Congregation Responds to Pope’s Encyclical
Yesterday Pope Leo XIV gifted the church with the latest addition to Catholic Social Teaching, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.
"Humanity," he begins, "created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible."
After our first read of the encyclical, we see great synchronicity with the call of our Chapter Theme, Being Yeast and Bearing Hope ... We are made for a time such as this." We offer below some excerpts and resources. We invite the visitors to this page to spend time reading and praying with this important document as our Congregation prepares for Chapter in September. We expect that like Laudato Si', it will have a lasting impact and provide inspiration for the ways we are called to release our charism.
Shared Responsibility
"[B]uilding a world in which everyone can flourish requires shared responsibility and courage. No one can singlehandedly bear the weight of the challenges the world is facing, just as no one is so weak that they cannot play their part, for “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). All are given their own section of the wall: scientists and researchers, entrepreneurs and workers, educators and legislators, civil society, popular movements and faith communities. This is the logic of subsidiarity, which values the cooperation between generations, peoples, disciplines and cultures as the best way for fostering stability, prosperity and peace. We should not be intimidated by tensions or differences because they can become creative forces when guided by shared responsibility." (13)
Social Doctrine as a Process of Discernment
"We cannot condone naïve enthusiasms, nor fuel unfounded fears. Instead, let us establish standards for discernment — the dignity of the human person, the universal destination of goods, the preferential option for the poor, care for our common home and peace — and let us translate these standards into practices such as responsible planning, the assessment of human and social impact, the inclusion of the most vulnerable, the promotion of digital literacy and guiding research and industry toward justice and peace." (14)
"In light of what has been said so far, the Church’s Social Doctrine can be seen more authentically. It is not a handbook of principles and norms to be applied, but a process of shared discernment. It is born from the encounter between the eternal truth of the Gospel and the questions of history. It allows itself to be challenged by the signs of the times, and draws nourishment from the contributions of science, culture and human experience. Therefore, when the dignity of our brothers and sisters is violated, when politics fails to address the tragedies of humanity, when the economy turns against the person or science oversteps the limits of its competence, the Church — together with other Christian denominations and believers of other religions — must make her voice heard, not in order to dominate, but to promote communion. Understood in this way, Social Doctrine becomes a theology of communion in history, a history in which the Word made flesh continues to be present through dialogue, memory and prophecy." (27)
Integral Human Development and Ecology
"At the heart of the Christian understanding of the human person lies the great biblical affirmation that men and women are created in the image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-27) of the Triune God. Created for relationship, every human person is planned and willed by God to enter into communion with him, with others and with creation. Human dignity does not depend on a person’s abilities, wealth or position in life, nor on the right or wrong choices made; instead, it is a gift that precedes and transcends each person, endowed by God as an expression of his unfailing love. For this reason, the human person always remains the “way for the Church” and the heart of every authentic path of integral human development." (50)
"In Laudato Si’, Francis provided the first significant systematic treatment of the environmental crisis in a social Encyclical, demonstrating that it is not an isolated issue, but rather the ecological aspect of the contemporary socio-economic crisis. His proposal for an integral ecology combined care for our common home with the preferential option for the poor, and strongly affirmed that “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” [48] cannot be separated. In this light, the universal destination of goods was brought to the forefront, alongside the critique of a technocratic paradigm that seeks to reduce everything to an object to be dominated; the defense of human labor threatened by the mindset of waste; and the need for intergenerational justice. Finally, he advocated for genuine dialogue between those working in the fields of politics and finance, so that neither would become self-referential." (43)
Technology and Artificial Intelligence
"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." (10)
"Technological innovations, including artificial intelligence, are not neutral, for they can either foster participation and justice or exacerbate inequality, control and exclusion. For this reason, they must be evaluated by asking a crucial question: Do they truly help individuals and peoples to become more humane and fraternal, while respecting our common home and future generations?" (85)
"Current AI systems require enormous amounts of energy and water, significantly influencing carbon dioxide emissions, and place heavy demands on natural resources. As their complexity increases, especially in the case of large language models, the need for computing power and storage capacity grows too, which requires an extensive network of machines, cables, data centers and energy-intensive infrastructure. For this reason, it is essential to develop more sustainable technological solutions that reduce environmental impact and help protect our common home." (101)
Power and Authority
"Living out justice in the Church means purifying ecclesial relationships and structures from distortions that give rise to inequality, lack of transparency and abuse of power. In this regard, listening to the victims of spiritual, economic, institutional, sexual and power-based abuse, as well as abuses of conscience, is an integral part of a journey toward justice, which includes acknowledging the harm done, just reparation and taking steps to prevent it from happening again. Every power is at the service of communion and mission. All authority is at the service of the People of God. This ministry of service is expressed not only through our faith celebrated and lived in the Sacraments, and in the adoption of a synodal style, but also in the concrete sharing of goods." (89)
Building Peace through Justice
"All of us, at every level, can contribute to building the foundation of peace, which is justice. We do not merely seek any kind of peace — such as an absence of conflict at any cost — but instead, the true peace born of justice. “There exists a very close connection between the justice of the individual and the peace of everyone.” Commenting on the psalm verse “justice and peace have embraced” ( Ps 84:11), Saint Augustine wrote: “There is no one who shuns the desire for peace, yet not everyone is willing to practice justice… But perform the works of justice, keeping in mind that justice and peace have embraced; they are not at odds with one another. Why do you set yourself against justice? Here, for example, is justice telling you not to steal, but you pay no heed; not to commit adultery, and you turn a deaf ear; not to do to others what you would not want done to yourself; not to say about your neighbor the things you would not want said about yourself… Do you therefore wish to attain peace? Then practice justice!” Let us never grow weary of seeking justice!" (215)
Resources
The Church is just beginning to read, reflect, and digest Magnifica Humanitas. We have already become aware of some resources, which we include below.
CSJP Connections
Professor Anna Rowlands of Durham University was one of the theologians that spoke at the Vatican when the encyclical was released. Professor Rowlands is the holder of the St. Hilda Chair in Catholic Thought and Practice at Durham University in England. She has been seconded to the General Secretariat of the Synod and Dicastery for Human Development of the Holy See. When Margaret Byrne, CSJP was Congregation Leader, the Congregation made a significant donation to Durham University to support the St. Hilda Chair of Catholic Social Thought and Practice and establishment of the Centre for Catholic Studies.
In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo calls on technology developers to embed a commitment to respect human rights and dignity in their systems and projects.
"I wish to address a special appeal to those who develop artificial intelligence. In one sense, technological innovation can represent human participation in the divine act of creation. Developers, therefore, bear a particular ethical and spiritual responsibility, for every design choice reflects a vision of humanity. Just as the creator of an artistic or literary work must consider the values it conveys, so developers are called to embed values in their projects with due seriousness: with transparency, responsibility toward affected communities and careful attention to ensuring that what is being cultivated is a genuine good." (111)
As a Congregation, we are committed to using our rights as investors to call on companies to do just that. On June 3, our proposal will be considered by shareholders of the AI firm Palantir, asking them to conduct and publish a Human Rights Impact Assessment examining actual and potential human rights impacts associated with the use of their products and services. You can read more about our shareholder proposal here. More than 100 faith-based organizations and leaders have signed onto an interfaith letter in support of our proposal. Thirty-four investors have signed onto another letter in support. Please keep the June 3 Annual General Meeting in your prayers.
Praying with Mary of the Magnificat
Pope Leo ends Magnifica Humanitas with a call to prayer: "These avenues for exercising responsibility are sustained by prayer, and in turn nourish prayer. ... Let us never tire of praying for peace and of committing ourselves to achieving it in our relationships and in society." (228).
He makes a special appeal to Mary of the Magnificat: "With the same faith as Mary, let us become “weavers of hope” in our world, sharing who we are and what we have, so that the presence of Jesus may grow among us and his Kingdom take shape. In the humble fidelity of daily life, even the era of AI can become a time in which the Holy Spirit brings about the civilization of love in our lives. Indeed, the Lord continues to make all things new and offers every era the possibility of becoming part of salvation history in the light of the Incarnation. I entrust our desire to the Mother of Christ, to the Woman of the Magnificat, that she may guide our steps through this time of change and preserve in each of us true faith in the Gospel, so that we may bear witness to the grandeur of humanity, in which God has made his dwelling." (245)