Pope Leo
These include protecting the singular “greatness of humanity” amid rapid technological evolution and demanding that the use of AI in warfare be subject to the “strictest ethical restrictions.”
Although the encyclical focuses on AI, the text goes beyond technological issues and addresses crises facing humanity.
Pontiff Leo
He adds that the “litmus test” for social justice is the treatment of immigrants and refugees and apologized for the Church’s legitimization of slavery and the delay in denouncing this scourge.
The leader of the Catholic Church, who has made pacification a central point of his pontificate, warns that the use of “force, violence and weapons” ends up “having disastrous consequences for civilian populations”.
“The construction of a world in a state of perpetual conflict is an evil and must be called what it is,” writes Leo XIV, adding that “humanity has far more effective and capable tools for promoting human life and resolving conflicts, such as dialogue, diplomacy and forgiveness.”
His opposition to Just War comes in the wake of statements by US Vice President JD Vance that the Pope, after the Catholic spiritual leader strongly criticized joint US-Israeli attacks against Iran and rebuked world leaders for invoking religious language to justify the war.
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