EWTN News portal reports that Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke at a Georgetown University panel on June 2, 2026, discussing the encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas* by the antipope Leo XIV. Coakley emphasized that the encyclical calls for “keeping the dignity of the human person, created in God’s image, at the center of any discernment about emerging technologies.” The panel, which included Vatican “Bishop” Paul Tighe and other conciliar figures, explored how AI impacts humanity, work, healthcare, and the Church’s role in guiding technological development. The discussion centered on “human dignity,” “anthropology,” and the Church’s mission to “walk alongside humanity” in addressing contemporary challenges. This entire discourse, while cloaked in the language of Catholic social teaching, reveals a fundamental inversion: the replacement of the supernatural order and the absolute Kingship of Christ with a naturalistic, anthropocentric humanism that serves the agenda of the post-conciliar abomination.
The Anthropological Inversion: Man as Measure of All Things
The central thesis advanced by Coakley and the panelists is that *Magnifica Humanitas* is “really about anthropology — having an adequate anthropology to really address the challenges that are being proposed by these developing and emerging technologies.” This statement, while seemingly innocuous, contains the very essence of the modernist error condemned by St. Pius X in *Pascendi Dominici Gregis*: the reduction of supernatural religion to a matter of human consciousness and experience. When Coakley declares that the encyclical is “not really, fundamentally … about the technologies” but rather about “the human person, made of the image and likeness of God, at the center of our discernment,” he perpetuates the anthropocentric revolution that has consumed the conciliar sect since 1958.
The Catholic faith teaches that the center of all reality is not man but God — *Deus meus et omnia*. The *Summa Theologica* of St. Thomas Aquinas begins not with the dignity of man but with the existence and nature of God, from whom all things proceed and to whom all things return. The *Catechism of the Council of Trent* makes clear that the end of man is the beatific vision, the knowledge and love of God in eternity, not the cultivation of human dignity as an autonomous principle. Pius XI, in *Quas Primas*, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that removes Jesus Christ and His law from human affairs. The encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas*, as presented by Coakley, does the opposite: it places man at the center and makes technology — a purely temporal, material concern — the occasion for reflection, rather than the eternal truths of faith.
The Silence About Sin, Grace, and the Supernatural Order
What is most striking about the entire panel discussion, as reported, is the complete absence of any mention of the supernatural order. There is no reference to original sin, the state of grace, the necessity of the sacraments, the reality of hell, or the final judgment. The “human dignity” invoked by Coakley and his co-panelists is a purely naturalistic concept — the dignity of man as a rational animal, not the dignity of man as a creature called to supernatural union with God through Jesus Christ, the sole Mediator.
This silence is not accidental. It is the hallmark of the modernist theology condemned in *Lamentabili Sane Exitu*, which rejected the proposition that “the Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences” (proposition 57) and affirmed that “truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (proposition 58). The panelists at Georgetown operate within a framework where the “signs of the times” — a phrase borrowed from the modernist playbook — take precedence over the immutable deposit of faith. The “contemporary challenges” they reference are not the apostasy of nations, the loss of faith among the faithful, or the sacrilegious destruction of the Most Holy Sacrifice, but rather the development of artificial intelligence and its impact on employment and healthcare.
The Church’s “Voice” as Servant of the World
Coakley’s assertion that the Church must “walk alongside humanity” and be “responsive to the contemporary challenges that men and women in every age” face is a direct echo of the modernist ecclesiology condemned by St. Pius X. The true Church does not “walk alongside” the world in its errors; she stands as *columna et veritatis* — the pillar and ground of truth (1 Timothy 3:15) — and proclaims the unchanging Gospel of Jesus Christ to a fallen world in need of redemption. The mission of the Church is not to respond to the world’s agenda but to convert the world to Christ.
“Bishop” Paul Tighe’s statement that “we shared our destiny with other people” and “we journeyed together on this world” is a thinly veiled restatement of the modernist proposition condemned in *Pascendi*: that the Church must adapt herself to the modern world and its aspirations. This is the very spirit of the “Church of the New Advent” — the conciliar sect that has replaced the supernatural mission of the Catholic Church with a naturalistic program of social engagement, dialogue, and accommodation.
The reference to *Rerum Novarum* by Meghan Sullivan is particularly revealing. While Leo XIII’s encyclical on the condition of workers is a genuine document of Catholic social teaching, its invocation in the context of AI and “human dignity” serves to reduce the Church’s social doctrine to a program of economic justice and labor rights, divorced from the supernatural framework that gives it meaning. *Rerum Novarum* was written in the context of the Church’s recognition of her divine mission to order all things to God; the conciliar appropriation of it transforms it into a charter for secular humanism.
The Idolatry of “Human Dignity” Without Christ
The phrase “ontological and infinite dignity” of the human person, attributed to Leo XIV by Coakley, is a modernist innovation that has no foundation in the pre-conciliar Magisterium. While Catholic theology has always affirmed the dignity of man as created in the image of God, this dignity is not “infinite” — only God is infinite — and it is not “ontological” in the sense implied by the panelists, that is, as an autonomous principle independent of man’s relationship to God. The dignity of man, in Catholic teaching, is derived from and ordered toward God. It is not a self-standing value that can be invoked apart from the supernatural order.
Pius IX, in the *Syllabus of Errors*, condemned the proposition that “the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to propagate the pest of indifferentism” (proposition 79). The “human dignity” framework employed by the conciliar sect is precisely the kind of indifferentism that Pius IX warned against: it treats all human beings as possessing equal dignity regardless of their faith, their state of grace, or their relationship to the true Church. This is the dignity of naturalism, not the dignity of the supernatural life.
The Reduction of Healthcare to Secular Ethics
Daniel Daly’s contribution to the panel — that “AI can augment the care that humans provide but must not replace them” and that “artificial intelligences can’t care for patients, they can’t do the works of mercy” — while containing a kernel of practical wisdom, is framed entirely within a naturalistic ethic. There is no mention of the spiritual works of mercy, the importance of the sacraments for the sick, the role of the priest as physician of souls, or the reality that healthcare in the Catholic tradition is ordered toward the salvation of souls, not merely the preservation of bodily health.
The Catholic healthcare tradition, as articulated by the pre-conciliar Magisterium, is inseparable from the mission of the Church to save souls. The “culture of encounter and accompaniment” invoked by Daly is a conciliar slogan that replaces the supernatural charity of Christ with a secular ethic of compassion. The true “healing ministry of Jesus” is not a model for healthcare policy; it is the reality of the sacramental life, where the sick receive the Anointing of the Sick, the Eucharist, and the prayers of the Church for their salvation.
The Omission of Christ the King
The most damning omission in the entire panel discussion is any reference to the Kingship of Christ. Pius XI, in *Quas Primas*, declared that “the reign of our Savior” extends over all nations and all aspects of human life, and that “the hope of lasting peace will not yet shine upon nations as long as individuals and states renounce and do not wish to recognize the reign of our Lord.” The panelists at Georgetown, in their discussion of AI and technology, make no mention of the obligation of nations and individuals to submit to the authority of Christ the King. Their “discernment” about technology is conducted entirely within a humanistic framework, as if the moral and spiritual order established by God were irrelevant to the development and use of artificial intelligence.
This is the very “secularism of our times, so-called laicism” that Pius XI identified as “the plague that poisons human society.” The conciliar sect, by placing “human dignity” at the center of its reflection on technology, has effectively dethroned Christ the King and enthroned Man as the measure of all things. This is not Catholic teaching; it is the *Magnifica Humanitas* of the Antichrist — the glorification of man apart from God.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation Speaks
The panel discussion reported by EWTN News is a textbook example of the conciliar sect’s method of operation: the use of Catholic-sounding language to advance a thoroughly modernist, naturalistic, and anthropocentric agenda. The “human dignity” invoked by Coakley and his co-panelists is not the dignity of the children of God, redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ and called to the beatific vision; it is the dignity of autonomous man, sufficient unto himself, in need of no redemption other than technological progress and social justice.
The true Church — the Catholic Church of all ages, enduring in the faithful who profess the integral faith and are led by bishops with valid orders — does not “walk alongside” the world in its errors. She proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, consubstantial with the Father, whose kingdom shall have no end. She calls all men and all nations to submit to the Kingship of Christ, to receive the sacraments of salvation, and to order their lives according to the commandments of God. The *Magnifica Humanitas* of Leo XIV is not a Catholic encyclical; it is a manifesto of the abomination of desolation, speaking in the temple of God as if it were God (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:4).
Let the faithful reject this modernist counterfeit and return to the immutable Tradition of the Catholic Church, where Christ is King, the Mass is the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary, and the dignity of man is ordered toward the glory of God alone — *Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam*.
Source:
Archbishop Coakley: Encyclical urges keeping human dignity central in judging tech (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 03.06.2026