Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Greetings from Malta. We continue our brief study of Magnifica Humanitas of Pope Leo XIV. This week I had the opportunity of meeting two very smart guys who work in AI. Very interesting work. At one point I asked if they had read the Magnifica Humanitas. I was disappointed to hear that they had never even heard about it! What a pity! Yet, both acknowledged that AI can be used for the good or otherwise of humanity. I encouraged them to read and reflect upon it.
The Pope refers to two philosophical currents: transhumanism and posthumanism. They relate to the future of technology. Transhumanism advocates using technology to overcome or enhance the limits of the human condition. Posthumanism goes further, imagining that humanity itself may be surpassed, replaced, or merged with machines or other forms of life.
Magnifica Humanitas critiques these visions when they treat the human person as something to be perfected, surpassed, or optimized. Pope Leo warns: “If the human being is treated as something to be perfected or surpassed, it becomes easier to accept that some lives are less useful, less desirable or less worthy” (MH 117). Against this, the encyclical insists that history can be changed for the better “when individuals truly take the dignity of everyone seriously” (MH 124).
The fulfillment of humanity, in all its magnificence and woundedness, does not come through “technological divinization,” but through “God’s grace received in Christ” (MH 126).
Pope Leo’s encyclical is not the first one to address technological issues. Many popes have addressed the social, moral, and theological dimensions of new technologies. Pope Pius XII (1957) addressed film, radio, and television; Pope St. John Paul II described the opportunities that came with the internet as “a new forum for proclaiming the Gospel” (2002); Pope Benedict XVI taught in Caritas in Veritate (2009) that technology is an expression of human freedom that must be governed by charity and truth; and Pope Francis addressed artificial intelligence directly in his 2024 messages on peace and communication. Finally: what can be done may only be done to enhance humanity, not to degrade it. What do you think?
God bless you.
Fr Silvio