The Pope Calls for a Civilization of Love

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LISTENING: to the sound of procrastination
FEELING: hot
SEEING: the sun shine through my office windows

I'm not religious. I've been to church a handful of times, but none of it ever stuck. I'm spiritual, sure, but not in a way that actually matters. I don't pray. I don't take part in ceremony or ritual. (Maybe I should?) I don't have a soulful community to turn to when shit gets real. I do have my community, but we aren't rooted in any shared beliefs.

Still, I recognize the church's immense power. This week, that became even more clear after Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, considered "one of the highest forms of teaching from a pope," per The Guardian. He focused on artificial intelligence, better known as AI. Yuck.

I can't pretend I read all 40,000 words, but I did browse around to understand for myself what he said. I searched for words, such as "water" and "environment." I was excited to see him write about the harm data centers, the giant warehouses that house all the computers that make AI technologies possible, cause to the environment.

The Pope writes:

Current AI systems require enormous amounts of energy and water, significantly influencing carbon dioxide emissions, and place heavy demands on natural resources. As their complexity increases, especially in the case of large language models, the need for computing power and storage capacity grows too, which requires an extensive network of machines, cables, data centers and energy-intensive infrastructure. For this reason, it is essential to develop more sustainable technological solutions that reduce environmental impact and help protect our common home.

But before he goes deep on the AI crisis, the Pope spends time laying out the church's values. It's always so strange to me to see a servant of the church write about climate change and environmental disasters — and the importance of taking care of the migrants and refugees these events create — while seeing our White House do the exact opposite by people who claim to serve God.

Like, c'mon, isn't this a jab at the U.S. government? Shout out to the Pope:

A litmus test for social justice today is the treatment of migrants, refugees and those forced to move due to poverty, violence, climate change and environmental disasters. The way a society treats them reveals whether its sense of justice is driven by fear or by the spirit of fraternity. Pope Francis urged us to see migrants not simply as a problem to be managed, but as a living image of the People of God on the move. [109] They are people with dignity, resources and dreams, who have the right to be treated with respect and to ask to become active members of the societies that welcome them. Social justice in this area entails at least two complementary commitments. On the one hand, this means protecting the rightful hopes of those forced to leave by ensuring safe and legal routes, dignified conditions for receiving them, and genuine pathways to integration. On the other hand, it means promoting the right to remain in one’s homeland in peace and security by addressing the root causes that force people to migrate, including those linked to economic injustices and the climate crisis. When these rights are respected, migration can become an opportunity for encounter and mutual enrichment among peoples.

Anyway, this all comes at a moment when AI and its cursed data centers are coming under extreme fire. Renowned environmental activist Erin Brockovich has even joined the fight with the launch of a mapping tool that clearly shows where projects are being proposed or built. (Editor's note: I recently worked with Erin's team on a not-yet-published project. More soon, hopefully!)

In Utah, one proposed data center would increase the state's carbon emissions by 64 percent, according to Grist. This is a state where water has already become a hot-button issue as the Great Salt Lake has dried. At least one county has hit pause on approving permits for data centers, but this $100 billion behemoth from Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary appears full steam ahead.

People aren't happy — from locals to my favorite rockstar, Hayley Williams (of Paramore, duh). At her Utah concert earlier this month, she displayed her opposition to the data center clearly. (See reference below.)

Fuck AI, man. It's so cool that even the church has hopped on the AI hater train. But the Pope didn't only urge us to think more deeply about our relationship to AI. He writes about "the civilization of love," a phrase coined by Saint Paul VI during the Cold War. It looks to "love as the guiding principle of economic, political and cultural life," the Pope writes.

The Cold War has passed, but we are in new war times. Times when our governments are weaving AI into weaponry. Times when genocide is streamed live on our phones. Times when we, once again, worry about the potential for nuclear fallout. It is in these times that we need love most. Love for each other. For the self. For the babies and animals and plants. For whatever divine spirit may be out there looking over us.

So how do we build this civilization of love? We recognize where on the scale of power we lie — and we act. No action is too small when peace is on the line.

The Pope writes:

Certainly, not everyone has the same power to make a difference. There are those who govern, make investment decisions, lead institutions, conduct research, educate, produce or provide information, and then there are those who only seem to live their daily lives. Yet, no one is without responsibility. We all have our own areas for action, and it is precisely there — and nowhere else — that we must choose whether to fuel the mentality of force (even if only through indifference, cynicism, lies or hatred), or to preserve the mindset of peace (with truth, moderation, closeness and care).

...

The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization. For this reason, it is worthwhile pausing to reflect on some aspects of how we, each in our own way, can cooperate in building the civilization of love.

Together, we are powerful. Together, we are love. 🌀

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