Pope: Humanity’s future depends on collaboration in building a more humane world
Pope Leo XIV continued his catechesis on Gaudium et spes in St. Peter's Square, stressing humanity’s interdependence. He warned that technological advances and AI can erode personal relationships, urging reliance on human conscience. He urged all to view one another as family, promoting dignity, reciprocity, and the common good. He called for social and political projects to be judged by the dignity of the human person. He reiterated that social institutions must place the human person at their core.
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Pope Leo XIV used his Sept. 16 general audience to continue reflecting on Gaudium et Spes, saying humanity’s future depends on people working together to build a more humane world. He connected the document’s vision of human interdependence with concerns about artificial intelligence, social polarization, human dignity, social justice, and participation in the common good. 1 2 4
Speaking in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo said technological development, mass media, social media, and artificial intelligence are creating new possibilities, reducing barriers, and bridging distances. At the same time, he warned that relationships are becoming increasingly virtual and less personal. 1 2 4
The Pope cautioned against becoming accustomed to delegating to algorithms decisions that belong to human conscience. He said the Christian community seeks to ensure that social relationships retain “real substance and personal depth.” 1 2 4
The catechesis focused on the second chapter of Gaudium et Spes, which describes the “growing interdependence” of humanity as a defining feature of the modern world. Pope Leo said this interdependence must develop into genuine communion among people, grounded in mutual respect for every person’s spiritual dignity. 1 2
He recalled the Council’s teaching that all people should form one family and treat one another fraternally. In that context, he presented love of God and neighbor as the central commandment, fulfilled in Christ. 1 2 4
Pope Leo also said the perfection of individuals and the development of society are closely connected. Social institutions, he emphasized, must have the human person as both their subject and their goal. 1 2 4
The Pope said the diversity of peoples should be understood as a resource for enrichment and growth rather than as a danger or threat. He attributed conflict and its degeneration into violence to the effects of sin on attitudes and actions, producing destruction and death. 1 2 4
As an alternative to confrontation, he called for greater openness to reciprocity, sharing, and care. He also urged respect and love for adversaries and for people who think or act differently. 2 4
Pope Leo described the common good, following Gaudium et Spes, as the conditions of social life that allow groups and individuals to achieve fulfillment. He said this requires every social group to consider the needs and legitimate aspirations of other groups, as well as the welfare of the entire human family. 1 2 4
Pope Leo presented four practical consequences drawn from Gaudium et Spes:
Pope Leo described the Second Vatican Council’s vision of humanity as a “community of people” as an enduring legacy. He said it provides criteria for evaluating current social and political projects according to human dignity, social justice, and free participation in the common good. 1 2 4
He concluded that the future of humanity depends on each person’s commitment to collaborate with God and with others in building a more humane world. 1 2 4
At the end of the audience, Pope Leo greeted prison chaplains and thanked them for their spiritual care of prisoners. He also addressed participants in a pharmaceutical-care course, encouraging them to combine scientific expertise with human closeness and an integral understanding of the person. 4
Gaudium et Spes: technology, human dignity, and the common good
Gaudium et Spes presents technology neither as an enemy of humanity nor as an automatic path to progress. It is a powerful human achievement whose value depends on whether it serves the dignity, vocation, and flourishing of the human person.
The Council affirms that scientific and technological development can participate in God’s creative plan. Because human beings are made in God’s image, their work of cultivating and ordering the world is part of their responsibility before the Creator. Human achievements are therefore not rivals to God’s power but can be signs of divine grace. Yet greater power also brings greater responsibility.
Technology can help make the earth “a dwelling worthy of the whole human family.” When directed toward service, it enables people to develop creation, cooperate with others, and promote truth, goodness, and beauty.
The decisive question is not simply what technology can do, but whether it respects what the human person is. Gaudium et Spes teaches that a person is more valuable for who he or she is than for what he or she possesses or produces. Technical advances provide material possibilities, but they cannot by themselves create justice, fraternity, or a truly humane society.
This prevents a merely utilitarian view of humanity. People must never be reduced to data, economic units, consumers, workers, or instruments of technological systems. The social order exists for the human person, not the reverse; it must protect such goods as education, employment, privacy, appropriate information, freedom of conscience, and religious freedom.
The Council also grounds dignity in the person’s spiritual nature. Human beings are not merely biological or social mechanisms but possess an immortal spiritual soul and a destiny before God.
The common good is “the sum of those conditions of social life” that allow individuals and communities to reach fulfillment. Because technology increases global interdependence, its effects cannot be evaluated only locally or privately. Decisions about technology must consider the needs of other communities and of the whole human family.
This has several implications:
The Council acknowledges that modern technical advances increase human interdependence, but it insists that genuine communion is achieved not through technical connection alone. It requires mutual respect for the full spiritual dignity of every person.
Technological knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Gaudium et Spes warns that the future of humanity is endangered if discoveries are not “humanized” by wiser people. Wisdom asks about purpose, limits, moral responsibility, and the ultimate good—not merely about efficiency or capability.
The Church therefore does not claim to possess an immediate technical solution to every new problem. Rather, she brings revealed truth and moral principles to humanity’s experience, helping discern whether particular developments serve or undermine the human vocation.
The Council’s approach is one of grateful hope combined with moral vigilance. Technology should be welcomed when it promotes human flourishing, serves the poor, protects creation, and strengthens solidarity. It must be rejected or restrained when it degrades persons, concentrates power unjustly, weakens authentic community, or treats human beings as objects.
The central principle is therefore simple: technology is for the human person, and the human person is ultimately ordered to God and to communion with others. Progress is genuine only when technical advancement is joined to justice, wisdom, love, and the common good.