Navigating Technology in Light of Magnifica Humanitas
Fr. Raymond Cook, Provincial Superior of the United States Province, has addressed a letter to the Superior General entitled “Navigating Technology as Oblates – Reflection on Magnifica Humanitas.” In it, he offers a timely and thoughtful response to Pope Leo XIV’s first Encyclical Letter, Magnifica Humanitas, published on May 25, 2026, which reflects on safeguarding the dignity of the human person in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
Drawing from both personal interest and missionary conviction, Fr. Cook highlights the challenges and opportunities that new technologies present for the Oblate charism today. His reflection invites the Congregation to discern how best to proclaim the Gospel and serve the most abandoned in an increasingly digital world, responding with creativity, responsibility, and fidelity to our mission.
Full letter below:
May 25, 2026
We are Human
Navigating Technology as Oblates – my reflection on Magnifica Humanitas
Dear Father General,
As most of you know, in the early hours on May 25, 2026, we finally received Pope Leo XIV’s first Encyclical Letter, Magnifica Humanitas, addressing the safeguarding of the human person in the time of Artificial Intelligence. As an old tech nerd, I was ecstatic that Pope Leo would be addressing AI as well as many issues connected to AI, both good and bad. I really could not put it down. There is of course more to the document than I will reflect on here, but I wanted to start somewhere and focus on how technology intersects with our charism. As Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, I recognized in this document an urgent, direct mandate to reassess our missionary ministry within the borders of the United States Province and beyond. It’s getting late in the evening, and I really want to offer this to the province as soon as possible!
Our founder taught us to leave no stone unturned by trying everything, to look around and be active in a broken world, and to find our place among those whom society has pushed aside. In post-Revolutionary France, St. Eugene reached out to the rural poor, the prisoners, and the forgotten on the peripheries. Today the USA is located in the epicenter of global digital power, and the concept of the “periphery” has changed. The poor and marginalized can no longer simply be defined by geography or lack of material resources, but by structural, technological exclusion as well. Magnifica Humanitas warns that we are living through a “change of era” rather than a mere human progress. For Oblates, I think this means our missionary zeal must enter the digital “construction sites” (16) where human dignity is actively being compromised.
Active Dehumanization
To start, I recognize that capitalistic corporations stand as the main drivers of the digital revolution. Pope Leo notes, the control over infrastructure, data streams, and automated computing power does not rest in public stewardship, but within private, transnational corporate monopolies. In our local U.S. communities—from the inner cities to underserved rural communities—this concentrated “technocratic” shift is beginning to generate unprecedented imbalances in power and wealth. Pope Leo states:
“Technology power takes on an unprecedented, predominantly ‘private’ aspect, which makes it even more challenging to discern, govern and direct such power toward the common good… We must avoid the ‘Babel syndrome,’ namely the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretense that a single language—even a digital one—can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance.” (5, 10)
He then goes on to say that there is a great risk of dehumanization in this new era. Thus, as Oblates we are called upon once again to teach people that they are first and above all; human. We see what Leo calls this “Babel syndrome” disrupting secular families and even religious communities daily. The union of automation and reproductive AI systems is accelerating job insecurity, deskilling workers, and transforming human labor that is optimized solely for financial gain. When corporate choices sacrifice employment under the guise of efficiency, they introduce a destructive paradox: material advancement alongside the regression of humanity. For the youth in our Oblate parishes and ministries, the predatory “digital attention economy” (170) monetizes human vulnerability, fueling isolation, a severe crisis in mental health, and structural dependencies that actively dismantle interior freedom.
Connecting the Oblate Charism to Modern Formations of Slavery
St. Eugene de Mazenod’s desire was that we give preference to the most abandoned, those treated as less than human. Magnifica Humanitas looks into the darker side of this technological frontier that I have not given much thought to until now. The encyclical speaks of new, covert forms of global servitude that are directly tied to the U.S. digital economy. The user experiences designed in Silicon Valley are often built upon deep exploitation of others. Millions of marginalized workers, often working under demanding conditions for minimal wages, spend their lives data-labeling and moderating disturbing, traumatic content to train large language models. Furthermore, criminal networks now routinely utilize online platforms, anonymous profiling, and algorithmic tools to recruit and exploit the vulnerable, reducing humans to data packets within global commerce circuits (173).
As Oblates in the United States, we cannot remain passive spectators to this new colonization of life. We must recognize these spaces as our contemporary mission fields. To ignore the ethical challenges of the digital shift is to become complicit. St. Eugene called us to adapt our language to ensure the poor could hear the liberating truth of the Gospel; today, we must master the language necessary to disarm these modern algorithmic “monopolies of AI.” (109)
The Way of Nehemiah: A Practical Mandate for Missionaries Oblates
Rejecting the inevitability of an inhumane future, Pope Leo calls us to adopt the “way of Nehemiah,”(10) to minister as Oblates within our local realities and rebuild the walls of fraternal charity “brick by brick.” (241) We are explicitly called to treat the digital landscape as a “new continent to be evangelized,” (238) requiring mature, courageous missionaries. We Oblates must respond with concrete, intentional actions across our apostolates:
- Parish Ministry as Centers of Physical Counterculture: In today’s world we have experienced lack of human connection, our Oblate parishes could become spaces that protect and encourage face-to-face community and Eucharistic solidarity. We can intentionally cultivate times of silence, relational closeness, and outreach to those feeling isolated by technological shifts, reaffirming that the human heart remains the place where God dwells (16).
- Educational Alliances and Youth Advocacy: Our schools (OST), formation houses (Tempier, Borzaga, Novitiate), and young adult and youth ministries can form an active educational alliance. We need to provide our young people and formandi with robust tools for “digital sobriety,” (170) teaching them to recognize data manipulation and defend their “ontological dignity” (52) against a world that commodifies attention with clicks and likes. This requires supporting each other, and those we serve, who are struggling to resist the pervasive influence of corporate platforms.
- Standing with the New Faces of the Poor: As Technology changes the labor landscape, I wonder if our social ministries that we support as Oblates can adapt to assist workers facing unemployment. Is there a way that we can work with local labor initiatives, community groups, and educational centers? Can our JPIC office provide challenges to corporations to assert the dignity of human labor over capital and productivity indicators? I find these questions to be very challenging.
Remaining Human and Christian so that we can become Saints
Our missionary call in today’s world IS challenging, but it is filled with theological hope. As Oblates we should not be intimidated by the rapid pace of technology. We are presented with an opportunity to enter the “construction sites”
of our time—our parishes, urban centers, border ministries, and digital spaces—with the heart of Eugene. By placing the human person at the absolute center of our ministerial choices, we ensure that the “rejected stones” (16) the poor, the digitally exploited, the lonely, and the marginalized—become the very cornerstones of a welcoming, fraternal church. I propose that we foster a way to engage in a zoom conference to share ideas of what we could do to be a voice in the digital world in order to create intentional non-digital spaces from our major institutions. I welcome any thoughts or ideas as we continue to unpack this profound document we have received today.
Through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, our patroness, and St. Eugene de Mazenod, I pray for the courage to remain profoundly human in this digital age.
Peace,
Raymond Cook, OMI
Provincial US Province
Published on the OMI World website