VATICAN (CNS): “Prudent legislation can guide the development and application of technology in the service of the common good,” Pope Francis told members of the International Catholic Legislators Network during an audience at the Vatican on August 27.
The members and representatives of the organisation were in Rome for an annual conference. The network is an independent, nonpartisan initiative founded in 2010 “to bring together practicing Catholics and other Christians in elected office on a regular basis for faith formation, education and fellowship,” according to its website. It has headquarters in Vienna and an office in Washington, DC.
The pope told those at the audience that one of the greatest challenges today is making sure technology is used for the common good.
“The wonders of modern science and technology have increased our quality of life,” he said, adding that it is important to encourage ongoing advancements and the new possibilities they open up.
However, technology cannot be left on its own “and to market forces alone without suitable guidelines provided by legislative assemblies and public authorities guided by a sense of social responsibility,” the pope observed. Otherwise, “these innovations can end up becoming a threat to the dignity of the human person.”
Pope Francis called to mind “the scourge of child pornography, the misuse of personal data, attacks on critical infrastructures such as hospitals and the spread of false information on social media and so on.”
Another problem the pope highlighted is the Covid-19 pandemic. “This terrible scourge” has resulted in more than 200 million confirmed cases and 4.4 million deaths as well as “immense economic and social devastation,” he said.
“Although significant progress has been made through the creation and distribution of effective vaccines, much work remains to be done,” the pope stressed.
“By means of policies and regulations, lawmakers can protect human dignity from whatever may threaten it,” Pope Francis said, exhorting the legislators, “… to make every effort to undertake serious and in-depth moral reflection on the risks and possibilities associated with scientific and technological advances, so that the international laws and regulations governing them may concentrate on promoting integral human development and peace, rather than on progress as an end in itself.”
‘By means of policies and regulations, lawmakers can protect human dignity from whatever may threaten it,’ Pope Francis said, exhorting the legislators, ‘… to make every effort to undertake serious and in-depth moral reflection on the risks and possibilities associated with scientific and technological advances, so that the international laws and regulations governing them may concentrate on promoting integral human development and peace, rather than on progress as an end in itself’
Pope Francis pointed out that lawmakers and government representatives are “charged with serving the common good” and the challenge now is a holistic “renewal of your communities and of society as a whole.”
This requires more than “simply combatting the virus or seeking to return to the status quo prior to the pandemic, No, that would be a failure. It demands confronting the deeper causes that the crisis has laid bare and aggravated: poverty, social inequality, widespread unemployment and the lack of access to education,” the pope said.
“In an age of upheaval and political polarisation, legislators and politicians in general are not always held in high esteem. Yet what loftier vocation can there be than that of serving the common good and placing the welfare of the community before our personal advantage?” he asked.
“That must always be your goal, for good politics is indispensable for universal fraternity and social peace,” he said.
Everyone is called to “foster the spirit of solidarity, starting with the needs of our weakest and most disadvantaged brothers and sisters,” the pope said.
“If we are to heal our world so harshly tried by the pandemic and build a more inclusive and sustainable future in which technology serves human needs without isolating us from one another, we need not only responsible citizens, but also capable leaders inspired by the principle of the common good,” he said.
Pope Francis asked the legislators to be “leaven for the renewal of minds, hearts and spirit, witnesses of ‘political love’ for the most vulnerable, so that, in serving them, you may serve him in all that you do.”
Among those in attendance were Christoph Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna, honorary patron of the network; and Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II.
