LA Auxiliary Bishop Sławomir Szkredka named to US Bishops’ AI task force

Auxiliary Bishop Sławomir Szkredka of Los Angeles will serve on the U.S. bishops’ new task force on Artificial Intelligence, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Friday. 

Szkredka will serve alongside eight other U.S. bishops on the task force, including Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and committee chairman Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, whose diocese includes much of Silicon Valley, considered the hub of AI innovation. 

The task force was announced in September after bishops from the USCCB’s Administrative Committee met with "representatives from a variety of tech firms and specialists" in Washington D.C. 

According to the USCCB, the task force will engage institutions and tech companies developing AI technologies while helping the Catholic Church in the U.S. respond “faithfully, prudently, and effectively to the opportunities and challenges presented by AI related emerging technologies.”

The other bishop members of the task force announced Oct. 16 are Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre of Louisville, Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Richmond, Va., Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth, and Auxiliary Bishop James Massa of Brooklyn.

The USCCB also announced the appointment of three laypeople to serve as consultants to the task force: bioethicist and moral theologian Charlie Camosy of the Catholic University of America; Kim Daniels, director of Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life; and University of Notre Dame philosophy professor Meghan Sullivan, also the director the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good.

Szkredka, 52, currently serves as episcopal vicar for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Santa Barbara Pastoral Region. He served temporarily as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Monterey from 2025 to 2026 following Bishop Daniel Garcia’s departure to lead the Diocese of Austin, Texas. 

Originally from Poland, Szkredka is a noted biblical scholar who holds a doctorate in Sacred Scripture from Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese in 2002. 

OSV News contributed to this report.