Magnifica Humanitas: An introduction

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles examining Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical letter.
Earlier this year, Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas, to the entire Church and much of this letter is concerned with AI (artificial intelligence). This shouldn’t surprise us as the Holy Father mentioned that he took his name after Pope Leo XIII, who was pope during the industrial revolution, seeing that his own papacy began during what he calls the AI revolution. 
 
The encyclical itself can be a bit daunting in its length and so my intention here is to break it down into more easily digestible parts. This article will concern itself with the introduction, which “sets the stage” for the rest. So let’s get into it (and one quick note: if you see a number in parentheses at the end of a sentence, just know that that is the paragraph number of the encyclical from which the quote was taken).
 
Leo XIV begins by saying that man, with the dawn of AI, is today facing a “pivotal choice”: to build a new Tower of Babel or the City of God (we should note here Leo makes a subtle hint at his Augustinian background, as one of St. Augustine’s most famous works is called “The City of God”). Are we going to use this new tool to protect the dignity of the human person or will it create a more inhumane world? 
 
To adequately discern what lies before us, we must look to the Incarnate Word: Jesus. It is in Him that the “mystery of humanity truly becomes clear” (Gaudium et Spes). This is to say that Christ, being true God and true man, reveals to us what humanity really is. The Holy Father then explains that founded on the Incarnate Word, we experience the action of the Holy Spirit, and our efforts to cooperate with Him will be blessed by the Father. But what does this have to do with AI? Everything. If we are not rooted in this “Trinitarian dynamic,” then we are sure to go astray. Put another way: if the use of AI is not guided by this “Trinitarian dynamic,” it can have disastrous consequences. Furthermore, the Gospel constantly challenges and directs human experience, meaning that no matter the activity, it must always be informed by Gospel wisdom. New times bring new challenges and, as Leo XIII observed, “the proclamation of the Gospel cannot overlook the concrete lives of people,” hence, the Church “reflects on social issues in the light of the Gospel.” The dawn of AI is no different. 
 
Leo XIII recognized in his own day that the industrial revolution, while bringing with it many wonderful new things and advantages to humanity, there was also great threat. New technologies made farming more efficient and the transportation of goods easier. At the same time, the rights of the human person were often violated by the underpayment of employees and dangerous working conditions. While the new technologies were neither good nor evil in and of themselves, the Church strove to keep the good while eliminating the bad. Leo XIV sees a similar dynamic with digitization, AI and robotics. New technology in our own day has improved people’s lives but can cause harm if not ordered to the common good.
 
Hence, we must ask ourselves, “Where are we going? To what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community?” To answer these questions, His Holiness directs our attention to two biblical images: the Tower of Babel, found in the Book of Genesis, and the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, found in the Book of Nehemiah. Babel “was a project conceived without reference to God” (7). It was built on pride and a claim to self-sufficiency, arose from self-affirmation, and sacrificed “human dignity for efficiency” and “aspired to reach heaven without God’s blessing” (7). This ended in disaster. By contrast, the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem had God as its center. Whereas language was confused at Babel, now in Jerusalem common language is rediscovered. In Babel, the Tower was constructed out of pride and self-exultation. In Jerusalem, the people come to true communion, recognizing that their strength comes from God.
 
Applying this to today, we must realize that the new technology is not good or evil, however, its use is never neutral taking on the characteristics of those who build and use it. Therefore, “the primary choice is not between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence” (9). “We must, then, avoid the “Babel syndrome,” namely the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences and the pretense that a single language—even a digital one—can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance. 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. Instead, let us choose the ‘way of Nehemiah,’” (10). 
 
That’ll be enough for this article. The pope develops these ideas further throughout the rest of the document. These will be treated in detail in the coming months.
 
Father Gregory Luger is the censor librorum (Latin for "censor of books") for the Bismarck Diocese. He is an official expert appointed by Bishop Kagan to review a text. His job is to check if a written text or book has errors against Church faith or morals. He also serves the diocese as pastor of the parishes of St. Jerome in Mohall, St. James in Sherwood and St. John in Lansford.