Magnifica Humanitas, a powerful encyclical

Last week, I wrote about the first papal encyclical of Pope Leo XIV entitled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity): On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. In his introduction, the pope wrote about the main inspiration for his encyclical. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII published his encyclical Rerum Novarum which was the first official papal encyclical. This year, we commemorate the 135th anniversary of that document.

Pope Leo XIV wrote: “With that document, my beloved predecessor gave impetus to the reflection on society, the economy and politics which is now known as the Social Doctrine of the Church. When some objected that the Church should not waste energy on worldly matters but instead focus on communicating the message of eternal life, Leo XIII responded with realism and wisdom, saying that the proclamation of the Gospel cannot overlook the concrete lives of people. Many decades have passed since then and the Magisterium, pastors, theologians and faithful have continued to reflect on the social issues in the light of the gospel.”

Pope Leo XIV writes that there is a need today to “interpret the great trends of our time, particularly technological advances.”

He is addressing one of the most major issues confronting the world today. This refers to the onslaught of modern technology like digitalization, artificial intelligence and robotics and trying to provide guidance on how humanity will cope with these challenges. As he says, “Technology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice.”

He points out that technology can be a solution to humanity’s problems but it can also be a source of evil.

The encyclical is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is entitled “A Dynamic Approach Faithful to the Gospel.”

He writes of a Church journeying through human history and the wisdom of the word of God in dialogue with the human sciences. He then talks of social discernment as a shared document. He traces the development of social doctrine from Leo XIII to the present, including its first stages and the years of the Second Vatican Council.

Chapter Two is “Foundations and Principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church.” The foundations are the human person, the equal dignity of all human beings and the supreme value of human rights. The principles of social doctrine are the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity, social justice and integral human development.

In other readings, the Social Doctrine referred to by Leo XIV is also known as Catholic Social Teaching.

Chapter Three is “Technology and Dominance, the Grandeur of Humanity in Light of the Promises of AI.” In this chapter, the pope writes about the technocratic paradigm and digital power. He writes about artificial intelligence as a valuable tool that requires vigilance, responsibility, transparency and the governance of AI. He also writes that what must not be lost are the underlying narratives, transhumanism and posthumanism, the limit, the heart and the grandeur of the human person, the authentic “more than human” grace and Christian humanism.

Chapter Four is “Safeguarding Humanity at a Time of Transformation, Truth, Work, Freedom.” He writes about Truth as a common good: truth and democracy, communication and the collective imagination toward an ecology of communication, an educational alliance for the digital age, the central role of schools. He also writes about the dignity of work at a time of digital transformation: the value of work, the problem of unemployment, an economy that values dignity, families and young people, the social conditions for hope.

He further writes about protecting freedom against dependencies and commercialization, dependencies and societal control, breaking the chains of new forms of slavery and a shared responsibility.

Chapter Five in entitled “The Culture of Power and the Civilization of Love.”

He writes about the civilization of love in the digital age. Then he writes about the culture of power which includes the normalization of war, force without limits, weapons and artificial intelligence, the crisis of multilateralism and a supposed political realism.

He writes about building a civilization of love that we can all do our part, the need to disarm words, building peace through justice, adopting the perspective of victims, cultivating a healthy realism and reviving dialogue.

In the last chapter, the encyclical focuses on the risk that technology, if it is detached from ethics and responsibility, will render decisions about life and death more rapid and impersonal. The digital revolution is changing the nature of conflict. Therefore, the fine line between protecting ourselves and the coming aggressors is becoming blurred. The world is developing a culture in which the enemy is reduced to a statistic and victims, to “collateral damage.”

As with so many others, I have seen on television the destruction and the loss of human lives in places like Ukraine, Gaza and the Middle East, images of children and human beings in extreme suffering, and these are simply referred to as collateral damage.

This papal encyclical must be read, especially by those leaders like Netanyahu and Putin, whose decisions have caused so much suffering and loss of lives in this world.