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Church teachings are usually an internal affair. But once in a while, they generate interest even beyond the Church. Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, is one of those few exceptions. It has resonated with many, many people of other faiths and no faith. Why is that?
Pope Leo XIV chose his name primarily because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of Pope Leo XIII, who guided the Church during the Industrial Revolution. It was a turbulent time when machines began to take over manual human labour, resulting in the emergence of factories with dangerous working conditions, child labour and shockingly low wages. He believes that our world today is about to experience a similar disruption thanks to the so-called digital revolution, with artificial intelligence technologies being at the forefront of this epochal change.
Indeed, worrying headlines on AI alone have been steadily rising: fear of rising unemployment, safety concerns, sexual abuse, retrenchment, children’s education, disinformation, immense environmental cost, and many more. AI has been affecting our lives, society, and the entire world in ways few technologies could, and so far, the social, economic and environmental costs have been high. The younger generation, who has been a savvy adopter of the latest technologies, has also been increasingly disillusioned. This is why Pope Leo’s encyclical has resonated with many people, especially young working adults.
Yet, AI is far from being the only technology with far-reaching effects in this digital era. Debate on social media ban for children has reached this region, inequality fuelled by novel technologies is accelerating, and many others.
Ultimately, however, Magnifica Humanitas is not concerned primarily with these new digital technologies that are reshaping the world per se. Instead, it is about threats to human dignity posed by these new things and those who control them. The social costs of the latest technologies are merely symptoms of a world where the human person is increasingly devalued by a technocratic paradigm, which is “the tendency to let the logic of efficiency, control and profit alone shape personal, social and economic decisions” (92). For example, we see this technocratic paradigm play out when companies replace workers with automation purely to increase profit.
The Church believes that every human person has infinite dignity because each person is created in the image of God, so no one may be used as a means to an end. This is something we must defend because we all have the task “of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded” (1) and we must not fall into the trap of “watching and waiting, observing from afar and merely hoping for the best” (6).
How can we do this?
As users of such technologies at home, school and work, instead of just jumping into the bandwagon every time a new application is available, “every technical or economic decision should include spiritual discernment” (240).
For example, concerning children and youths, the Holy Father calls for “an educational alliance for the digital age”. Given the great difficulty of resisting digital platforms optimised to monetise attention and time, parents, schools and policymakers should come together to hold these platforms accountable and teach young people how to “defend their dignity and respect that of others in digital environments” (142).
Elsewhere, the Pope warns the digital’s era tendency to favour “speed and fragmentation” although “the human heart retains an irrevocable need for genuine closeness” (239). Thus, he invites us to go in the opposite direction and cherish moments of physical presence such as shared meals, gatherings and time spent serving the poor in person.
There is so much more that we can do. After all, Magnifica Humanitas is a significant social document of the Church for the digital era increasingly influenced by technocratic paradigm that threatens respect for human dignity. To find out more about what the Pope has taught, consider reading and reflecting on the full encyclical letter here.
The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has also released infographics and pastoral kits with summaries to help the faithful study the document.
What concern raised in the document resonates with you? How would you respond?
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Erwin Susanto works for Caritas Singapore. He enjoys arcane conversations on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible in the context of the Ancient Near East. He enjoys thinking about all sorts of contemporary issues and often wonders if punditry is fun.