National Catholic Register portal reports on the anxieties of young Catholics regarding artificial intelligence and the job market, framed within the context of the new encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas* from the antipope Leo XIV. The article presents a series of interviews with Gen Z Catholics who express frustration, uncertainty, and even a sense of “betrayal” as they face an economy increasingly dominated by AI-driven automation. While the encyclical pays lip service to the “dignity of the human person,” the entire discussion remains trapped within a naturalistic framework that reduces man to an economic unit and offers no supernatural remedy for the crisis of modernity. The article’s silence on the true causes of societal decay — apostasy, the rejection of Christ the King, and the modernist revolution — reveals the spiritual bankruptcy of the conciliar sect.
A Naturalistic Diagnosis of a Supernatural Disease
The article begins by painting a bleak picture of the current job market for young Catholics. Alexis Powers, a 23-year-old graduate, applied for over 200 jobs without success, attributing her failure to AI systems that screen résumés with mechanical precision. Her experience is emblematic of a generation that feels “the rug was pulled out from under them,” as Will Deatherage of Catholics for Hire puts it. The anxiety is real, but the analysis offered — both by the interviewees and by the encyclical itself — is profoundly inadequate.
The encyclical Magnifica Humanitas warns that technological innovation is often pursued for “reducing costs and increasing profits,” while workers face growing insecurity. It states: “The protection of employment opportunities and the irreplaceable role of the individual must remain the general rule… The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human person is an end, not a means.” This language, while superficially appealing, is nothing more than a restatement of the very errors condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors. Error 58 declares: “No other forces are to be recognized except those which reside in matter, and all the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches by every possible means, and the gratification of pleasure.” The encyclical’s focus on “employment opportunities” and “profits” as the primary lens through which to view the crisis of work is a materialist reduction of the human person. It treats man as a cog in an economic machine rather than a soul created for eternal beatitude.
The Omission of Christ the King and Social Kingship
The most glaring omission in both the article and the encyclical it references is any mention of the Social Kingship of Christ. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to address the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors.” He wrote: “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations, both male and female, who are indeed the most valiant helpers of the Pastors of the Church and contribute most to the expansion and establishment of Christ’s Kingdom.” Furthermore, Pius XI declared: “The annual celebration of this solemnity will also remind states that not only private individuals, but also rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him: for it will remind them of the final judgment, in which Christ, whom not only was cast out of the state, but was also forgotten and ignored through contempt, will very severely avenge these insults.”
The crisis of work is not merely a technological or economic problem; it is a direct consequence of the rejection of Christ the King by states and societies. When God is removed from laws and states, “the foundations of that authority were destroyed, because the main reason why some have the right to command and others have the duty to obey was removed” (Pius XI, Ubi Arcano). The encyclical Magnifica Humanitas offers no call for the restoration of Christ’s social reign, no condemnation of the secular order that has displaced God from public life. Instead, it speaks the language of “ethics” and “values” — the very vocabulary of the modernist revolution that has gutted the Church of her supernatural mission.
The Myth of “Ethical AI” and the Cult of Progress
The article highlights the Leonum Institute for AI and Emerging Technologies at The Catholic University of America, which claims to help students “think critically about how to integrate AI into their future professions in a way that ensures they are ‘following [their] values, [their] faith and the ethics of proper usage.'” This is a textbook example of the modernist error condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane Exitu. Proposition 65 states: “Contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism.” The notion that AI can be “ethically integrated” into a Catholic framework without first restoring the integral social order of Christ the King is a fantasy. It is the heresy of the “evolution of dogmas” applied to technology — the belief that the Church must adapt to the “progress” of the world rather than the world submitting to the unchanging law of God.
Kieran Devine, a 23-year-old technical solutions engineer, asks: “How is this oriented towards the good and God?” This question, while sincere, reveals the confusion of a generation raised within the conciliar sect. The “good” is not an abstract ethical category; it is the fulfillment of God’s commandments and the salvation of souls. AI, like any tool, can be used for good or evil, but the primary disorder is not technological — it is spiritual. Until society returns to the obedience of Christ the King, no amount of “ethical guidelines” will prevent the exploitation of man by man.
The Betrayal of the Youth by the Conciliar Sect
Will Deatherage observes that young people feel “betrayed” by AI, but the true betrayal lies with the conciliar sect itself. For over sixty years, the structures occupying the Vatican have promoted a vision of the Church that is indistinguishable from secular humanism. They have abandoned the supernatural, embraced religious liberty, and entered into dialogue with the world on its own terms. The result is a generation of Catholics who, like Catherine Halbmaier, express concern about the “environmental and social costs” of AI data centers but have no understanding of the spiritual catastrophe that has befallen the Church.
The article quotes Deatherage as saying: “As they are knocked down, the Church has a task to guide them toward true fulfillment, which can only be found in Jesus Christ.” This statement, while true in principle, is rendered hollow by the context. The “Church” he refers to is the conciliar sect, which has systematically dismantled the means of grace — the true Mass, the sacraments administered with proper intention, the uncompromising preaching of the Faith. The “fulfillment” offered by the neo-church is a naturalistic counterfeit, a “happiness” measured in professional status and economic stability rather than union with God.
The Irrelevance of the Encyclical
The encyclical Magnifica Humanitas is presented as a response to the anxieties of Gen Z, but it is in fact a symptom of the disease it purports to treat. It addresses the symptoms — job insecurity, inequality, the dehumanizing effects of technology — while ignoring the root cause: the apostasy of the modern world and the complicity of the conciliar sect in that apostasy. Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition that “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Error 80). The encyclical Magnifica Humanitas is precisely such a reconciliation — an attempt to baptize the “fourth industrial revolution” with Catholic-sounding language while leaving the structures of sin intact.
The young Catholics interviewed in this article deserve better than the platitudes of the neo-church. They deserve the fullness of the Catholic Faith — the Faith that proclaims Christ the King, that demands the submission of all societies to His law, and that offers not “ethical AI” but the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the true source of peace and justice. Until the conciliar sect is rejected and the true Church is restored, no encyclical, no institute, no “Catholics for Hire” program will address the spiritual ruin that lies at the heart of the crisis of work.
Source:
AI to Gen Z: Young Catholic Job Seekers and Employees Wrestle With the Future of Work (ncregister.com)
Date: 29.05.2026