Bishop of The Cloud?

Data Centers in Ashburn, VA

A Catholic diocesan bishop is responsible for all of Christ’s faithful in his territory whether they reside there or are visiting, according to Canon Law. He is instructed to act with humanity toward those who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church. He is also “to consider the non-baptized as commended to him in the Lord, so that the Charity of Christ, of which the Bishop must be a witness to all, may shine also on them” (Can. 383). He is also required to visit the whole of his diocese every five years.

On these visits, some bishops may have noticed cranes and new buildings sprouting up. Some bishops more than others. These very real new structures are what’s casually referred to as “The Cloud.” Who can claim to be Bishop of this Cloud? For now, it likely is the Most Rev. Michael F Burbidge, the Bishop of Arlington in Virginia.   

Virginia has two Catholic dioceses and at least 319 operational data centers. The epicenter for these is in the city of Ashburn about 35 miles outside of Washington, DC. Ashburn was built as a planned suburban community in the 1980s. In the 1990s non-governmental internet infrastructure and fiber-optic cables were built up in Northern Virginia suburbs and with that AOL decided to locate its headquarters in Ashburn. Equinix soon helped establish Ashburn as a key point of traffic for global networks. In the 2010s, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google all joined the data center build out and a master planned suburban community became “Data Center Alley.” 

The IM3 Open Source Data Center Atlas indicated there are 309 operational data centers in the boundaries of the Diocese of Arlington. That is more than one in five of all U.S. centers and more than most other countries. As of the publication of this post, China had a total of 369 and India 296.   

If you are on the East Coast of the U.S. and are sending a query to an AI model there’s a good chance it’s headed for data centers in the Diocese of Arlington. The map below shows the most recent known numbers of operating data centers by state in the U.S. according to the IM3 Open Source Data Center Atlas (some states are too small for labels: NJ 53, CT 5, MA 3, DE 0, and HI 0).

The next map shows the number of operational and planned data centers by state according to Data Center Map at the time of this post being researched/published (some states are too small for labels: NJ 67, CT 52, MA 42, DE 18, and HI 9). While Northern Virginia remains the major hub, the arch/dioceses of Texas are gaining ground fast.

With the recent publication of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Catholics have been called to consider the implications of the development of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Pope Leo XIV writes:

“…[T]echnology is not simply a tool. When it becomes the standard by which everything is judged, it begins to dictate what matters and what can be discarded, reducing creation to an object of exploitation and human beings to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency. This paradigm has spread rapidly in recent years, fueled in part by the expansion of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, nanotechnology, robotics and biotechnology. In themselves, these innovations can greatly serve integral human development and the care of our common home. Yet precisely because of their power, they can also hasten the expansion of the technocratic paradigm and therefore require a new spiritual, ethical and political framework. More power does not necessarily imply something better.”

He begins his conclusion with the following: 

“‘Let each builder choose with care how to build’ (1 Cor 3:10). With these words, Saint Paul encouraged the Christians of Corinth to preserve unity. Dear brothers and sisters, we have reflected on the world we are building, and we asked ourselves what it means to safeguard the human person in the era of artificial intelligence.”

The bishops of dioceses where these data centers have been and are being built are the Church’s eyes and ears over what the AI and technology companies are choosing to construct. 

Pope Leo XIII was instrumental in navigating the Church through the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th Century. Rerum Novarum addressed the rights and duties of both capital and labor.  Pope Leo XIV may have began the work to do something similar in the 21st Century as the AI/Automation Revolution begins with his aforementioned encyclical. 

Being a “Bishop of the Cloud” may be an important individual on the ground for the Church as the changes ahead unfold. The current transition involves both environmental questions/care for creation and challenges to human dignity/dignity of work. These “clouds” are most notably now forming over bishops in Virginia, Texas, California, Illinois, and Ohio. 

Recalling the Black Catholic Bishops in the United States

This post was researched and written by CARA Research Assistant Ali Mumbach, M.A. 

This month the Archdiocese of Washington celebrated the installation Mass of Bishop Robert Boxie III and Bishop Gary Studniewski. The ordination of Bishop Robert Boxie was of particular recognition as he is the first African American to be ordained a bishop in almost a decade. He is also now the youngest bishop in the United States. Members of the local and national Black Catholic community showed up in numbers for the momentous occasion. With receiving the newest Black bishop, it is appropriate to recall the small but mighty group of Black bishops that he joins.

During the 237 years that Catholic dioceses have existed in the United States, there have been a total of 29 Black bishops. The first African American to be ordained a bishop was Most Reverend James August Healy, brother to Georgetown University President Fr. Patrick Healy S.J., in 1875.  As a mixed race person, Bishop Healy was “passé blanc”, meaning that his complexion was light enough that he (and his brothers) passed for white.  

Bishop James Healy, Portland, ME

Due to racism in the nation and in the Church, the next Black bishop was not ordained for nearly a century. In New Orleans, LA in 1965, Most Reverend Harold R. Perry, SVD was ordained to the episcopate.

Ordination of Bishop Harold Perry, SVD

Bishop Harold Perry’s ordination began a trend of appointments coming out of Louisiana. The Bayou state far exceeds others with a third of the Black bishops hailing from the state (four Black bishops were born outside the U.S.). Not surprisingly, the areas of the country with the highest concentrations of Black Catholics produced the men that would one day serve as bishops in the Catholic Church, as shown in the map below.

Data from Catholic Hierarchy

Following Vatican II, the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and the Black Catholic movement of the ’80s and ’90s, there came a noticeable increase in Black priests appointed to bishop. The number of Black bishops doubled in size between 1975 and 1980 (from 3 to 6), and again between 1980 and 1990 (from 6 to 13). Finally having some seats at the table, it was in 1979 that the bishops wrote the first pastoral letter addressing racism in “Brothers and Sisters to Us.” In this letter, the bishops called racism an evil in society and the Church. Throughout the decade of the ’90s, there were a total of 18 Black men that served within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The figure below presents the number of Black bishops throughout the decades.

Since that time, due to a combination of aging members and lack of new appointments, the number of Black bishops has steadily declined. By 2025, there were half as many active Black bishops in the Conference as there were during the peak in 1990. As of 2026, with the retirement of Bishop Roy Campbell and appointment of Bishop Robert Boxie, there are currently five active Black bishops out of 273 total bishops. This represents 2% of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, while Black Catholics make up 5% of adult Catholics in the U.S. The figure below demonstrates the percentage of Black bishops relative to total bishops from 1875 up to present day. As the Catholic church in the U.S. continues to grow in diversity, those who shepherd the faithful should reflect those in the pews, so as to better understand the perspectives and experiences of those under their care.

 

The (Non-)Impact of Disclosure Day

Steven Spielberg believes his new film, Disclosure Day, may begin to raise important theological questions. Survey data indicate this is unlikely.

Spoiler warning. The movie is about a fictional disclosure that intelligent alien life exists. In a recent CBS Sunday Morning Interview Spielberg said, “The movie also takes the position of the church. What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? Is God only our God on this planet? Or is God a God for every system where there is civilization?” 

First, I am not aware that there is a “position of the church” on alien life. Monotheistic religions tend to believe that God is the creator of all things. Spielberg has included a Catholic sister as a key character in the film. Perhaps he was alluding to the position of the Catholic Church specifically? I am not aware of an official position of the Catholic Church on aliens. We don’t have any encyclicals on this yet. Pope Leo XIV just finished discussing AI. Not sure if aliens are on the encyclical schedule yet. In 2014, Pope Francis did address a hypothetical alien visit in a homily as such:

"If—for example—tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here... Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them... And one says, 'But I want to be baptized!' What would happen? When the Lord shows us the way, who are we to say, 'No, Lord, it is not prudent!… Who are we to close the doors to the Holy Spirit? If then God gave aliens the same gift He gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?”

A decade ago, CARA surveyed the U.S. adult population nationally about science and religion topics—including alien life. The survey included 1,927 respondents with an over-sample of 1,010 Catholics. The survey asked, “How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements: If science finds evidence of life elsewhere in the universe, this would be incompatible with the teachings of my faith.”

At that time, 18% or fewer of those affiliated with a religion agreed (somewhat or strongly) that the confirmation of life elsewhere in the universe would be incompatible with their understanding of their faith. The religiously unaffiliated are the most likely to agree with this (21%). A majority of Evangelical Christians disagreed that finding life elsewhere in the universe would conflict with their faith.

It is very unlikely that Disclosure Day is going to inspire the theological discussion or discomfort Mr. Spielberg may have envisioned. While learning about the existence of intelligent alien life would be one of the biggest stories in our history, the polling data indicates this would not likely challenge the religious beliefs of Americans. 

The Disclosure Day Hypothetical
The premise of Disclosure Day is not without merit. Many scientists believe intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe. They would argue that in such an unimaginably large expanse with so many stars and worlds there are likely other instances of intelligent life. At the same time, the Fermi Paradox asks “where is everybody?” This paradox has had several different potential answers or solutions. 

One potential solution harkens to the aforementioned size of the universe (in addition to its rate of expansion). Realistically, to travel any great distance in the universe implies a one-way journey. One would need an exceptionally fast spaceship. This ship presumably could not break the laws of physics as we know them.  

An alien visiting from the Andromeda Galaxy next door to the Milky Way Galaxy would need to travel more than 2.5 million light-years to get here. Their ship could not move faster than light or likely approaching anything near that speed. Thus, the journey would take billions of years realistically with technologies we can envision. Yet again, if this is really intelligent life we are talking about… What if they created a spaceship capable of travelling 95% the speed of light and there was no space debris in their way to annihilate them on their unthinkably fast journey? 

At 95% the speed of light the trip from Andromeda would take a much shorter time of approximately 821,000 years. When their journey ends the time passed back on their home planet would still span more than 2.6 million years meaning the civilization they left would be long gone (...as the result of time dilation. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, which isn’t a theory and is an empirical reality or your GPS would not work, has shown that the faster you move through space, the slower you move through time. Here is a handy calculator to estimate the distortions). Whatever mission these aliens would have come on would be forgotten by those who presumably sent them. The journey would be pointless unless they were looking for a new home and again were willing to survive through an enormous number of generations on a spaceship to get here. 

Surely there may be alien intelligent life here in our own Milky Way Galaxy. What if the ship needed to only span a quarter of the Milky Way? That’s 25,000 light years. At 95% the speed of light this would be a more manageable journey of just more than 8,200 years (while more than 26,000 years pass on your home planet).

Some believed that the interstellar object Atlas 3I might be an alien spacecraft. If it is, its journey began long ago and it doesn’t seem to be heading back to where it came from. It is so slow that it won’t even leave our solar system until after 2030 traveling at just 150,000 miles per hour (0.022 the speed of light). If it collected data on Earth and its inhabitants it won’t be delivering that package “back home” for a very, very long time. For example, if their home was 5 light years away, at current speeds, it would reach that destination in 22,727 years. It is simply not an alien spacecraft or probe. It’s just a comet.

It’s funny how science can often get in the way of science fiction. Few movies take aspects of the universe like time dilation seriously (one excellent exception being Interstellar from 2014). For example, there never would have been any point for Spielberg’s E.T. phoning home with his Speak & Spell device in 1982. Anyone he knew on his home planet would have been dead for many generations when his call came in. 

Another example would be my favorite episode of The Twilight Zone, “To Serve Man.” In that story aliens show up on earth with a book entitled “To Serve Man” and this is interpreted through their actions. They provide cures for diseases and make us healthier. We assume the best intentions. But only as humans begin to board their ships to visit the aliens’ home planet do they learn that “To Serve Man” is a cookbook. Why would an alien travel tens if not hundreds of thousands of years to convert humans into a food source for back home when whoever they left would have died of hunger long ago? I guess sometimes science and physics can be a bit comforting. The laws of physics likely prevent us from becoming lunch for aliens.

Realistically, if a “disclosure day” ever happened, the aliens would have arrived here after a very long journey in space without any memory of what the ground of a planet feels like. They’d have no hope (or desire likely) of going back home or even contacting someone they once knew. They would be homeless refugees. While the Catholic Church doesn’t have any “position” on their existence as Spielberg seems to presume, it does teach about how refugees should be treated. I think that might be a good place to start...