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The title of the encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, affirms the irreplaceable value of human beings, a theme which runs through the document. I was struck by the clarity with which Pope Leo lays out briefly the development of the social doctrine of the Church, emphasising the legitimate but distinct roles of Church and state. This gives a sound foundation for evaluating artificial intelligence (AI), and technology more broadly — how it can be used for good whilst it clearly has some built-in dangers? Pope Leo calls AI ‘A valuable tool that requires vigilance.’ AI presents unique challenges, but the criteria we need to judge how to act in response to those challenges are already to hand, in the form of Catholic social teaching.
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Bishop Paul HendricksRead article >More from the blog
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The Portuguese edition of “Catholic Social Thought, the Market and Public Policy” was launched on 2nd June at the Estoril Political Forum, hosted by the Catholic University of Portugal. The launch event involved a panel discussion on globalisation with the editors of the book, Philip Booth and Andre Azevedo Alves; the translator of the Spanish edition, Juan Angel Soto; and Leonor Durao Barroso and Antonio Capela from the Catholic University of Portugal. The panel were honoured by the presence of the Patriarch of Lisbon who also wrote a foreword to the Portuguese edition. A spirited discussion took place following the presentations which ranged widely from economic globalisation to the welfare state to the ubiquity of abortion in Europe. The book can be purchased in its Spanish, English and Portuguese from the usual sources and is the fruit of a TWCF funded project at St. Mary’s University in collaboration with the Catholic University of Portugal. All the material is available as an online course in Catholic social teaching from www.catholicsocialthought.org.uk