In the face of the technological development , which includes fake news and deepfakeshow can we remain fully human and remain free?

How can true wisdom be attained? How can human dignity be guaranteed? These are questions that are being asked with renewed formats in our days.

This month we have selected three teachings of the Pope: his message for workshop world communications-2024; his speech to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; and his message for Lent. Seemingly disparate themes, but the red thread is the life and mission statement of Christians, and their fascinating task, also in our changing world.

The topic of the Message for the 58th workshop world social communications (24-I-2024) is: "Artificial Intelligence and Wisdom of the Heart for Fully Human Communication." It asks, as the Pope points out, "how we can remain fully human and direct the cultural change underway towards the good". We must not, he advises, allow ourselves to be carried away by catastrophic predictions about the future, but, as Guardini prophetically said in 1927, we must remain "sensitive to the pain produced by the destruction and inhuman behavior contained in this new world"; and promote "that a new humanity of profound spirituality, of a new freedom and a new interior life may emerge"(Letters from Lake Como, Pamplona 2013, 101-104).

In continuity with the messages of the previous world social communications conference (2021-2023), Francis proposes that, in this age that runs the risk of being rich in technology and poor in communication, we must start our reflection from the wisdom of the human heart. Here the term heart is used in the biblical sense, as the seat of freedom and of the important decisions of life. "The wisdom of the heart is, then, that virtue that allows us to interweave the whole and the parts, the decisions and their consequences, the capacities and the frailties, the past and the future, the I and the we." It may seem, and it is, difficult to achieve, but, the Pope adds, "it is precisely wisdom - whose Latin root sapere is related to taste - that gives taste to life."

At the same time, he warns that we cannot expect wisdom from machines, and specifically from Artificial Intelligence (AI). As expressed by its original scientific name, machine learning, machines can "learn" in the sense of storing and correlating data, but it is only man who can give them their meaning.

Hence, like everything that is in the hands of man, AI is an opportunity and at the same time a danger in the hands of man, if he does not overcome "the original temptation to become like God without God" (cf. Gen 3). It is not only a risk, but also the danger into which man has in fact fallen by wanting "toconquer by his own strength what should instead be taken as a gift from God and lived in relationship with others". For this reason, says the Successor of Peter, it is necessary "toawaken man from the hypnosis into which he has fallen because of his delirium of omnipotence, believing himself to be a totally autonomous and self-referential subject, separated from every social bond and alien to his creatureliness".

These statements are not generalities. In fact, from the first phase of AI, that of social media, to algorithms, we are experiencing that "every technical extension of man can be an instrument of loving service or hostile domination". Fake news and deepfakes, with the manipulation and simulation they entail, are clear examples.

What does the Pope propose? He proposes, first of all, to act preventively, encouraging "ethical regulation to curb the harmful and discriminatory, socially unjust implications of artificial intelligence systems and to counteract their use in the reduction of pluralism, the polarization of public opinion or the construction of a single way of thinking."

Thus, he renews his appeal urging "the community of nations to work together to adopt a binding international treaty to regulate development andthe use of artificial intelligence in its many forms" (Message for the 57th World Peace workshop , 1-I-2024, 8).

Secondly, he proposes to grow in humanity, without being reduced to a world where staff becomes mere data for the benefit of a few: of the market or of power. And to this purpose, he praises the figure of good journalism, which is capable of communicating reality, so that "itgives back to every human being the role of subject, with critical capacity, with respect to communication itself".

Hence, he sees the need to "protect the professionalism and dignity of workers in the field of communication and information, along with that of usersaround the world". It also calls for the guarantee of ethical criteria in information, respect and transparency of authorship and sources, so that pluralism is preserved and the complexity of reality is represented, making information "sustainable" and at the same time "accessible" to all.

On this question, the Pope affirms, "on the one hand, the specter of a new slavery looms, on the other, a conquest of freedom". It is up to us to nourish the heart with freedom, without which there is no wisdom.

In his speech to the Plenary Assembly of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on January 26, he reminded them of their task in the terms of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium (2022): "To assist the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops in proclaiming the Gospel throughout the world, promoting and safeguarding the integrity of Catholic doctrine on faith and morals, on the basis of the deposit of faith and also seeking an ever deeper understanding of it in the face of new questions" (art. 69).

Francis confirmed the commitment of the Dicastery "in the area of the intelligence of the faith in the face of the epochal change that characterizes our time". And in this direction he offered them orientations for their task around three words: sacraments, dignity and faith.

First of all, the sacraments, topic on which the Dicastery has recently been working (cf. grade Gestisverbisque on the validity of the sacraments, 31-I-2024; cf. Francis, speech to the plenary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the discipline of the sacraments, 8-II-2024).

The Bishop of Rome now points out: "Through the sacraments, believers become capable of prophecy and witness. And our times need with particular urgency prophets of new life and witnesses of charity: let us therefore love and make others love the beauty and saving power of the sacraments!"

Second, dignity. This dicastery is also working on a document on human dignity. For this reason, he encouraged them to be "close to all those who, without proclamations, in the concrete life of each day struggle and pay in person to defend the rights of those who do not count" (Angelus, 10 October 2023). In this way, "in theface of various and current forms of eliminating or ignoring others, let us be capable of reacting with a new dream of fraternity and social friendship that does not remain just words" (Encyclical Fratelli tutti, 6).

Finally, faith. In the context of the tenth anniversary of Evangelii Gaudium and the approaching Jubilee of 2025, Francis recalled the words of Benedict XVI when he noted that, often among Christians today, faith no longer appears as budget of common life, and is even frequently denied (cf. Letter Porta fidei, 2). 

For this reason, Pope Francis pointed out, it is time to reflect on some themes: "the advertisement and thecommunication of the faith in today's world, especially in relation to the younger generations; the missionary conversion of theecclesial Structures and of pastoral agents; the new urban cultures with their load of challenges, but also of unprecedented questions of meaning; finally, and above all, the centrality of the 'kerygma' in the life and in the mission statement of the Church".

Finally, it is worth alluding to this year's Lenten message for 2024 (published in December of last year): "Through the desert Godleadsus guide tofreedom". The desert represents here the path of grace in which we can discover or rediscover God's love for us, and thus open ourselves to a truer and fuller freedom. 

The condition for this, the Pope points out in his message, is "towant to see reality. Just as God sees everything and hears everything (cf. Ex 3:7-8), so we must listen to the cries of so many of our brothers and sisters in need.  

The obstacle that Francis points out is striking, with reference letter to what happened in the pilgrimage of the chosen people through the desert: the longing for slavery, linked to a lack of hope. 

Indeed, it is an astonishing and strange longing, which can only be explained by the egocentric tendency of sin -which leads to idolatry-, the search for security at all costs, the tendency to self-preservation and the resource to idols.

"Otherwise," Francis observes, "itwould not be explained that a humanity that has reached the threshold of universal fraternity and levels of scientific, technical, cultural and legal development , capable of guaranteeing the dignity of all, walks in the darkness of inequalities and conflicts.

And continuing with the analogy between our journey and the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, Peter's successor points out: "More fearsome than Pharaoh are the idols; we could consider them as their voice in us. Feeling omnipotent, recognized by all, taking advantage of others: every human being feels within himself the seduction of this lie. It is a well-worn path.

Therefore, we can become attached to money, to certain projects, ideas, objectives, to our position, to a tradition and even to some people. Those things, instead of driving us, will paralyze us.Instead of uniting us, they will pit us against each other."

What to do, then? Francis proposes: "It is time to act, and in Lent to act is also to stop. To stop in prayer, almsgiving and fasting, which are like awakenings for an atrophied and isolated heart. And not with a sad face (cf. Mt 6:16) but with a joyful countenance, open to creativity and hope. 

The message concludes with some special words for young people, taken from the challenge Francis issued to them last year in Lisbon: "Seek and risk, seek and risk. In this historical moment the challenges are enormous, the groans are painful - we are living a third world war in bits and pieces - but we embrace the risk of thinking that we are not in agony, but in labor; not at the end, but at the beginning of a great spectacle. And it takes courage to think this" (speech to university students, 3-VIII-2023).