Magnificent Humanity

It had to happen at some point. For the first time in my life, I have read an encyclical. Three things struck me.

First, the wonderful comparison that Pope Leo XIV makes between the story of the Tower of Babel and the story of Nehemiah. Both are stories from the Old Testament. With the Tower of Babel, humanity wants to erect a building that reaches into the heavens. But human hubris towards God leads everyone to speak their own language. It's not teamwork; Every person takes care of himself as is customary in our meritocracy. The structure is doomed to fail. On the other hand, there is the story of Nehemiah. He is the Jewish adviser to the Persian king Artaxerxes and, despite much opposition, has the city walls of Jerusalem rebuilt. It is a wonderful story of project leadership and team spirit. It is remarkable that Nehemiah's story is mainly a long detailed enumeration of all the people who contributed to the project. You feel that this is a main concern of the writer: credit where credit is due. The two stories are striking metaphors for the dilemmas that technical project leaders in information technology face. This is particularly inspiring for my daily work.

Secondly, there was the expected integration into the living tradition of Rerum Novarum, the encyclical of predecessor Pope Leo XIII on the social doctrine of the church. Magnifica Humanitas is not an isolated document on artificial intelligence. More broadly, it is also about digitization and the use of technological tools. Are they used for the exploitation of fellow human beings or for the common good? The answer is an integral part of the social doctrine of the Church. We have to name the injustice. The text explicitly opposes postmodernism, the contemporary relentless denial of goodness, truth and beauty. Magnifica Humanitas resolutely opts for a positive view of humanity.

Finally, I was struck by the thoroughness and care with which this document was written. Many nouns were coloured with appropriate adjectives. For example, there is the adjective magnificus – magnificent or splendid. It does not mean the same as magnus – great. Magnificus is what was made great, and for the Church that means made great by God. The word also refers to the Magnificat, a Marian prayer that has taken on a special spiritual meaning within the Church in recent years, thanks to a revaluation of Marian devotion.

I also refer to my blog Church under construction of 2013, in which I express the wish that the Sagrada Familia may not become a Tower of Babel, very appropriate in this context. Furthermore, the trap of technology may be relevant in this context.

Picture: Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, picture from Lusia via Pixabay

Just War

In his book War, how long? Gerard Bodifée wonders whether we should not all become conscientious objectors if we are once again asked to go to war against some earthly power. Bodifée refers to the enormous destructive power that emanates from contemporary wars, not least through the use of landmines that still claim victims a hundred years after the war. His suggestion is also completely in line with the nonviolence that Jesus Christ advocated in his life. 

The proposal sounds completely utopian. However, we have already partially reached this level of conscientious objection. If the Leuven authorities were to ask the people of Leuven today to go to war against the people of Brussels, they would certainly refuse, even if this would put order in Brussels policy. Just like if the Belgians would be asked to fight the Dutch. I can't imagine that there wouldn't be conscientious objectors. So a lot has changed in five hundred years. Within Europe, we already have a serious peace dividend: we no longer have to buy weapons for use within Europe and we are therefore ready for a European united army with enormous economies of scale. Or can't we just renounce war?

Unfortunately, we are not that far yet. We still see ourselves going to war against a number of states that we usually label as rogue states. There is still a justified distrust. When the Prime Minister of Belgium stated that there should be an EU envoy for Russia, my first reaction was: "Isn't there one yet?" Many political leaders in Europe do not actually want to negotiate with Russia. We can safely say that the war in Ukraine is not only the result of an autocratic policy in Russia, but also of a stubborn unwillingness to have talks between the diplomatic corpses in Europe and in Russia.

In the Armed Man,  we already saw that the Church Fathers came up with the idea of the just war in twenty centuries of Christianity. A just war had to meet the following criteria.

Just Cause: The war must be defensive, aimed at stopping a "lasting, serious and certain damage" inflicted by an aggressor.

Legitimate Authority: War must be declared and controlled by a competent, lawful authority (e.g., a state or sovereign).

Right Intention: The war is waged to restore peace and justice, not for territorial gain or power.

Last resort: All peaceful alternatives (diplomacy, negotiations, sanctions) must be exhausted.

Reasonable Hope for Success: The war cannot be a suicide attempt without a chance of success.

Proportionality: The damage caused by the war must not exceed the harm that is being addressed

Of course, it can happen that an aggressor does not meet the conditions, but that a country under aggression does. You could argue that Russia does not meet the conditions, but Ukraine does. Yet one can also say that there is a problem with Ukraine. There is no reasonable hope of success and there are concerns about proportionality. It seems to me that the damage to the country is greater than if Ukraine were to cede some territories, even if that goes against the sovereignty of the peoples. I think the argument that concessions encourage aggressors is too weak when it comes to avoiding further bloodshed. The economic cost is already incalculable.

I also refer to my blog Pray for Peace.

Postscript 9/6/2026: Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV stated that there can actually be no question of a 'just war', there can only be a just peace.

Picture: Tyne Cot cemetery Zonnebeke, November 2025 ©Wim Lahaye

The Armed Man

On the dome of the basilica of Neuss on the left bank of the Rhine there is no statue of Christ or Mary. What you see, is just an armed man. Quirinus of Neuss is commemorated around April 30 in Neuss and in Leuven. His relics are kept here in Leuven. He is venerated in our Park Abbey where he has a small altar with his statue. It is a strange coincidence because it was a regiment of Neuss that set fire to our city of Leuven in 1914. My grandparents' house in the Ravenstraat had a memorial stone that commemorated the fire. But why does the Church venerate a soldier here?

Quirinus van Neuss is not the only soldier venerated in the Church. We think of Saint Michael, Saint George, Saint Martin, Saint Maurice and Saint Gereon who regularly appear in our medieval art heritage. Usually, these figures are framed in a mythical battle between good and evil, in which the revered soldiers were of course on the side of good. Yet there is a commandment: "Thou shalt not kill". And after Peter had cut off the ear of Malchus, a servant of the high priest, Christ said, "He who wields the sword will perish by the sword." Can armed men then be "benedicti", i.e. blessed?

I ask myself this strange question because we live in a time when even journalists preach armaments and war. I'm not saying they're wrong, but it seems to be dictated by the issues of the day. In the profane life we have always honoured fallen soldiers with lots of pump and circumstances. Even a hundred years after World War I, we still blow last posts in Ypres with a lot of interest. That is not insincere, but it does raise the permanent reflection in me that the powerful of the earth are happy to profit from the willingness to sacrifice of young brothers in arms.

Peter's current successor, Leo XIV, repeated Jesus' call to nonviolence, which was not appreciated by everyone. The media tried to make a competition out of it, as always, but that is irrelevant to anyone who places the moral authority of the gospel far above all the turmoil. Yet a lot has happened in the Church between Peter and Leo XIV. Is violence an inevitable component of our human condition, as twenty centuries of Christianity seem to suggest?

The Church Fathers developed the justification of the just war, which we will discuss in a future blog.

I refer to my blog Pray for Peace.

Picture: Saint Quirinus statue on the dome of the Neuss minster, 2024©Wim Lahaye

Expose Yourself to the World

On Palm Sunday, Christians celebrate Jesus’ solemn entry into the town of Jerusalem. The fact that this is a feast could be seen as a somewhat morbid view on life, if you consider the gruesome events that took place right after this famous festive entry. As always, I follow here the Christian tradition because of the meaning of the story, not because I aim at confirming any historic fact - I don’t.

There is a good reason however, to celebrate this moment in religious terms. This is the most decisive and dramatic moment in the New Testament. Christ must have known what risk he took with this triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The entry on a colt of a donkey is traditionally presented as a paragon of humility and so it is. But for those in power, it was certainly also a provocation, and the subsequent events prove that. Obviously, we will never know for sure how difficult this decision could have been for Jesus and perhaps we don’t even need to know. What matters is that He decided to expose himself to the world in which He lived. It was the core of his vocation as the ‘son of men’. After this moment, He became a prisoner of his town.

The story encourages each of us to expose ourselves to the world, with all positive and negative consequences this may have for us. In her weblog the Marginalian, Maria Popova cites Tibetan Buddhist nun and teacher Pema Chödrön in her book When Things Fall Apart. “Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.”

Jesus transferred his indestructibility to us. This is what we yearly relive in the so-called Holy Week. Self-Exposure is scary because of our vulnerability, but it is the source of all resilience in life. Without self-exposure, there is no love and no transfer of life. For a true Christian self-exposure leads to resurrection. Christ tried to make clear to us that this truth is valid for each of us. Exposing oneself to the world is at the same time the most beautiful duty and the greatest act of courage.

I also refer to my Dutch blog Accepting the Challenges of this World.

Picture: Christ on colt, procession piece of sculpture in Saint Gorgonius church Hoegaarden (B), 2025 ©Wim Lahaye

Non licet omnibus adire Luxemburgum

“Not everyone is entitled to go to Luxembourg.“ Just like Corinth in the ancient Roman time, Luxembourg enjoys a more than average prestige among the European countries/ cities today. The Luxembourgers themselves would totally disagree with this. They are convinced their country is on the contrary very accessible and open to foreigners. We don’t want to deny that; yet the Luxembourgers seem to ignore they attract a privileged class of immigrants, who contribute to and benefit from the abundant wealth in Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a country of the happy few and this attracts the happy few. The presence of this class impedes less privileged classes to find easy settlement in Luxembourg.

On this March 3^rd, we spend some time to reflect on this beautiful low country in the light of Saint Cunegondis, patroness of Luxembourg. The protection she offers to Luxembourg is clearly based on a positive geographical Matthew effect. Rather than begrudge this, the surrounding countries have usually contributed to this positive evolution. Luxembourg has always promoted international cooperation in the Benelux and in Europe. Interesting is also the good internal collaboration between the political and economic actors, which led to a remarkable national industrial policy embedded in the cultural history of the country.

The language Luxembourgish is also worth mentioning. You find a famous example on the façade of a house in the old town: “Mir wëllen bleiwen wat mir sinn“. It means “We want to stay what we are”. It sounds very conservative, yet one should interpret this sentence correctly. The preparedness to change is also considered part of the Luxembourgish identity.

I refer to my earlier blog about Luxembourg.

Picture 1: Saint Cunegondis stained glass window in Luxembourg cathedral 6/12/2024 ©Wim Lahaye
Picture 2: „Mir wëllen bleiwen wat mir sinn“, house in the Luxembourg old town 6/12/2024 ©Wim Lahaye

Could the clock be ticking backwards?

Are we living in a so-called society regression, an era of social decline? Twenty years ago, we could not imagine that the United States of America would adopt a "back-to-the-middle-ages" policy: elimination of vaccinations - promotion of meat and fat - promotion of household weapons - denial of climate change – blocking of accessible health insurance. Politics is not only directed against scientists, but also against science itself. Virtue is dismissed as weakness. Nobody cares about blatant lies anymore, as is customary in dictatorships. On the international stage, too, we see a regression to the law of the strongest.

Looking into the eye of the snake can have a paralyzing effect. The democratic forces have so far reacted with disbelief and immobilism. Europe is slowly but certainly getting back on its feet. I refer to my blog The Re-Emergence of the West.

Picture: Galileo clock source ESA Navipedia.

The Hubble-Lemaître Effect at Work

On this Blue Tuesday, we may observe an awkward phenomenon at work. No matter how much we love our colleagues, our colleagues seem to drift away from us. If we consider our cubicle as an island and our manageable individual work as the perimeter of that island, we notice ‘our’ island doesn’t touch our colleagues’ islands. Due to the incredible employment costs, efficiency is essential and we will surely not have overlapping land to manage. On the contrary, there is a lot of sea between us, to be interpreted as a lot of work that is not covered by any colleague. Moreover, due to the multiplication of work, our islands seem to be drifting apart, with a risk of alienation from our colleagues.

Astronomers will recognise this. The resemblance with the Hubble-Lemaître effect is striking. The Hubble-Lemaître effect describes the observation that the celestial bodies around us show a red Doppler shift proportional to their distance from us. The conclusion was that all celestial bodies are therefore moving away from each other and the universe must be expanding. Replace ‘celestial bodies’ by ‘colleagues’ and ‘distance’ by amount of work lying between you and your colleague, and you get the point. No matter how hard we work, the amount of work ‘not done’ is always getting larger and we are not getting closer to our colleagues, on the contrary. There is always more work coming in. No matter how many colleagues we can recruit to fill the gaps, work between us multiplies faster than we can execute it. We see our dear colleagues drifting away from us and they may observe the same phenomenon.

The redshift observed may be an analogy to the red cheeks we show by leaving so much work undone. If our colleagues are a bit shameless and pay only attention to our personal shortcomings, our relationships may deteriorate and we may even become disconnected workers.

The solution to the Hubble-Lemaître effect at work is halting the multiplication of work. Throw at least 50% of new actions into the oblivion pit! Looking back in the past, you will notice a lot of actions never led to any progress. I agree we don’t always know this in advance. We could have guessed, however. We should create new actions with a sense of responsibility. Actions which simplify should be preferred over actions which make life more complex. In the long term, there is more work disappearing through sound oblivion than through proper execution.

Last year on Blue Tuesday, we discussed the Yerkes - Dodson Law.

Image by Rizve Joarder from Pixabay