Cardinal Fernández on the complementarity of humanity and AI

By Johan Pacheco

“Caring for humanity: this is the fundamental issue,” said Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the study day devoted to the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and artificial intelligence, held on 30 September at Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid, Spain.

“From the outset, the encyclical invites us to contemplate humanity as ‘magnificent’. It does so even though the text acknowledges the terrible capacity for evil within us, highlighting how wounded this humanity of ours is, as it continues to descend into aberrations that can in no way be justified, and can reach levels of indifference, cynicism and cruelty that never cease to astonish us. Despite all this, it is called ‘magnificent’,” the Cardinal said.

The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that “by contrast, advances in AI have given new impetus to forms of posthumanism that even propose replacing humanity.”

Yet, he added, “technological devices and resources give individuals an initial sense of joy, and shortly afterwards the emptiness returns, along with the feeling that something is missing.”

“In response to these transhumanist or posthumanist proposals,” Cardinal Fernández said, “the encyclical presents some historical examples. These are events that make us feel proud to be human, because they show that this wretched humanity is nevertheless capable of responding and, on occasion, proves truly ‘magnificent’, because it safeguards people’s dignity, seeks the common good, and protects and uplifts the weak.”

Considering humanity’s goodness and its dark moments, as well as the value of the major contributions made by AI and new technologies, Cardinal Fernández believes that “we need to move towards a vision of complementarity that in no way seeks to deny the value of what is human, which precedes any technology, but in which everything is brought into harmony in the service of dignity, the common good, integral development and fraternity.”

The Cardinal Prefect noted that “the encyclical is itself a major effort by the Church to engage in dialogue with society and culture. Nevertheless, it is a Christian text that draws on Jesus Christ and his Gospel”. He emphasizes the theme of “grace,” which “is the possibility of being raised to nothing less than friendship with God, despite the infinite distance that separates us.”

In his address, Cardinal Fernández also highlighted “another key element in the encyclical’s conceptual structure: the question of power.”

He also noted that “there are segments of the population with greater access to advances who are acquiring formidable power. And the question is who will be able to set limits on that power.”

He emphasized that “a major new element in Magnifica Humanitas is the invitation to ‘move beyond just war theory’ (192), understanding legitimate defence only ‘in the strictest sense’ (ibid.), that is, not in the broad and excessively open-ended sense of so-called ‘preventive wars’, rife with ‘collateral damage’.”

Cardinal Fernández concluded his address by quoting the International Theological Commission’s document Quo vadis humanitas: “The relentless technological development… which favours above all those who already have much power, challenges us to turn our gaze to the poorest.”

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