Watch The Introduction Of Magnifica Humanitas In 5 Videos

Pope Leo signs Magnifica Humanitas. Copyright by Vatican Media

Magnifica Humanitas is a milestone in Church teaching for many reasons.

Pope Leo’s teaching is consistent with that of previous popes. He doesn’t overturn what the Church has taught for 2,000 years, he applies it to today’s challenges. Magnficia Humanitas stands on the shoulders of many previous encyclicals, including Rerum Novarum and Centesimus Annus.

Laity’s Moral Responsibility to Work for the Common Good

Pope Leo is teaching lay Catholics like you and me how to understand our Christian and moral calling concerning AI and the small group of men who control it. Magnifica Humanitas teaches us that Catholics in every walk of life are on solid ground to insist that their governments protect humanity from the destructive and oppressive side of what AI can do and how it can be used. Magnifica Humanitas teaches that we have a moral responsibility as Christians to engage with the world to ensure that human beings are never reduced to servants of machines.

I am going to post links below to 5 videos from the Vatican’s ceremonies releasing Magnifica Humanitas.

We all have a resistance to watching long speeches. But I hope that you will watch these videos all the way through and think about what they say.

I feel a responsibility to offer you the opportunity to hear our Holy Father, speaking in his own words on this most important matter which we are all facing.

Watching these videos made me proud to be Catholic.

There is no other church with the intellectual and theological depth to do this. There is no other voice, except the Pope’s, that could gather the attention of people all around the globe, from pole to pole, dateline to dateline, and focus their minds and hearts on the moral implications of what we are facing with AI.

I know that Pope Leo is going to be attacked for what he’s doing. I also know that this is what always happens when people truly follow Christ. If you’re in a position of public responsibility, and you think you’re following Jesus, but powerful people never attack you, you’re probably not following Jesus.

I also want you to have the option of listening to Christopher Olaf, who is one of the AI company Anthropic’s founders.

Anthropic Showed that AI Developers can Stand for Good

Anthropic demonstrated something that I had thought was dead and gone. They are an American company that took a moral stand against Trump. They acted on patriotism, morality, and a concern for the common good. They did this even when it meant they wouldn’t be allowed to feed at the government trough.

Based on what I’ve seen this past year and a half, I had begun to think that the concepts of patriotism/ morality/decency and American business were contradictions in terms. Anthropic proved me wrong.

Anthropic refused the Trump administration’s demand that they use their AI to fire missiles at will without any direction from a human being. They also refused the Trump administration’s demand that they use Anthropic’s AI to put the American people — you and me — under surveillance.

Trump himself attacked Anthropic for refusing to do this. As usual for him, he slandered them, cut off all their government contracts, (which was another of his illegal overreaches of his powers as president) and then upped the anti by officially labeling them a danger to United States’ security. This is something no president in the past has ever done to any American company.

I think that Anthropic may face further attacks because Christopher Olaf dared to speak in favor of Magnifica Humanitas.

I think we need people like those who are running Anthropic if the human race is going to survive. They did what all of us should do when we are confronted immoral and dangerous demands from ruthless people who have too much power.

But enough of this. Let’s allow the Holy Father and Christopher Olaf and the others speak for themselves. Here is the presentation of Magnifica Humanitas, in 5 speeches.

1. Official Vatican Video Presenting Magnifica Humanitas

This is the official Vatican video presenting Magnifica Humanitas. It’s really enjoyable. I hope you watch it and share it.

Magnifica Humanitas: Official Vatican Presentation Video

2. Pope Leo XIV Full Speech at Magnifica Humanitas Vatican Launch.

This video shows the Holy Father, summarizing Magnifica Humanitas himself. It’s a new thing for us to hear the pope, teaching us how to follow Christ in today’s world, in American English.

3. Anthropic Co‑Founder Christopher Olah Speaks at Magnifica Humanitas Vatican Launch

This is Christopher Olaf’s address at the Vatican. He addresses the issues of Magnifica Humanitas from the perspective of a man who has founded a hugely successful AI company and who is actively engaged in building it and developing it further. We need people like this building our technological future.

4. Cardinal Michael Czerny at Magnifica Humanitas Vatican Launches

This is the address by Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, prefect of the Disastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Once again, we have the gift of being able to hear Catholic teaching from the Vatican, spoken in American English.

Cardinal Czerny makes the point that AI can either be good or horrible. The difference will be whether we manage it responsibly to serve the common good or we allow a few ruthless men to use it to enslave, impoverish, oppress and even kill most of the people living on this planet. He also raises the question of conscience and consciousness. He asks the core question: What kind of world are we building, and what part does humanity have in it?

His answer is that the development of technology does not follow an inevitable path, we can control the directions it takes.