A day after joining fellow members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., for a meeting with tech firm representatives and specialists on keeping Artificial Intelligence at the service of humanity, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades returned to his native diocese for the annual Sanctity of Life Mass.
As principal celebrant and homilist, Bishop Rhoades told the congregation gathered Thursday evening at St. Leo the Great Church in Rohrerstown that the Catholic Church is the biggest voice in addressing the urgent dangers that AI presents to humanity.
“Artificial Intelligence must be used in the service of humanity, not to the detriment of humanity,” he said.
“We live in an age of incredible and extraordinary scientific and technological progress, much of it beneficial to humanity. However, there is a danger of humanity becoming a victim of its own machines,” he said.
A native of Lebanon, Bishop Rhoades was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg in 1983 and would serve as its ninth bishop from 2004-2010 until his appointment as Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
He returned to the Diocese of Harrisburg on September 17 at the invitation of the Lancaster Region of the Order of Malta to celebrate their annual Sanctity of Life Mass. Bishop Timothy Senior and several priests of the diocese concelebrated. The Offertory Collection benefitted A Woman’s Concern, a pro-life pregnancy and resource center in Lancaster.
In his homily, Bishop Rhoades drew on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, issued in May. It addresses safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.
St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis and Pope Leo “have called us to proclaim and live the timeless truth of our Catholic faith, that every human life is sacred, inviolable, and possesses an inherent grandeur that no machine can replicate and no worldly power can erase,” he said. “The human person can never be reduced to a mere object of utility, nor human value reduced to functionality. The weak and vulnerable among us must never be treated as burdens to be discarded.”
“Pope Leo notes that when technology is driven solely by optimization and private profit, it creates new structures of exclusion, sacrificing human dignity on the altar of efficiency. Dehumanization occurs when human life is treated as a product to be engineered, or as data to be mined,” he said.
The bishop, who serves as Secretary of the USCCB, underscored the Gospel of Life and the Church’s teaching on the dignity of every human being. “Creation was a deliberate act of love,” he said. Every human life reflects the face of God, who made us in his image and likeness.
Bishop Rhoades acknowledged that scientific and technological progress are benefits to humanity but cautioned against the danger of humanity becoming victim to its own machines.
Quoting Pope Leo’s encyclical, he said, “technology is not simply a tool. When it becomes the standard by which everything is judged, it begins to dictate what matters and what can be discarded, reducing creation to an object of exploitation and human beings to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.”
“Pope Leo teaches that we must avoid the misconception of equating this type of intelligence with that of human beings,” Bishop Rhoades said.
The Holy Father writes that Artificial Intelligences “may imitate language, behavior and analytical skills, or even simulate empathy and understanding, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom.”
“A meaningful slowdown is needed to ensure safety and moral guardrails in AI development, and to prevent misuse and harm,” Bishop Rhoades said.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has established a Task Force on Preserving Human Dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence to promote the protection of human dignity, religious liberty, democratic institutions, workers, families and vulnerable populations.
“The Church continues to be a beacon of light and truth when it comes to teaching and defending the sanctity of human life, and dignity of the human person, from conception to natural death,” Bishop Rhoades said. “And in doing so, we’re proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus, seeking to evangelize our culture, serving the common good, and working to build a civilization of love. The biggest voice in the world today, with this challenge that we face with AI, is the Catholic Church.”
About the Order of Malta
The Sovereign Order of Malta was established as a lay religious order in 1113. Its Knights and Dames work to serve the sick in hospitals, feed the poor in soup kitchens, clothe and shelter the homeless and provide assistance to the elderly, poor and working mothers.
Members of the Lancaster Region of the Order of Malta locally participate in volunteer projects and spiritual activities, including efforts to feed the hungry, visit the sick and make an annual pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. On October 14, their “Defense of the Faith” program will feature Christopher West and Kate Goonan, MD, on “Male and Female…God Created Them,” at St. John Neumann Church in Lancaster at 7 p.m. For more information on the Lancaster Region of the Order of Malta, visit this link.
(Photos by Chris Heisey, The Catholic Witness.)
By Jen Reed, The Catholic Witness
