Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Greetings from Malta. Continuing our brief reflection on Pope Leo’s Encyclical, we may ask: Why is it called Magnifica Humanitas? The title is Latin for “Magnificent Humanity”, or “Wonderful Humanity”. It points to the document’s teaching that no machine can replace the God-given magnificence of the human person. Pope Leo writes: “We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendour of which no machine can ever replace” (MH 15).
The Encyclical has its own biblical foundations. The stories of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9) and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah (Neh 2–6), the Parable of the Talents (Mt 25:14–30), and St. Paul’s words that “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9), offer a deeply Christian framework for discerning technology, human dignity, truth, work, and the common good.
The encyclical does not condemn AI as inherently bad. AI is a modern-day tool, and like any tool, it can be used well or badly. We acknowledge that there is great potential in AI. The Encyclical acknowledges that there are also concerns, including “job insecurity and inequality” (MH 151), “manipulation of information or violations of privacy” (MH 102), “ideological bias” (MH 102), “autonomous weapons systems” (MH 197), and “a futuristic vision of an ‘enhanced human being’” (MH 115).
Then Pope Leo identifies an even deeper danger: that human beings may begin to see themselves and others as projects “to be optimized” (MH 112).
The encyclical teaches that a human limitation, such as “incapacity, illness, old age, suffering, [and] vulnerability,” must not be seen simply as “a defect to be corrected”. The magnificence of humanity is that while we may flourish despite limitations, we often do so through our limitations. (MH 118).
Through limitations, we can “discover a new wisdom, tangibly experience the closeness of others and encounter the presence of the Lord” (MH 119). Therefore, AI should serve the common good of humanity not by tempting us to escape human limitation through optimization, but by supporting a life of “openness and communion” (MH 231).
Read more about Pope Leo XIV Encyclical: Magnifica Humanitas – Ascension, and other sources. (to be continued…)
God bless you.
Fr Silvio