Catholic Social Teaching – little known, seldom preached, under taught (even in seminaries), and rarely applied to the life and death situations facing humanity – has now been pushed by Pope Leo from the periphery of Catholic consciousness to the front and center of what the Catholic Church teaches and needs to live.
Pope Leo, in his newly published, first encyclical letter Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), applies nearly half of his highly authoritative letter to the principles and applications of Catholic Social Teaching – also known as the Social Doctrine of the Church.
In our world, where technology – especially artificial intelligence (AI) – is moving at lighting speed, the Holy Father strongly feels that without clear, comprehensive moral guardrails, it is very possible that AI will become significantly uncontrollable, thus posing grave risks to humanity.
But on the other hand, kept within a highly moral framework where AI is completely at the service of humanity, enriching the common good, it could very well become a highly valuable tool for promoting social justice, environmental health, global peace, and human dignity. And this is where the principles of Catholic Social Teaching comes in.
Catholic Social Teaching, unfortunately long known as the Catholic Church’s best kept secret, has now – with Pope Leo’s encyclical letter “Magnificent Humanity” – been fully brought to the forefront of Catholic doctrine, thus enabling it to more effectively apply its Gospel-based principles to all of the many life and death situations confronting modern humanity – with a special emphasis on the uncompromised centrality of the dignity of each and every human person.
Catholic Social Teaching principles Pope Leo highlights in “Magnificent Humanity” are:
- The Common Good: As summarized by the Second Vatican Council the common good is “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.”
- The Universal Destination of Goods: “The earth’s goods – soil, water, air, and natural resources … new forms of property, such as patents, algorithms, digital platforms, technological infrastructure and data … are given by God to the entire human family to sustain the lives of all, and that every person has an inherent right to the use of such goods, both now and in the future.”
- Subsidiarity: “The role of individuals, families, local communities, and intermediary organizations should not be supplanted by higher-level authorities,” but should be fully assisted by them. Decisions must be made “at the closest level possible to the persons involved. … especially in the context of the digital revolution.”
- Solidarity: “Faith invites us to see this reality [solidarity] as a call: we are not merely neighbors to one another, but entrusted to each other, so that each of us may take responsibility, as best we can, for the lives and wounds of our brothers and sisters.”
- Social Justice: The principle of “social justice is characterized by the capacity of social, economic and political order to allow everyone – particularly the weakest – to live a truly dignified life, without leaving anyone behind.”
“Magnificent Humanity’s” section on weapons and artificial intelligence has much to say about the evils of war becoming even more evil with AI.
“It is not permissible to entrust lethal or otherwise irreversible decisions to artificial systems. No algorithm can make war morally acceptable. AI does not remove the intrinsic inhumanity of conflict; indeed it can only bring about conflict more quickly and render it more impersonal, lowering the threshold for resorting to violence, transforming defense into threat prediction and thus reducing victims to data.”
In “Magnificent Humanity” Pope Leo authoritatively teaches the “just war” theory “is now outdated.”
The many serious problems and increasing threats facing us from unregulated technology like AI can easily feel overwhelming. But like St. Mother Teresa who said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples,” Pope Leo is likewise urging each of us to cast our stone across the waters, and together change the world. He writes, "The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization."
Here is an excellent link to the Vatican summary of Pope Leo’s encyclical “Magnificent Humanity” together with a very inspiring short video https://www.humandevelopment.va/en/magnifica-humanitas.html), and a helpful pastoral kit for group reflection https://bit.ly/3PIiUyo.
Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. He can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.
