The Empty Papacy: When a Modernist “Pope” Speaks on Consciousness Without a Soul

Joshua Hochschild, writing for the National Catholic Register, presents a commentary on the encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas* by the usurper “Pope” Leo XIV (Robert Francis Prevost), which addresses artificial intelligence. The article, while attempting to discuss the philosophical question of consciousness, reveals the profound theological and philosophical bankruptcy of the post-conciliar structures. The very fact that a man occupying the Vatican throne can author an encyclical denying AI consciousness while simultaneously refusing to provide the only coherent metaphysical reasons for this denial—reasons rooted in the Catholic doctrine of the rational soul—demonstrates that the conciliar sect has abandoned the intellectual patrimony of the Church. The article treats the “pope’s” assertions as worthy of serious philosophical engagement, failing to recognize that a manifest heretic, as Bellarmine teaches, ceases to be Pope and head, and his documents carry no more authority than any other manifest heretic’s opinions.