A Reflection on Magnifica Humanitas by Bishop Oscar Cantú of San José
When Pope Leo XIII wrote his encyclical, Rerum Novarum in 1891, the world was in the middle of a revolution it did not fully understand. Factories had transformed daily life. Workers were vulnerable. The future felt uncertain. The Church spoke then not to condemn progress, but to insist that progress had to service humanity, not the other way around.
We are living in that kind of moment again.
Pope Leo XIV is responding to the current moment with his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas noting the challenges that artificial intelligence brings to humanity today.
What strikes me most about the current moment is the fact that the creators of artificial intelligence are in many cases frightened by what they have created. The engineers and researchers who created these systems have been the ones reaching out to philosophers, theologians, and pastors seeking a moral voice on these immensely powerful technologies. That should give every one of us pause. And it should give us hope because it means the conversation Pope Leo XIV is inviting us into is one the world is already hungry for.
Through a review of the Church’s treasury of wisdom, Magnifica Humanitas offers a voice of caution and reorients our focus to the common good of humanity. Magnifica Humanitas does not ask us to fear artificial intelligence. It asks us to be wise about it. The use of such powerful technologies has the ability to do tremendous good in favor of humanity and yet to also cause irreparable damage to individuals, communities, and societies. It calls us back to what we already know: that the common good matters more than efficiency, that human dignity cannot be optimized away, that the decisions being made right now in laboratories, boardrooms, and legislatures, will shape our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren in ways we are only beginning to understand.
I encourage us all to read Magnifica Humanitas not only with an open mind and heart, but with hope in humanity. Hope that we can indeed be good and do good. Hope that humanity, guided by wisdom and grace, can choose to build something worthy of our dignity.
The Tower of Babel is not just a biblical story. It is a warning about what happens when power concentrates and wisdom is left out of the room. We have a chance, right now, to make different choices in the coming months regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence. The Church has something to say about that. And so do you.
📖 English (Full Vatican Text) Magnifica Humanitas (EN)
📖 Spanish (Full Vatican Text) Magnifica Humanitas (ES)
🎬 Magnifica Humanitas (Official Vatican Trailer) – English https://youtu.be/5CCiGJ6LGyc?si=HbJUjWkRxH2AZpBN
🎬 Magnifica Humanitas (Official Vatican Trailer) – Espanol https://youtu.be/Ned-3mtoxbU?si=e0crPFgeTNunSb7J