Magnifica Humanitas: Leo critiques Godless society and ‘cultural blindness’
The Pope's first encyclical addresses not just AI but global conflicts, human dignity, Catholic social teaching and the nature of man and his ultimate goal.
Leo XIV’s first encyclical warns about the dangers of a technologically advanced yet God-less society, urging collaboration amongst peoples to once again work from a Christological foundation, an ordered view of human dignity, and to posit activity in pursuit of God. The text is, in essence, an appeal to humanity for every man to be a good citizen towards his neighbor in the wake of a world rapidly changing with the rise of technology and the disappearance of God from the public realm.
“The risk of dehumanization — of building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means — is an ancient and ever-new temptation that today takes on a technical guise.” Such were among the opening words of Leo’s first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, signed on May 15 and published May 25.
The world is undergoing a rapid “change of era,” acknowledged Pope Leo XIV as he opened his text, comprised of five chapters, an introduction and a summary conclusion. As humanity undergoes such a transition and assesses the impacts on technological advancements, each person – he said – must ask these questions: “Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community?”
By the time of arriving at Leo’s final pages the answers to such questions have been presented throughout the course of the text. The Pope urges a Christological focus in life; the practice of a life – in any era and with any technological advancement – which is given meaning through living in imitation of Christ’s humility and suffering: a “Eucharistic spirituality”; a life and world with “the acceptance of human limitations as a natural and positive reality, and [which] should be characterized by shared responsibility and a language characterized by the Gospel.”
AI – Papal verdict and intervention
Leo’s encyclical deals especially with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the “era of AI,” but not simply that. It also delves into the history of the Catholic Church’s social teaching, and of the basis of such pronouncements and the truths they are founded in. The pope writes about the issues regarding man, dignity and the condition of human work, the benefits of technology and also the limits which must be set upon it. He delves into the rise of bloody conflict and the just war theory.
He does not come down advocating against AI – indeed he could not realistically do so given the already advanced stage of its spread throughout the world. Rather he warns against attempts to advance such technology in a manner devoid from God and from an acceptance of Christianity.
Technology, and thus AI, is not somehow evil in itself nor “a force antagonistic to humanity,”, writes the Pope. Neither is it “a solution to humanity’s problems,” something which is so widely overlooked today to the point of the opposite actually being generally practiced.
But Leo wrote that technology, like any tool, is impacted greatly by the one wielding it, and especially so for something so powerful and potentially devastating as AI. “In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it.” According to the Pope, the danger now facing humanity in the “era of AI” lies in the fact that with immense technological advances bringing as yet unknown ramifications, the “longterm effects they may have on both the dignity of individuals and the common good” remain to be seen.
In this setting, man and particularly the Church, must determine the parameters for operating such new technology and utilizing it. There is a need to “establish adequate regulatory tools capable of upholding justice and curbing the distorting effects of technological power,” wrote Leo. Not merely to regulate it, but also “to begin a shared discernment process for identifying the spiritual and cultural roots of ongoing transformations.”
As to why the Church should engage in this matter of secular technological advancement, Leo cited his predecessor and name-sake, Pope Leo XIII, who – when asked the same question – replied “that the proclamation of the Gospel cannot overlook the concrete lives of people.” As Leo told the College of Cardinals just after his election last year, the Church today “offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.”
“In the era of artificial intelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human,” reads Magnifica Humanitas.
Scripture and tradition
The Pope’s framework for tackling the topic of AI (or even technology generally) and the correct societal response is found in two scriptural passages: the building of the Tower of Babel and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. The building of the Tower of Babel is the image par excellence for highlighting the attempts of man to display his own power whilst turning his back on God. Referencing this, Leo wrote:
“Babel thus reveals the limits of any effort that, however grandiose, arises from self-affirmation, sacrifices human dignity for efficiency and aspires to reach heaven without God’s blessing.”
In contrast, the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile is, wrote Leo, “an undertaking with God at the center, which rebuilds relationships before rebuilding with stones.” The endeavor is one of “communion, namely the harmony that arises when all persons assume their own role and recognize that their strength comes from the Lord.”
All of the Church’s social teaching, he wrote, “brings us to the very heart of our faith: the mystery of the living God, revealed in Jesus Christ.” When it comes to the question of man and AI in particular, Leo pointed to “the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity and social justice.”
Going further and applying these elements to the Church’s daily life, Leo commented that the Church’s social doctrine is not just aimed at wider society, but “is also an examination of conscience for the Church.” This, he added, is because “only to the extent that we are open to the action of the Holy Spirit will these principles of Social Doctrine become incarnate in ecclesial life.”
More than the previews led to believe
The Pope’s encyclical is not just limited to the issues of AI.
Leo also warns against trans-humanist ideas which view man – a jewel of God’s creation – as just another transactional item which can be improved by technology under “an outlook that devalues human limits and promises a purely technical form of ‘salvation.’”
Trans-humanism – and other ideologies seeking an “enhanced and almost disembodied humanity” – reveal a human yearning for “a fuller life, less exposed to limitations and suffering,” but which does not align with the path of Christ.
As noted above, Leo links the rejection of this fake perception of human existence to Christ Incarnate. “The Incarnation opens a different pathway,” writes Leo. “What saves humanity is the divine love that descends into the most fragile point of our history and renews it from within.”
He posits the human face of Christ – combined with the humility, suffering and death of Christ on the cross – as the antidote to the technological world which sees man as data points to be altered purely for profit. “Our rule,” wrote Leo, “should be the acceptance of human limitations as a natural and positive reality, and should be characterized by shared responsibility and a language characterized by the Gospel.”
Another element of the encyclical is Leo’s attention to the call he and his predecessors in the papal throne have made repeatedly: “never again war.” He decried the rise of local and international conflicts, along with the fact that there is currently a “paradigm shift in public discourse and in decisions regarding rearmament, with a troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics, while the very ethical principles that had previously limited its use are being eroded.”
Notably, Leo quoted Pope Francis to attest that the Church’s just war theory “is now outdated.” This, he argued, is because “humanity possesses far more effective and capable tools for promoting human life and resolving conflicts, such as dialogue, diplomacy and forgiveness. The use of force, violence and weapons reflects a relational poverty that always has disastrous consequences for civilian populations.”
“We live at a time of significant spiritual and cultural blindness,” opined Leo in one of his more striking lines. He took direct aim at the global rhetoric stoking tensions and fueling rearmament, will also accusing nations of washing their hands of moral atrocities in the name of politics:
“What was once considered unacceptable can now be carried out almost without hesitation, while the international response is increasingly influenced more by the interests of individual Governments than by the objective gravity of situations.”
Babel or Jerusalem?
Leo’s encyclical is far more than just about AI, in contrast to what had been previously anticipated.
Certainly it is without doubt written in the age of AI, and by way of a response to AI and the technological revolution which it embodies. There is no doubt that Leo discerns a great threat to the very manner of daily life, given the rise of AI and concomitant technologies.
But much deeper than that, the encyclical is essentially a cry from the heart of Pope Leo appealing to society to calm down from the brink of social, moral, international and physical demise, and return to the practice of Christian principles in every stage of daily life. He is urging men to question whether the life of endless entertainment and advancement is genuinely fulfilling or if the yearning they still feel can be filled by the Incarnate Christ.
The choice, he writes, is “between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence.”
This last phrase is key, in that much of the encyclical is framed in language resembling more social morals of goodwill, rather than adamantly Catholic evangelical terminology. This fits both with Leo’s style and that of the the papacy in recent decades, and thus is nothing new.
One key danger is that – much like shouting into the wind – Leo’s heartfelt and impassioned plea might fall onto deaf ears precisely because it is trying too hard to be acceptable to worldly ears. Its content, though replete with Scriptural citations and ecclesial pronouncements, appears at times to be aimed at a more secular version of simply peaceful coexistence than a Catholic one of conversion: “As we await its fulfillment, this vision is set before us as an encouragement — a call to overcome our divisions and to work together — for this is the way of Jesus Christ, yesterday, today and forever.”
This is certainly not always the case, however, and at various moments throughout the document Leo points to Christ as the source of man’s fulfillment, the origin of the Church’s teaching regarding basic standards of decent moral living, and the meaning of existence.
