Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, inaugurated last Tuesday at the Aula Magna of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome five days of events marking the 150th anniversary of the Faculty of Canon Law. Parolin, a former student of the Faculty, delivered the inaugural lecture, titled “The importance of international law in light of the encyclical Magnifica humanitas of His Holiness Leo XIV,” according to Vatican News.
The cardinal based his remarks on the fifth chapter of Magnifica humanitas, the first encyclical of Leo XIV, dedicated to “the culture of power and the civilization of love.” According to Vatican News, he compared this document with Rerum novarum: while the latter addressed the industrial revolution, the new encyclical deals with the digital revolution.
“They are not neutral”
Parolin stated that “technological innovations, including artificial intelligence, are not neutral.” He argued that the development of artificial intelligence entails a particular ethical and spiritual responsibility, and that technological power must protect the most vulnerable and serve the common good.
The Secretary of State recalled the principles of the Church’s social doctrine: the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity, and social justice. He also warned that delegating legal decisions to predictive algorithms would put at risk the duty to provide reasons for legal acts.
Three criteria for jurists and diplomats
Parolin noted that the encyclical offers jurists and diplomats three criteria for advancing toward greater justice: an unarmed language that fosters dialogue, the perspective of victims, and a sound realism that seeks a verifiable peace.
In that context, he indicated that the encyclical invites overcoming the recourse to the theory of “just war” as a justification for conflicts, which is invoked too frequently, without denying the right to legitimate defense, which must be understood in a strict sense.
He concluded that it is necessary to elaborate norms that allow the phenomenon of artificial intelligence to be governed, so that law eliminates inequalities and paves the way for greater justice.