and to use it otherwise responsibly and honestly, the signatories practice transparency in their own work and set a standard for Catholic use and non-use of AI in accord with the Church’s understanding of the person, society, and culture, following the lead of Pope Leo XIV.
The New Sense and Sensibility Lacks Austen’s Comic Vision
This is hardly surprising considering some of the casting, but Beatrice Scudeler sums up the other problems quite nicely here:
Georgia Oakley’s new Sense and Sensibility film adaptation is a tragedy. Not in the sense that it is bad. In fact, aside from Marianne’s scraggly hair and some weird interpretative dance interlude, it is thoroughly pleasant to watch. Shot entirely on film, the movie’s soft, warm lighting is especially delightful to see in this digital-camera age of drab grayness. But the film is a tragedy nonetheless, in the literary sense of the word: It refuses to capture Jane Austen’s comic vision of the world.
Should You Study the Humanities at a Christian School as a Non-Christian?
I don’t know Benjamin at all, though I am also a UST MFA graduate. I found this a really insightful post, and, well worth reading even if his particular situation is not one you face. His insights seem to me to be helpful when considering all sorts of choices (such as where to work or live, what groups to join, etc). Benjamin is also making the case here for not dumbing education (and other worthy endeavors) down because they are difficult and challenging:
Learning is a discipline that requires zeal extending beyond what you are taught in the classroom. It is long, arduous work that implies a love of self-mastery and improvement for its own sake, whether you view this through a spiritual dimension or otherwise. It implies not wanting to have more, but to be more. Learning is an end in itself.
Thomistic Artists Guild Art and Virtue Conference May 30, 2026 Keynote Speaker: Thomas Mirus
Thomas Mirus speaks on “The Creator Spirit and the Soul of Art”
The Gardener: A Gentle Story for Families About Child Loss
Pre-order is available for The Gardener, a children’s book written to support families navigating miscarriage or the loss of a child without overwhelming children with explanations they may not be ready for.
Painting with Music | Fall Concert 2026
Join cellist Larissa Fedoryka and pianist Jonathan Culbreath for an intimate evening of music and storytelling at Thomas Aquinas College: "Painting with Music." In this concert and lecture, Larissa explores how music acts as a powerful vehicle to encounter God and beauty, sharing insights on how to actively listen to classical pieces through imagery, emotion, musical form, and historical context.