{"id":16625,"date":"2026-06-29T09:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=16625"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:33:07","slug":"pope-leos-encyclical-magnificent-humanity-excellent-and-very-readable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=16625","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo&#8217;s Encyclical &#8220;Magnificent Humanity&#8221;: Excellent and very readable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I finished it about a week ago, over a space of six days. Total time 2 and a half hours and no jargon or BS. I am waiting for a hard copy but I was able to get it on my kindle for $2.99.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is more than just a commentary on AI and the danger of technology running amok. Note his mention of &#8220;fake news&#8221; in the last section I&#8217;ve excerpted!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"310\" height=\"163\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pope-Leo-talking.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16626\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pope-Leo-talking.jpg 310w, https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pope-Leo-talking-300x158.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are a few quotes on disparate topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">5. It now falls to us to face the challenges of our time with clarity of thought and responsibility. It is necessary to establish adequate regulatory tools capable of upholding justice and curbing the distorting effects of technological power. Nevertheless, the issue is not limited to regulation. &#8230;we must realistically ask ourselves who holds this power today and how they use it: \u201cIt must also be recognized that nuclear energy, biotechnology, information technology, knowledge of our own DNA, and many other abilities which we have acquired\u2026 have given those with the knowledge, and especially the economic resources to use them, an impressive dominance over the whole of humanity and the entire world.\u201d7 In the past, it was largely up to the State to guide and direct innovation. Today, however, the main drivers of development are private, often transnational, parties that are endowed with resources and the capacity to intervene that surpass those of many Governments. Technological power thus takes on an unprecedented, predominantly \u201cprivate\u201d aspect, which makes it even more challenging to discern, govern and direct such power toward the common good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">30. While many of the historical conditions described by Leo XIII have changed, at least two insights remain highly relevant today: the primacy of human labor over any mindset focused solely on finance or productivity \u2014 with the consequent attention to the people and families most susceptible to exploitation \u2014 and the inseparable link between proclaiming the Gospel and pursuing a more just social order. Rerum Novarum thereby continues to remind us that there is no authentic evangelization that does not also affect the structures of human society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">51. The fundamental dignity of each person, therefore, is neither acquired nor earned, nor does it need to be justified. The recent Declaration Dignitas Infinita offers a summary of the Church\u2019s thinking on this subject: \u201cEvery human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter\u201d62 \u2014 in other words, always and without exception. The dignity of every human being can be described as infinite, as Saint John Paul II stated,63 for two reasons: first, because the love of God, who calls us to friendship with him, is infinite; and second, his love is absolutely unconditional, in the sense that, even if we search endlessly, we will never find anything that can erase or deny it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The civilization of love in the digital age <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">186. When Saint Paul VI coined the phrase \u201cthe civilization of love,\u201d177 the world was in the midst of the Cold War, an arms race and severe economic instability. In that context, the Church proposed an alternative path to that of ideological opposition between systems, and envisioned a social order in which justice and charity are intertwined and love becomes the guiding principle of economic, political and cultural life. Today, we must resolutely recover this vision, for the civilization of love is no na\u00efve utopia, but a demanding project, which consists in translating charity into structures of justice, giving institutional form to fraternity and regarding others \u2014 whether individuals or peoples \u2014 as allies necessary for building the common good. As the Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti reminded us, only this social love is capable of becoming a culture and a norm, and thereby of bringing about a stable international order, transforming mere armed coexistence into a community with a shared future.178 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">191 We are also witnessing a disconcerting loss of historical memory, as first-hand accounts of the Holocaust and the two World Wars are disappearing. This leads to a selective or distorted rewriting of the past, in a context where fake news and the manipulation of narratives obscure the lessons that have been learned. Without a living memory of the horrors of war, political decisions risk being made on the basis of power alone, without any consideration for the long-term consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I finished it about a week ago, over a space of six days. Total time 2 and a half hours and no jargon or BS. I am waiting for a hard copy but I was able to get it on my kindle for $2.99. It is more than just a commentary on AI and the &#8230; <a title=\"Pope Leo&#8217;s Encyclical &#8220;Magnificent Humanity&#8221;: Excellent and very readable\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=16625\" aria-label=\"Read more about Pope Leo&#8217;s Encyclical &#8220;Magnificent Humanity&#8221;: Excellent and very readable\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,14,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-stuff","category-consistent-ethic-of-life","category-economics-and-politics","category-international-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16627,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16625\/revisions\/16627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}