‘There are some questions a computer cannot solve’

By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

Photography: Tom Tracy

FORT LAUDERDALE | Father Mike Schmitz entered the green room of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts with his characteristic warm smile – and an extra bounce in his step.

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The midwestern priest and the support team for his speaking tour were just off what they described as a very energetic and large gathering in Clearwater the night before. Similarly, he would find a large, sold-out crowd at the Broward Center’s main symphony hall May 20, before traveling to a final Florida engagement in Jacksonville.

Father Mike Schmitz – a diocesan priest and youth director in the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, and one of the most popular priest-influencers on social media – was in South Florida May 20 as part of his Parables Tour, in which he unpacked the Gospel parables of Christ and offered fresh insights.

The event drew a cross section of youth, young adults and even senior citizens who likely are familiar with the priest through his popular YouTube videos and podcasts. In The Bible in a Year podcast produced by Ascension Press, Father Schmitz reads and discusses the whole Bible throughout a year of daily episodes, also adding his own commentary and prayer. Featuring Jeff Cavins, the podcast debuted #1 in Apple Podcasts (all categories) in both 2021 and 2022.

Father Schmitz’s Parables tour was reportedly part of a fundraising effort to support the Catholic Newman Center operations at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), where some 700 students and faculty come to meet and worship under Father Schmitz’ chaplaincy. The event proceeds went towards building a new church and a dedicated on-campus space for students seeking to engage in faith and fellowship.

Speaking with the Florida Catholic just before stepping on stage in Fort Lauderdale, Father Schmitz said his family used to vacation in Florida and that, more recently, he has participated in a Franciscan University of Steubenville-sponsored teen retreat in West Palm Beach, the Eucharistic Encounter in Tampa, and other Floridian events.

“We’ve had these (Parables) tours in maybe 20 or 21 cities, but I will say that the audience last night literally was by far the best and most responsive audience we have ever had,” the priest said of his stop on Florida’s West Coast.

“I was thinking I don’t want to get my hopes up for Fort Lauderdale because it was so good,” he added in jest.

Uniquely qualified to assess the spirituality of today’s Catholic youth, Father Schmitz weighed in on what he thinks Gen Z might most be searching for, along with the continuing role that an ancient faith institution such as the Catholic Church might have to offer in 2026.

The priest talked about the widespread angst and anxiety among youth.

“On a certain level (young people) are searching for authenticity: for someone, or a group, being who they claim to be… and that is the case for all of us, right?”

“We don’t respect hypocrisy – in fact, it has been the case for generations or even all of human history. Even Jesus was leveling a common criticism against hypocrites saying one thing and not even wanting to live up to that one thing,” he said.

The 2018 Synod of Bishops on "Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment" came at a time when the Church began to recognize that American Catholic youth increasingly see integrity and authenticity as lived consistency, and not just institutional conformity; where an “authentic” and “credible” church can “speak in practical terms about controversial subjects,” according to working documents preceding the Synod.

“And so I think we have to have integrity that who we are is who we claim to be,” Father Schmitz said on the topic.

But in addition to integrity, clarity and truth in Catholic teaching enjoy a prominent seat at the table for any Schmitz public discourse, online or in person. The human mind is made for truth and the human heart is made for goodness, he says, but “sometimes the way we present things and the way we say things has a lot to do with it.”

Turning to the subject of male teenagers’ and young adults’ struggles in particular, Father Schmitz offered that indifference is the underlying problem or obstacle to a less cynical faith life during male adolescence and young adulthood.

“You notice it if you are working with youth,” he said, especially in terms of inviting young men to participate more in church life.

“One of the things that I have seen more and more, particularly with people tired of being told online they have to live up to some (online) expectations… (is that) there becomes a rejection of it.”

Although the sexes both have a lot in common, the priest added, men are perhaps created to have a battle to fight, in the sense of a mission to pursue or live out; and women tend to be more oriented toward relationships.

“When a mission is not given or a mission is not worth fighting for is what (Harvard professor) Arthur C. Brooks says leaves a lack of meaning” – which is the number one crisis Brooks has identified and which is required to overcome modern emptiness and achieve true joy.

Trust issues, loneliness and anxiety among young people remain a troubling crisis among today’s students.

“In college campuses in the last 10 years, anxiety has overcome depression as the number one mental health challenge young people are facing,” Father Schmitz said. “Anxiety is fear of the future and is rooted in uncertainty.”

The remedy, he added, is an overarching sense of Christian hope.

“Christian hope is not just that I desire an outcome – it is knowing that I can trust in God, and extending that into the future is the answer for anxiety, I think.”

A return to Catholic tradition and authentic reverence among youth has been another antidote to modern-day angst. “There is something really compelling about the mystery and the ancient sense of the Mass or things we do as Catholics that are bigger than (yourself).”

Father Schmitz also discussed with the Florida Catholic the artificial intelligence phenomenon — a topic that Pope Leo XIV addresses in his May 25 landmark encyclical, Magnifica humanitas. Pope Leo compares the attempt to build an AI future that excludes God to the “Tower of Babel,” underlining the need to safeguard human dignity as it is “threatened by new forms of dehumanization.”

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As Father Schmitz shared, “I was talking with some people at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame University about a year ago, and one of the things that they highlighted was that every time we have invented some kind of technology, it was an extension of some human ability, such as our ability to move around in cars. And each time, we have stunted our ability to use that (human ability).”

Because today’s society is hyper-mobile, people don't walk as much as they used to. “Similarly, there is the human capacity to tell stories or remember things,” Father Schmitz pointed out: AI presents a similar scenario of extending human mental abilities to tackle complex problems.

“AI does a great job of solving complicated problems, but it cannot solve (all) complex problems,” the priest said.

“In the immediate future, I hope we can hold on to our humanity by recognizing there are some questions a computer cannot solve, no matter how developed the program is.”