
Confronting the Technological Revolution
After his election to the papacy last month Pope Leo XIV gave insight to his selection of the name he chose. He referred, as I expected, to Pope Leo XIII’s focus on the well-being of working-class people in the rapidly changing socio-political environment of the late 19th century. Just as Pope Leo XIII saw the dangers that the Industrial Revolution posed and the looming specter of the Marxist ideology, which was looking to control the working class, Pope Leo XIV has stated he sees the dangers of out-of-control technology in the present day as a great threat to our humanity. Both of his immediate predecessors, Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI, also referred to the potential dangers in these technologies.