Forget Superintelligence — The Real Fight Is Spiritual Warfare, and It’s All Around Us

Several years ago I read a book called Machine, Platform, Crowd. The authors were talking about how technology was going to change everything. Machines would get smarter, big platforms would connect people in new ways, and groups of ordinary people working together online could sometimes do more than the experts. A lot of what they described is already here. There is plenty of talk now about the power of AI and the problems that come with it. Fake videos can make it look like someone said or did something they never did. That can ruin a person’s name or cause real harm. Inside a family it can be especially damaging. At the same time the same technology can help doctors catch disease earlier and give more independence to people who need it. There is both good and bad.

But the more I listen to the talk about AI, the more something else keeps coming back to me. The bigger danger is already here, and it is not coming from machines. This is a fight of good against evil. Evil hides behind talk of inclusion and acceptance, and behind the idea that there is no real right or wrong. God is treated as whoever you want Him to be. People are worshipping themselves. God does not make mistakes about gender. Children are being put through irreversible procedures to try to change their sex, sometimes without their parents even knowing. Unborn babies are ended because a pregnancy is inconvenient. Families are being redefined so that a mother and father raising their own children is treated as optional. People who simply want children are mocked. Drag shows have been brought into schools. Pornographic books have been added to school libraries—books so explicit that responsible adults would not read them aloud in public, yet there is pressure to keep them available to children. No one could have imagined that this country would ever accept men in women’s locker rooms. A man physically competing against a woman and being celebrated for it is evil and against everything this country stands for. It is sick to see the beautiful gift of life mocked. I cannot get out of my head the images of transgender people flashing themselves on the White House grounds during the previous administration. This is evil. Yet if anyone says so, they are called a racist or told they hate people. Being openly Christian is, in many places, treated as a liability. We worry that AI might one day destroy the world, yet we have already allowed a culture to take root that treats the most basic truths about human life and family as negotiable. I am less worried about AI and more worried about the evil that is terminating our society today. And if you speak up about it, you are attacked.

As a Marine we focused every day on preparing for the fight. The fight is here now, and it is spiritual warfare. In battle you have good days and bad. The same is true with the spiritual battle. We all stumble, but the fight is won by the ones who do not give up. We need to have the same tenacity in this fight against evil. Stay in the attack. Life on this earth is short. Eternity is not. Too many people are living only for the next headline, the next click, the next measure of online approval. Power, wealth, and media prestige are pursued as if they were the most important things. Meanwhile the quiet, daily work of raising children, caring for the elderly, and simply going to church is treated as outdated or even harmful. Euthanasia is framed as compassion. Religious practice is portrayed as the problem. A relatively small number of determined voices can shape policy and media so thoroughly that the many good people who still believe in natural law feel silenced.

The successes of prayer, of Medjugorje, and of the good changes happening are not celebrated or known by many. The successes are hidden. Worldwide the Catholic Church continues to grow. Recent Vatican statistics show the number of Catholics rose by about 16.7 million to roughly 1.42 billion, with growth on every continent and Africa leading the way. In the United States, adult conversions into the Church at Easter 2026 were up roughly 38 percent on average compared with the year before, with some places and college campuses seeing even larger increases. Medjugorje is responsible for so many people going into religious vocations and for renewing vocations that were already there. When Mary and I were in Medjugorje we were told we were there because the Gospa had invited us to be there. That invitation, and the grace that comes with it, has changed countless lives.

Mary and I before the Divine Mercy statue during our pilgrimage to Medjugorje.

This is why the messages of the Blessed Mother in Medjugorje matter so much right now. Her main messages have always been about peace—peace in people’s hearts, peace in the family, and peace in the world. She has repeated this call for decades because the need has never gone away. Today we see conflicts continuing around the world, with thousands of people being killed and injured. The violence is real, and the suffering is immense. Yet the messages insist that lasting peace does not begin in conference rooms or on battlefields. It begins in the heart that has been reconciled with God, then in the family that prays together, and only then can it spread outward. She keeps telling us to pray the Rosary, to fast, to go to Confession, and to protect the family, because evil is active and seeks to destroy both the individual soul and the family itself.

The rocky paths of Apparition Hill and Cross Mountain — a reminder that the spiritual climb is real and shared.

MaryTV uses the same modern technology that spreads so much evil to fight evil and to convert people to her Son Jesus. From your living room you can join St. James Parish in Medjugorje for Mass, the Hour of Mercy, the daily Rosary, Adoration, and live views of Apparition Hill, Cross Mountain, the Blue Cross, and the church itself. One of the best features is the Fruit of Medjugorje series, with over 600 testimonies of people whose lives have been changed. The same tools that push false narratives are carrying the call to prayer, the Rosary, and the messages of the Queen of Peace to people who might never travel there.

Mary and I with my sisters Elizabeth and Margaret, and Margaret’s husband Jerry, during our pilgrimage in Medjugorje.

At first I wondered why she said the same things over and over. Then I remembered that Our Lord did the same with His parables. He repeated the same truths because we are slow to hear what is essential. The majority of people are still good, but you would not know it from the loudest voices on the internet or on television. Prayer is the weapon that reaches where legislation and argument cannot. That is why Mary TV exists. That is why the daily messages continue. That is why Medjugorje remains a spiritual center for the world.

AI will keep advancing. Some of its uses will help people; some will be misused. We should be clear-eyed about both. But the deeper danger is not a machine. It is the human heart that has already decided natural law is optional and eternity can wait. The Blessed Mother keeps telling us the remedy is the same one she has always given: turn back to her Son, pray for peace in the heart and in the family, and protect what God has given. As Marines we are feared by our enemies. We are known that every Marine, regardless of specialty, is a rifleman. The spiritual battle will be won by prayer, and our weapon is the Rosary. The fight is here. It is spiritual warfare. In battle you have good days and bad. The same is true with the spiritual battle. We all stumble, but the fight is won by the ones who do not give up. We need to have the same tenacity in this fight against evil. Stay in the attack. The call has not changed because the need has not changed. We prepare for it the same way we always have—by staying close to her Son, by prayer, and by not giving in. Stay in the attack.

Vincent Coglianese, MajGen USMC (Ret)