Author: Christopher Longhurst
Christopher Longhurst
Christopher Longhurst is a New Zealand Catholic theologian and survivor advocate whose writing examines theology, institutional culture, and accountability in responses to abuse.
By Dr Christopher Evan Longhurst KSO Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity),published this month, warns that AI risks concentrating power, narrowing humanfreedom, and placing too much authority in the hands of unaccountable systems. Yetthe document raises an uncomfortable question closer to home: when the Vaticancritiques concentrated moral authority, is it also critiquing itself? Magnifica Humanitas is an ambitious and rhetorically compelling intervention into theethical challenges posed by AI. Yet beneath its appeal to human dignity lies a deeperclaim: that the Catholic Church continues to claim a privileged role in interpretingwhat authentic human flourishing requires in the age…