Mois : janvier 2025

French Prime Minister François Bayrou wants to split an « end of life » bill to separate the issue of « active assistance in dying » from that of palliative care — a proposal seen as a smart attempt to give a pro-life approach to the legislation without antagonizing rival political sides.

« Those are two subjects that need to be examined separately by parliament, » Bayrou said Jan. 27 on the French television channel LCI. « We need to be able to vote on these subjects differently if we feel like it. »

Launched at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron, the current « end of life » bill provides for the authorization of « medical aid in dying, » which is presented as a continuation of palliative care.

The French National Assembly was set to vote on the bill on June 18, 2024. But a few days earlier, on June 9, Macron surprised everyone by announcing the dissolution of the French Parliament, following the victory of France’s far-right Rassemblement National, or National Rally party, in the European Parliament elections. All legislative work in progress was halted.

Since then, the new National Assembly has been extremely divided between the various political parties, among which the extreme right and left have a strong influence, to the point of paralyzing the country’s political life.

It was against this backdrop, and after the failure of a first government, that Macron appointed Bayrou as prime minister on Dec. 13. Bayrou is known as a practicing and devout Catholic who combines his faith with a view to strictly separate political and religious spheres.

In recent weeks, he has received urgent requests from left-wing members of Parliament and Macron’s Renaissance party to put the « end of life » bill back on the agenda.

But Bayrou made a surprise move Jan. 21, announcing his intention to split the bill in two. He stated that he wanted to dissociate the reinforcement of palliative care, the need for which is unanimous, from « active assistance in dying, » which is much more controversial.

On Jan. 22, the president of the French bishops’ conference, Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, hailed this decision as « a wise measure, » speaking on France’s Info radio station.

« We are placing a lot of emphasis on palliative care and the development of palliative care in France as in all countries, » the archbishop said. « It’s not just about opening a few extra beds, but about inserting a culture of palliative care into the training of doctors and caregivers in general, from the very beginning of their training. »

Moulins-Beaufort stressed that what makes people want euthanasia is the fear of pain at the end of life and that with proper training, financing and access to palliative care « the question of the fear of the end of life that inhabits everyone would be posed in very different terms if we really had the pain management that we are capable of today. »

Supporters of « active aid in dying » said they fear that a vote on this could fail if it is separated from palliative care. On Jan. 26, nearly 200 MPs and former ministers from the left and Macron’s party called on Bayrou not to split the bill.

« Active medical aid in dying is an ultimate form of palliative care, in continuity with the care already provided, » they wrote in an open letter published in the daily newspaper, Le Parisien, on Jan. 27.

« I am absolutely determined that the two questions can be examined, » Bayrou replied on Jan. 27. « What I am saying is that they are not the same questions, » the prime minister said in the LCI station interview.

In France, palliative care is currently accessible to only half the patients who need it, due to a lack of competent staff and adequate hospital structures. The nursing staff concerned had expressed fears that the adoption of a law on « active assistance in dying » would jeopardize their funding.

« For me, palliative care is not a matter of ‘right’ but of an imprescriptible ‘duty,' » Bayrou said. « Our whole society, our whole health care system, has a duty to offer assistance to all those who are so ill, » he said of the first part of legislation concerning palliative care.

The second part of the bill, which talks about assisted suicide, « gives rise to extremely strong debates of conscience on both sides, » Bayrou continued, referring explicitly to « euthanasia » and « assisted suicide, » which are currently legally possible in Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Austria, Portugal, the Netherlands and Switzerland, but not in France. « Should our society organize this? » Bayrou asked.

Bayrou referred to the « deeply moving » testimony, aired on French television Jan. 26, of a famous French sports journalist, Charles Biétry, who suffers from an incurable disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth, which causes nerve damage.

« There are people suffering from this disease who consider that this ‘right to die’ should be favored, » Bayrou pointed out. « But others, suffering from the same disease, do not share this view. And many consider that they do not know where they stand. »

« Since I announced my plan to split this bill in two, a very large number of people have told me that they agree with me, from one end of the political spectrum to the other, » Bayrou pointed out.

Asked about the impact of his Christian convictions on the issue of euthanasia, which he is personally not in favor of, the new prime minister pointed out that « you cannot uproot what you believe from what you are, it is impossible. »

France’s prime minister concluded: « What influences the citizen in me on this subject? It is the family man that I am, and perhaps also the son that I was. We are touching on life, and the meaning of life. »

A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.

Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand’s North Island at 2,518 meters (8,261 feet) and a popular spot for tourism, hiking and snow sports.

The legal recognition acknowledges the mountain’s theft from the Māori of the Taranaki region after New Zealand was colonized. It fulfills an agreement of redress from the country’s government to Indigenous people for harms perpetrated against the land since.

How can a mountain be a person?

The law passed Thursday gives Taranaki Maunga all the rights, powers, duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a person. Its legal personality has a name: Te Kāhui Tupua, which the law views as « a living and indivisible whole. » It includes Taranaki and its surrounding peaks and land, « incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements. »

A newly created entity will be « the face and voice » of the mountain, the law says, with four members from local Māori iwi, or tribes, and four members appointed by the country’s Conservation Minister.

Why is this mountain special?

« The mountain has long been an honored ancestor, a source of physical, cultural and spiritual sustenance and a final resting place, » Paul Goldsmith, the lawmaker responsible for the settlements between the government and Māori tribes, told Parliament in a speech on Thursday.

But colonizers of New Zealand in the 18th and 19th centuries took first the name of Taranaki and then the mountain itself. In 1770, the British explorer Captain James Cook spotted the peak from his ship and named it Mount Egmont.

In 1840, Māori tribes and representatives of the British crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi — New Zealand’s founding document — in which the Crown promised Māori would retain rights to their land and resources. But the Māori and English versions of the treaty differed — and Crown breaches of both began immediately.

In 1865, a vast swathe of Taranaki land, including the mountain, was confiscated to punish Māori for rebeling against the Crown. Over the next century hunting and sports groups had a say in the mountain’s management — but Māori did not.

« Traditional Māori practices associated with the mountain were banned while tourism was promoted, » Goldsmith said. But a Māori protest movement of the 1970s and ’80s has led to a surge of recognition for the Māori language, culture and rights in New Zealand law.

Redress has included billions of dollars in Treaty of Waitangi settlements — such as the agreement with the eight tribes of Taranaki, signed in 2023.

How will the mountain use its rights?

« Today, Taranaki, our maunga, our maunga tupuna, is released from the shackles, the shackles of injustice, of ignorance, of hate, » said Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, a co-leader of the political party Te Pāti Māori and a descendant of the Taranaki tribes, using a phrase that means ancestral mountain.

« We grew up knowing there was nothing anyone could do to make us any less connected, » she added.

The mountain’s legal rights are intended to uphold its health and wellbeing. They will be employed to stop forced sales, restore its traditional uses and allow conservation work to protect the native wildlife that flourishes there. Public access will remain.

Do other parts of New Zealand have personhood?

New Zealand was the first country in the world to recognize natural features as people when a law passed in 2014 granted personhood to Te Urewera, a vast native forest on the North Island. Government ownership ceased and the tribe Tūhoe became its guardian.

« Te Urewera is ancient and enduring, a fortress of nature, alive with history; its scenery is abundant with mystery, adventure, and remote beauty, » the law begins, before describing its spiritual significance to Māori. In 2017, New Zealand recognized the Whanganui River as human, as part of a settlement with its local iwi.

How much support did the law receive?

The bill recognizing the mountain’s personhood was affirmed unanimously by Parliament’s 123 lawmakers. The vote was greeted by a ringing waiata — a Māori song — from the public gallery, packed with dozens who had traveled to the capital, Wellington, from Taranaki.

The unity provided brief respite in a tense period for race relations in New Zealand. In November, tens of thousands of people marched to Parliament to protest a law that would reshape the Treaty of Waitangi by setting rigid legal definitions for each clause. Detractors say the law — which is not expected to pass — would strip Māori of legal rights and dramatically reverse progress from the past five decades.

A United States-based watchdog on Wednesday launched an online database on more than 80 Roman Catholic priests who have been accused of sexually abusing minors in the Philippines and said the silence of Filipino bishops on the crimes amounted to a cover-up.

The Philippines is the third-largest Roman Catholic nation in the world, and public discussions of sexual assaults by members of the clergy, who are revered especially in rural regions, has long been generally muted.

None of the 82 members of the clergy, including seven bishops, who have been included in the new online database on clergy sexual abuses by the group BishopAccountability.org had been convicted in any Philippine court.

The database featured their faces, names and details of their alleged sexual assaults on minors, some of which dated back more than two decades ago. The nonprofit said that it had also set up such online databases on Catholic clergy abuses in the U.S., Argentina, Chile and Ireland.

Anne Barrett Doyle, a director of BishopAccountability.org, said that the long silence of bishops in the Philippines encouraged such sexual assaults by members of the clergy. She asked Philippine prosecutors to investigate church officials, who failed to report abuses.

« Philippine bishops feel entitled to their silence. They feel entitled to withhold information about sexual violence toward minors. They feel entitled to defend accused priests,” Doyle said at a news conference in Manila.

“What we hope to achieve is raise awareness,” she said. “Secrecy only benefits the perpetrators. Secrecy equals complicity.”

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, a Philippine church leader, said that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has set up an office to safeguard minors and vulnerable adults and report complaints to the Vatican.

« Our mandate from Rome is to take the issue of accountability very seriously, especially those related to alleged abuse cases involving priests,” David said, without elaborating.

« The external mechanisms that have forced accountability by Catholic bishops elsewhere — litigation by victims, probes of church entities by prosecutors, inquiries by government commissions and substantial investigations by local news media — have occurred little or not at all in the world’s third largest Catholic country,” BishopAccountability.org said of the Philippines.

Some of the members of the clergy included in the database have been cleared of charges and allowed to return to church work and ministry, regaining close access to potential victims, the nonprofit, which has been tracking the sexual abuse crisis haunting the Roman Catholic Church since the group’s founding in 2003, said with alarm.

The names of priests and other clerics included in the database were collected from news reports, publicly filed court documents and church pronouncements, the group said, and added that the list of 82 clerics linked to sexual abuses in the Philippines may just be “the tip of the iceberg. »

Gemma Hickey, a victim of clergy sexual abuse who spoke at the news conference in Manila, said that victims suffer long after they have been assaulted.

« It’s survivors that serve a life sentence. Many of the priests who have abused us get to carry on with their lives. They don’t face jail time. Some of them retire, move on with their lives, move on even to other careers and escape under the radar,” Hickey said.

« But survivors are trapped in a prison of memory,” Hickey said.

Pope Francis has formally recognized that five Franciscan missionaries ministering in what is now the U.S. state of Georgia were killed for their faith.

By signing the decree in the sainthood cause of the Georgia martyrs Jan. 27, the pope cleared the way for their beatification, although a date for the ceremony was not announced immediately.

The Spanish Franciscans Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez de Cuacos, Miguel de Añón, Antonio de Badajoz and Francisco de Veráscola were killed between Sept. 14 and Sept. 17, 1597, after Father de Corpa told a young Indigenous man, Juanillo, who was heir to a Guale chiefdom, that as a baptized Christian he could not take a second wife.

Juanillo and a band of his men killed the priest with a stone hatchet at the Mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Tolomato, which is near modern-day Eulonia, Georgia. They then went after the other Franciscan missionaries living and ministering along the Georgia coast.

Recounting the story of the Georgia martyrs on its website, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, said Father de Corpa not only « reprimanded » Juanillo for taking a second wife, but also « told him that he would oppose his succession as village chief if he persisted in his polygamous choice. »

Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of Savannah, the diocese that includes the missions where the five friars were martyred, thanked all the people who worked to promote their sainthood cause for more than 40 years.

« May Venerable Friar Pedro de Corpa and Companions intercede for families everywhere, and inspire husbands and wives around the world to live out the sacrament of marriage with love, truth, and fidelity, » the bishop wrote in a statement Jan. 27.

The first proof of the five Franciscans’ readiness to give their lives for the Lord was their choice « to leave Spain and set out as missionaries to a land and among peoples still partly unknown. The five were aware of the risks and dangers associated with their apostolate also in relation to their safety, » the dicastery said.

« Moved by a genuine spirit of love for Christ and service to the church, they accepted to be sent on mission to the North American territory, » it said.

Francis signed other decrees Jan. 27 as well, including recognizing:

— The miracle needed for the canonization of Italian Blessed Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona; she lived from 1802-1855.

— The martyrdom of Swiss Marist Brother François Benjamin May, also known as Brother Lycarion, who was shot in Barcelona, Spain, in 1909 during an anarchist rebellion.

— The heroic virtues of Mother Riccarda Beauchamp Hambrough, a longtime assistant to and later successor of St. Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad, who refounded the Bridgettine Sisters; the two hid persecuted Jews, Communists and Poles from the Nazis in Rome during World War II.

— The heroic virtues of Italian Father Quintino Sicuro, a diocesan priest and hermit, who lived 1920-1968.

— The heroic virtues of Italian laywoman Luigia Sinapi, who lived 1916-1978. The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints said that she experienced « numerous supernatural gifts such as precognition of events and situations, bilocation, discernment of spirits and, above all, mystical union with the Lord Jesus, lived in an atmosphere of modesty, humility and service. Many people, including priests, high prelates, politicians and ordinary people came to her for spiritual comfort. »

Celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s willingness to accept a proposal for a common date for celebrating Easter in the West and the East.

Noting that in 2025 the date coincides on the West’s Gregorian calendar and the East’s Julian calendar, Francis said that « I renew my appeal that this coincidence may serve as an appeal to all Christians to take a decisive step forward toward unity around a common date for Easter. »

« The Catholic Church is open to accepting the date that everyone wants: a date of unity, » he said Jan. 25 during an ecumenical evening prayer service at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

The service marked the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which focused on this year’s celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which gave Christians a common Creed and a formula for determining a common date for the celebration of Easter.

Before the Council of Nicaea in 325, different Christian communities celebrated Easter on different dates; the council decided that for the unity of the Christian community and its witness, Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.

But the Julian calendar, which is what Christians used in the fourth century, was increasingly out of sync with the actual solar year, so March 21 — generally assumed to be the date of the Northern Hemisphere’s spring equinox — gradually « drifted » away from the actual equinox.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar, dropping 10 days and making the equinox fall on March 21 again. Most Eastern Christians did not adopt the new calendar, leading to a situation where Easter occasionally is on the same day, but Eastern Christians’ celebration can be as much as four weeks later.

Francis has reaffirmed on several occasions the position officially taken by St. Paul VI in the 1960s that if Eastern Christians agree on a way to determine a common date for Easter, the Catholic Church would accept it.

The ecumenical prayer service began with Francis praying before the tomb of St. Paul. He was joined by Orthodox Metropolitan Polykarpos of Italy and Malta and by Anglican Archbishop Ian Ernest, director of the Anglican Center in Rome. The Orthodox and Anglican bishops also joined the pope at the end of the liturgy in giving their blessing to the crowd.

The theme of the 2025 week of prayer was Jesus’ question to Martha of Bethany: « Do you believe this? »

In the Gospel of John, Martha tells Jesus that if he had been there, her brother Lazarus would not have died. Jesus tells Martha, « I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, » and then he asks if she believes. Martha responds with a declaration of faith: « Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world. »

Francis said, « This tender encounter between Jesus and Martha from the Gospel teaches us that even in times of desolation, we are not alone, and we can continue to hope. Jesus gives life even when it seems that all hope has vanished. »

« Hope can falter following difficult experiences such as a painful loss, an illness, a bitter disappointment or a sudden betrayal, » the pope said. « Although each of us may experience moments of despair or know people who have lost hope, the Gospel tells us that Jesus always restores hope because he raises us up from the ashes of death. »

Sometimes, the pope said, people may feel like the search for Christian unity has reached a dead end or that ecumenical dialogue is « doomed to failure. »

« All of this makes us experience the same anguish as Martha, but the Lord comes to us, » he said. « Do we believe this? Do we believe that he is the resurrection and the life? That he rewards our efforts and always gives us the grace to continue our journey together? Do we believe this? »

The anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is « a year of grace, an opportunity for all Christians who recite the same Creed and believe in the same God, » the pope said. « Let us rediscover the common roots of the faith; let us preserve unity! Let us always move forward! May the unity we all are searching for be found. »

Vice President J.D. Vance sharply criticized the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a television interview that aired Jan. 26 for the bishops’ condemnation of President Donald Trump’s recent immigration enforcement policies, suggesting that the concerns were motivated by financial interests.

In a heated exchange on CBS’s Face the Nation, Vance defended the Trump administration’s decision to empower Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct operations in sensitive locations, including schools and churches. 

Vance was responding to questions about the bishops’ conference Jan. 22 statement condemning Trump’s orders on immigration, describing them as « deeply troubling » because they « will have negative consequences. »

Identifying himself as a practicing Catholic, Vance said he was « heartbroken » with the bishops’ position and questioned their motives, suggesting they were not rooted in pastoral concerns but instead based upon substantial federal funding U.S. dioceses receive to help resettle immigrants.

« I think the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has, frankly, not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement that the American people voted for, » the vice president said. « And I hope, again, as a devout Catholic, that they’ll do better. »

Media representatives of the bishops’ conference did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan pressed Vance on whether he personally supported immigration raids in places traditionally considered sanctuaries, such as houses of worship and schools. Vance responded by asserting the administration’s commitment to public safety, particularly when violent criminals are involved.

« Of course, if you have a person who is convicted of a violent crime, whether they’re an illegal immigrant or a non-illegal immigrant, you have to go and get that person to protect the public safety. That’s not unique to immigration, » Vance said.

Vance’s remarks took a sharp turn as he criticized the bishops’ statement.

« Because as a practicing Catholic, I was actually heartbroken by that statement, » Vance said. « I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line? »

When Brennan asked about the potential chilling effect of these enforcement actions, particularly on parents who may avoid sending their children to school out of fear of immigration raids, Vance responded, « I desperately hope it has a chilling effect on illegal immigrants coming into our country. »

The federal government heavily relies on tax-exempt charitable organizations, many with religious affiliations, to process and support refugees entering the United States, with the bishops’ conference playing a prominent role since 1975.

The bishops’ conference on its website describes its migration and refugee services as « the largest refugee resettlement agency in the world. » Over the past five decades, the conference has assisted millions of refugees and asylum seekers relocate in the U.S., finding them homes and jobs in American communities with the support of federal funding, the website says.

During the Biden administration, the conference’s federal revenue for refugee assistance increased eight-fold to about $123 million in 2022 from about $15 million in 2019, accumulating over $450 million in grants since 2021.

In an April 2024 letter to Congress, El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz, Chairman of the conference’s Committee on Migration, outlined a 2025 federal funding request to enhance support for immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and other vulnerable populations.

The letter sought increased funding for immigration courts to address a historic backlog of more than 3.4 million cases, including 1.1 million asylum claims. Seitz also requested funding increases for victims of human trafficking, unaccompanied migrant children and labor protections against exploitation.

The bishops’ conference also urged Congress to reject restrictions on asylum and called for alternatives in communities to immigration detention. 

It would take Steven Spielberg to create an adequate depiction of the scene in today’s first reading. Think about it, the whole community stood listening « attentively » for about six hours — and that included the children! 

What brought on such a spectacle? Essentially, Nehemiah’s people were celebrating a ceremony of recommitment. After being in exile and beginning to rebuild Jerusalem, Ezra and Nehemiah realized that their people were religiously illiterate. They were glad to be in Jerusalem, they loved their city, but knowing how to serve their God had become something of a lost art. The drama of this event helped them realize the goodness of the Torah, God’s instructions for their life. The prostrations and « amens » expressing their recommitment to God called for rejoicing and feasting. They were intensifying their identity as a people of God.

Our psalm refrain expresses their thoughts and feelings: « Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life. »  Unlike a penal code which defines wrongful acts and just punishment, they understood that the  law of the Lord is clear, it refreshes, gives wisdom and enlightens. With the magnificent ceremony of proclaiming the law of God, the people were swept into a new awareness that their communal identity came from their relationship with God. The law gave them a path toward becoming all that God hoped they would be.

In Jesus’ time, synagogue services included prayers, a proclamation of faith, readings from Scripture and an instruction. According to Luke, Jesus was accustomed to participating in synagogue services as a well-accepted teacher. When Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth, his reading produced a drama different from that of Ezra’s reading. 

When Luke says that Jesus returned from the desert under the power of the Spirit, he’s making a proclamation of faith that grounds all that follows. Such faith demands more than we might expect. It’s easy to think of others as good people, admirable and just, but to believe that someone operates under the power of God’s Spirit demands belief in that person plus faith that God acts through the kind of people with whom we might have coffee and doughnuts.

Jesus chose to read a passage from Isaiah that announced a jubilee year. That was fine. The scandal began when he claimed to be the one anointed to carry out all the promises it entailed. Saying, « Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing, » Jesus claimed his vocation as an envoy of God, the God whose concern concentrates on the most vulnerable.  

Luke placed this narrative immediately after his account of Jesus’ temptations in the desert. Each of those temptations offered a self-serving way for Jesus to carry out his messianic mission and he rejected them all. Although he obviously had great respect for John the Baptizer, when he described his vocation, Jesus chose Isaiah as his guide. He would not be an ascetic prophet, but one who proclaimed joy and human thriving. His goal was to bring, and be, good news. 

St. Paul picks up on this theme in his preaching to the Corinthians. First of all, like Jesus who called for concern for every member of the community, Paul reminds his people that they were all baptized into the very same Spirit that guided Jesus. More than that, their unity in the Spirit outranked any distinctions among them. As members of Christ, they were to consecrate their gifts and talents for the good of the whole.

Jesus gave scandal to the people who knew him best. Thinking they knew him, they suffered from the same lack of faith that hinders too many disciples. Many believe in Jesus but lack conviction about their capacity to be his body, his presence in their own time. They may participate in the Eucharist and pray but remain ignorant of the power of the Spirit available to them through their incorporation into Christ. It’s too hard to believe that they share Jesus’ own vocation.

The Scriptures of this Sunday invite us to recommit ourselves to our vocation as members of the body of Christ. We might begin by asking the Spirit to help us become ever more deeply aware of our particular vocation and of the gifts and talents we’ve been given. Remembering Paul’s message that no gift is lesser or unnecessary, we can ask the Spirit how to use those gifts for the good of all. We are one body, sharing in the needs and the joy of all others. Our vocation is to thrive together.

As baptized people, let us join Jesus in saying « The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. » To the extent that we are open, the Spirit will guide us to give joyfully and become all God knows we can be. That will create a spectacle much needed by our world.

Artificial intelligence or any other technology that worsens inequality around the world and increases fake news should not be embraced as « progress, » Pope Francis told business and government leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

« Technological developments that do not improve life for everyone, but instead create or worsen inequalities and conflicts, cannot be called true progress, » the pope said in a message to the World Economic Forum.

AI, he said, « should be placed at the service of a healthier, more human, more social and more integral development. »

Francis’ message, addressed to Klaus Schwab, chairperson of the forum, was delivered by Cardinal Peter Turkson, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, and was published by the Vatican Jan. 23.

The annual meeting in Davos Jan. 20-24 brought together leaders in business, government, academia and media to discuss security and cooperation, particularly regarding Russia’s war on Ukraine; technology’s impact on businesses and development; and safeguarding the planet.

While the Catholic Church supports technological development as a result of God-given human creativity, « AI is intended to imitate the human intelligence that designed it, thus posing a unique set of questions and challenges, » the pope said in his message.

Since « the results that AI can produce are almost indistinguishable from those of human beings, » the pope wrote, questions must be raised about « its effect on the growing crisis of truth in the public forum. »

Francis also reiterated his concern about artificial intelligence and its use in weapons systems, health care and other life-and-death situations.

« This technology, » he wrote, « is designed to learn and make certain choices autonomously, adapting to new situations and providing answers not foreseen by its programmers, thus raising fundamental questions about ethical responsibility, human safety, and the broader implications of these developments for society. »

People need to be aware that AI really « is not an artificial form of human intelligence but a product of it, » the pope said. « When used correctly, AI assists the human person in fulfilling his or her vocation, in freedom and responsibility. »

But it is simply an assistant, he said, and not the answer to all the world’s problems.

Too often, the pope wrote, « human dignity and fraternity are frequently subordinated in the pursuit of efficiency, as though reality, goodness, and truth inherently emanate from technological and economic power. »

« Human dignity must never be violated for the sake of efficiency, » Francis said.

« As with all other human activity and technological development, AI must be ordered to the human person, » he said.

Citing the vision of true progress promoted in the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Francis insisted that AI should « become part of efforts to achieve ‘greater justice, more extensive fraternity and a more humane order of social relations’ which are ‘more valuable than advances in the technical field.' »