Where To Live and Die?

The Catholic Times gives the readers in View from the Ark Column a reflection on death and where to make the encounter when they still have the freedom to choose. The thoughts of a university professor.

Last fall, he went on a tour of elderly housing in Japan. After turning 61, he thought that the issue of elderly housing would soon be his problem, so he looked around carefully. It was a memorable trip where he kept thinking about where and with whom he would live, what he would do in his old age, and then die.

The first place he visited was a place near Tokyo.  It was a day service facility for the elderly located in a suburban area, and it was a cozy place where people of all ages, including the elderly, children, mothers,  and local residents, lived together.

The home for the elderly is operated by the Sony Group, which opened in June last year. It was a newly built facility in the middle of a residential area, so it was clean, and all services, including a dog robot companion, were provided. Still, he wondered if this interior-focused space was the best.

He also visited Yokohama City. It was a village where elderly welfare facilities, rehabilitation facilities, and service-type elderly housing were all combined on a fairly large site. In low-rise single-family homes, the elderly receive various services and live. The alleys and the bridges on the second floor connect all the houses, which he liked.

The place he liked the most was in Koto Ward, Tokyo. It is a two-story building located in an ordinary residential area, and it has a lot of rooms. It was built as a kindergarten in the 1970s and was once used as a funeral hall, but it was remodeled after being vacant for a long time and opened in May of last year. The first floor is a day service facility for the elderly, and it operates from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. On the wall of the central passage on the first floor is a Library, where local residents donate their books to run a bookshelf. The second floor is an after-school classroom for elementary school students from 2:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. There is also a play area for infants.

At 2:00 p.m., children who have just returned from school file into the central passage, greet the elderly, and go up the stairs to the second floor. The elderly receiving care read books to the children and helped change diapers for infants and toddlers. In the evening, when the elderly and children go home, the library owners enjoy their programs while drinking beer. Seeing many people using a small space for various purposes all day was impressive.

The places he visited included the uniquely named ‘Center' in Kanagawa Prefecture.  It is said that the name was given with the hope that the supermarket, which had served as a local center for a long time but closed in 2016, would be revived and become a village center in 2022. It consists of various functions, such as a senior day service, a childcare facility, a shared kitchen, a laundry research center, and a group home for the disabled. The building's design won the Japan Good Design Award.

Where should the elderly live to be happy in this aging society? Where among the places introduced above would be a good place to live and die? While visiting Japan’s senior housing, he thought of the ‘Care Farm’ in the Netherlands, which he had visited six years before. Care farms where dementia patients and adults with developmental disabilities can come and spend the weekends on farms with cows, horses, pigs, chickens, and colorful plants seemed like a great solution. He remembers thinking that care farms, where the elderly and the disabled receive care and live dignified lives by caring for animals, plants, and others, are the best housing for the elderly.

We live in an aging society. Where is the best home for an elderly person facing death? How will it be okay if they live and die? Who will they be with, and what will they do before they die? Let’s think about it. Where will we die? A good meditation for the beginning of Lent.

Hope In The Future!

The Now/Here Catholic website is beginning a new column by a long-time professor at the Diocesan Catholic University. The topics will deal with the 'Theology of Reading Life'. This first reflection is from the perspective of faith and theology. 

People live in their own time and space. He often thinks about this simple proposition. Time and space have a profound effect on thoughts and bodies. These days, his main concerns are life in old age and the reality of the Korean church. What does it mean to live in old age? How does one endure life in old age? How does one analyze and understand the reality of the church? What small things can he do for the change and renewal of the church?

He lives in Korean society. As a citizen, he has no idea what to do in this era. How should he behave with hatred, aversion, incitement, lies, and violence? How does he respond to the endless rush of capitalism that emphasizes identity as a rich person rather than identity as a human being and pursues only selfish pleasure and enjoyment rather than moderation and consideration for the common good? Whenever he comes across an explanation of artificial intelligence (AI), bio-industry, and quantum computers, which are called the three major ‘game changers’ of the future era, he feels dizzy. Where will the rapid development of science and technology take us? He has more anxiety and fear than hope about the future of society.

He is growing old as a priest of the church. It means that personal and ecclesiastical existence is stronger than social existence. The radius of thought and action focuses more on faith and church life. It does not mean that he gave up his role as a citizen. As Japanese popular thinker Uchida Tatsuru put it: “A sovereign is a person who thinks that there is a connection between his or her personal fate and the fate of the country.” However, he looks at the world through the eyes of faith and the church. As a believer and a church member, he participates in social life.

He does not know why self-consciousness about the passage of time and growing old becomes excessive in old age. The primary emotions about old age are regret, sorrow, and fear. In the reality of retirement, he feels like he is being robbed of the joy of work and accomplishment. The aging of the body makes him feel the exclusion of perspective. The premonition of death and extinction is sometimes daunting.

Can we consider growing old as “an act of enriching oneself in the sense that it is an act of experiencing a state of mind and body that has never been experienced before”? “Young elderly, that is, people belonging to the third stage of life between the ages of 65 and 84”. Can we live freely, without the greed and foolishness of our youth?

Sometimes, when he realizes that he will die someday, he feels suffocated. Looking at the starry night sky, he sometimes thinks that he is nothing more than dust in the universe and that life is just a result of chance. The church and theology’s explanations of the end and salvation are not convincing. Nevertheless, he believes and hopes. Isn’t faith more a will to believe than a conviction?

Old age, death, and even after death will all have their own meaning and some kind of solution. It is hope and trust in the mystery of existence and life. Despite the barriers of reality called death and extinction, there is faith and hope that there will be an ultimate solution to life and existence. That hope and trust may be based on humanistic intuition and reflection or on a scientific explanation of the fundamental operating procedure at the core of all life called ‘homeostasis’. Of course, Christians base their hope and trust on the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ and their faith as a gift of grace.

The answer is always common sense. Old age and death also have their own meanings. When we naturally accept them, we can live our old age freely and abundantly and face death well. “A life lived in a parting attitude is a creative life.”

We often witness discourses on the crisis of the church. However, discourses are simply discourses. The phenomenon of de-religionization and secularization still darkens the reality of the church and faith. In addition to challenges and threats from outside, the loss of power within the church poses a greater danger. The parish, the forefront of faith and church life, is losing its vitality. Are believers truly experiencing spiritual unity and communion with God in the Eucharist (Mass), the pinnacle of faith life? Are believers experiencing communion as well as human fellowship in the various events and activities of the parish? Are the parish’s religious education and devotional practices helping believers grow in faith and spirituality? Are the parish’s liturgy (sacraments), education, communion, and service activities functioning properly? It seems time to ask honestly and fundamentally to reconstruct the parish’s way of life in a direction that can specifically function in the present through the true inheritance of tradition and new interpretations.

Through parish life, believers should be able to feel and experience faith's true meaning and joy. Through parish life, believers should be able to learn and embody the beauty and meaning of community and the value and preciousness of the common good. The church should help believers deeply experience, learn, and practice the joy of faith and community through parish life so that they can concretely realize their religious beliefs in all places where they live and live a life that practices community values in the world. However, are today’s churches and parishes truly fulfilling such roles?

In a society where school education and the media are being ruined, religion should be the last bastion protecting community values and beliefs. However, ironically, in Korean society, we often see religion destroying community values. This is a sad reality. Is today’s church functioning as a sacrament that proclaims community values and beliefs against the rampage of capitalism and the unbridled gallop of selfish individuals and groups that have lost their sense of reflection?

Hope is gradually disappearing on an individual, church, and social level. What can and should the church and believers do in a world filled with only gloomy prospects for the future? Why did Pope Francis proclaim a Jubilee of Hope in these grim times? “When living seems like renewing sadness.” What does it mean to live with hope?

We must live by honestly asking questions, listening, conversing, learning, and studying. He hopes many small groups within the church will ask questions, listen, converse, and study. Talking about trivial daily responses amid a vast reality may seem regrettable. However, small daily lives always come together to form a vast world. Practice is not in grandiose slogans and ideologies. Love is always realized in everyday attitudes and behaviors.

Korean Independence Movement

On March 1st, 1919, Korea remembers the day the citizens declared their country independent from Japan and raised awareness of humanitarian ideals based on a code of conduct emphasizing peace and non-violence. An article in the Korean Times gives us some understanding of the meaning of the day and the difficulties faced by the Catholic Church at the time.

The Catholic Church in Korea adapted to the Japanese demand for separation of church and state and did not, in principle, support armed struggle involving violence through political non-intervention. In that sense, the Catholic nationalist movement focused on non-violent patriotic enlightenment movements that focused mainly on education and the press. However, there were cases where believers participated in armed struggle movements on a personal conscience level. Movements through education and the press expanded further after the Eulsa Treaty was signed  (Eulsa- Korea Protectorate Treaty)

When Japan announced the Private School Ordinance in 1908 and suppressed the national education movement, more than half of the church schools were closed. Nevertheless, the education movement led to establishing a few schools and contributed to the patriotic Enlightenment movement for modernization and the protection of national sovereignty. 

The media salvation movement through ‘Kyunghyang Shinmun’ and the national debt redemption movement also had great meaning in preventing Japanese invasion and recovering national sovereignty.

1904, when the Japanese attempted to seize land under the pretext of reclaiming wasteland, believers gathered at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul and held a prayer meeting to oppose it.   

Some consider this “the first social participation and national movement in modern times in which the Korean Catholic Church collectively responded to social issues outside the church.” Some people showed their patriotic spirit by participating in the anti-Japanese volunteer army movement with pride as believers. Representative examples include Ahn Jung-geun, who is known to have prayed to God every day while participating in the volunteer army war, and Kim Sang-tae, the leader of the Gyeongsang Province volunteer army during the Jeongmi volunteer army in 1907. It is said that he carried a rosary with him until he was captured and killed by the Japanese army.

In March 1919, the March 1st Movement took place nationwide, influenced by Emperor Gojong’s state funeral, the end of World War I, and U.S. President Wilson’s advocacy of the principle of national self-determination. Bishop Mutel and Bishop Demange were confident that the believers would not participate in this movement, but the believers did not avoid the national issue. They participated in the independence movement as individuals despite the church’s ban.

The first place to take action was the Seminary in Daegu. When 60 seminarians heard the news of the independence movement, they gathered in the playground and sang the “Independence Song.” Afterward, they copied the “Declaration of Independence” and prepared the Korean flag in preparation for the mass demonstration in downtown Daegu on March 8, but it was confiscated by the school. Upon hearing this, Bishop Demange, then Archbishop of Daegu, demanded “unconditional obedience” and announced that “those who participated in the independence movement will be expelled and the seminary will be closed.” However, the seminarians boycotted classes and planned to participate in the independence movement on April 3, but this did not happen. Eventually, Bishop Demange declared an early vacation out of concern for the student’s participation in the independence movement.

Students from the Yongsan Seminary also participated in the March 23 demonstration that year. The students tearfully appealed to Bishop Mutel, who admonished them to “maintain order,” saying, “We cannot turn away from our homeland trampled by the Japanese.” Still, Bishop Mutel prohibited them from participating in the movement “in the name of God” and postponed the ordination ceremony that year as a disciplinary measure. Those who participated in the movement had to leave the school. The seminarians’ participation in the March 1st Movement lost momentum early on. This shows their worries about giving up the March 1st Movement to become priests.

There is also an anecdote about the late Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan (Stefano), who attended Dongseong Commercial School Euljo (Soshin School) around the time of the March 1st Movement. Cardinal Kim revealed that he would often feel national resentment rising as he listened to lectures from his teachers about the atrocities of Japanese colonial rule and the awakening of the national spirit. When a subject in seminary asked, “As a subject of the Japanese Emperor, write your thoughts on the Emperor’s edict,” He hesitated and submitted the answer: “I am not a subject of the Emperor, so I have no thoughts on the Emperor’s edict. After that, the principal called me in, slapped me, and severely reprimanded me."

The March 1st Movement spread nationwide over time, and on March 10, Catholic believers participated in the Independence Movement in Haeju, Hwanghae Province, along with Protestants, Cheondogyo believers, and Buddhists. As a result, four Catholic believers were imprisoned. By the end of May that year, it is estimated that around 50 Catholic believers were arrested working for independence.  

The March 13 Independence Movement in Yongjeong, North Gando, was centered around the Catholic Church. At noon, when the church bell rang, more than 10,000 people gathered in Yongjeong City and began an independence movement called the “Independence Celebration.” When Kim Yeong-hak, the head of the Catholic Church, read the “Declaration of Independence,” the crowd reportedly chanted “Long Live the Independence of Korea.” They then began a street parade, but 17 people were killed when the Chinese police opened fire. In addition, there were armed resistance movements such as the independence movement by students of the symphony school in Daegyo-dong, a Catholic village north of the Amnok and Duman Rivers, and the attack on the Japanese police station by 30  believers.

Professor Yoon Seon-ja (Dominica) of Chonnam National University stated in Kyunghyang Magazine, “When looking only at the independence movement cases, most Catholic believers who participated in the March 1st Movement were Catholic believers in the public office,” and “This shows that the frequency and intensity of sanctions against believers by missionaries and Korean clergy were weaker than those of the parish church, and Catholic believers in the public office mainly participated in the independence movement.”

At the time, Catholic believers’ participation in the independence movement was inevitably limited within the structural system of the church centered on hierarchy and the dualistic faith structure that understood that the church’s involvement in real-world issues hindered spiritual life. However, some priests cooperated with the independence movement or supported it individually.

In her article titled “Activities of the Korean Catholic Church Before and After the March 1st Movement,” Professor Yun Seon-ja stated, “Although the participation of Catholic believers in the independence movement was a small minority compared to Protestantism or Cheondogyo, it was significant in that it took place in a situation where most foreign missionaries and clergy who were in charge of the Korean Catholic Church actively discouraged it,” and added, “The Korean Catholic Church should be evaluated positively in that it was centered around Koreans.”

Power of Spirituality

In its Philosophical Chat column by a Jesuit priest, the Catholic Peace Weekly gives the readers some ideas on spirituality and its various meanings.     

Spirituality is an important concept in philosophical counseling. It has strong religious overtones, and especially under the influence of Western Christianity, it generally means a life of believing in and following Christ.

Spirituality, a modern translation of the Latin word 'spiritualitas' is rooted in the ancient Greek word pneuma (πνεύμα), and initially meant breath, breathing, and spirit. In the Old Testament (creation story), humans are described as beings who come from the earth, receive God's breath (spirit), and gain life. According to this, humans can be considered special beings imbued with God's spirit from birth. 

Spirituality is a profound concept with multilayered meanings encompassing transcendence and immanence and is one of the core concepts of human nature that requires deep insight, especially in philosophy. 

As can be guessed from its etymology, spirituality basically means the principle of life unique to humans. As human nature, spirituality is based on the human spirit above all else. Human life goes beyond simple organic activities and performs the unique function of the spirit. At this time, its core principle is the principle of Logos according to reason and, further, the principle of transcendence that pursues the ultimate and absolute truth. Here, the characteristics of emotion-life, reason-logos, and spirituality-transcendence are revealed as unique functions and principles of the human spirit.

Humans are beings who ask questions by nature. Questions belong to the essence of the spirit. The unique characteristic of the human spirit is that humans do not follow instincts but maintain a distance from nature and objectify things; through this, they become conscious of themselves and grasp the essence of things. We call this kind of human mental activity thinking and cognition.

Questions seek knowledge. All things that become the object of knowledge are ultimately questions of existence. People often use the expression ‘not in the right mind’ to mean being very busy or unable to discern reason. Still, this expression implies that we lack spirituality to the point of avoiding the question of existence, which is the ultimate meaning of life. In fact, we live our lives so immersed in our daily lives that we forget philosophical questions. However, when a crisis comes, we ask serious philosophical questions again.

What triggers questions is our emotions, which are activated by external stimuli. When the familiarity and comfort of daily life change into unfamiliarity and discomfort, specifically in a limiting situation where we are driven into pain, hurt, frustration, and fear, we finally ask serious questions to find the reason and solution. However, questions triggered by emotions like this do not yet have their meanings clearly and distinctly thematicized, so we need the help of reason rather than emotion to understand them. This is because understanding the state of the anxious mind and grasping its meaning is not passive emotion but active reason.

However, the problem is that reason alone does not explain everything rationally. In the abyss of uncertainty and absurdity of life and existence, which are the stark reality, we recognize the limits of reason and constantly ask questions to transcend the sublime absolute values ​​and meanings that reason alone cannot understand. This is precisely the power of spirituality. 

Living With Hope In Difficult Times

The Korean website Catholic News Now/Here has an article by a religious sister, a Professor Emeritus at Holy Names University. She gives readers some important ways to view life.

They say it snows a lot in Korea, but in Alameda, California, where she lives, it has been raining hard for several days. Sitting in the corner of her cozy attic and feeling the wind blowing hard makes her happy but also guilty. She thinks of the homeless and the many undocumented immigrants who are hiding in fear of being deported. She feels sorry and wonders how to protect their humanity and dignity.

There is a sense of anxiety in the hearts of many due to the current chaotic and worrying behavior of President Trump. In this context, Spiritual Directors International held a special meeting on what we should do for those angry and afraid in the face of recent executive orders. In particular, how we should respond to the reality that our purpose of embracing diversity and difference may be threatened (in fact, one of the Trump administration's executive orders was to cut off federal support for DEI programs, which stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and many who want a just society by embracing diversity have been hurt). 

We gathered on Zoom to share our feelings and listen to each other. Ultimately, we talked about how we cannot give up our values ​​no matter the situation and find opportunities to embrace and listen to people's anger and fears. 

While talking about this, they felt some new energy. Someone said that the message that this series of violent situations is forcing on them is that they feel powerless, so it seems essential to continue to make small gestures as resistance, like a flying bird flapping its wings. She nodded vigorously, and others in the meeting did the same. Then, they started to break free from the tense atmosphere and laugh a little.

The daytime moon in the blue sky comes to mind. Sometimes, God's calling is so unnoticeable and gentle that he's beside her and feels more grateful. 

Thinking about it, even though we have difficult times, in the end, a spiritual person, and therefore a person who pursues a human life can continue to laugh. In fact, we see an abundance of humor in many saints. On a cold winter night when her whole body felt frozen, Saint Teresa of Avila, struggling to pull up a carriage stuck in a puddle, said that God doesn't have many friends because he mistreats them. We are also familiar with the stories of saints who, seeing themselves as old and infirm and unable to move well, called themselves old donkeys and laughed at themselves.

In fact, living as a person of the Lord in today's secularized world requires caution when dealing with many difficult and disturbing things. Perhaps that is why Isaiah's confession, in which he groaned, "Oh, I am ruined!" when he saw his unholy and sinful existence while facing God, lingers in her mind. If God came to her and called her as he did  with Isaiah, she would respond like the prophet:  "Oh, I am ruined!"

She confessed to catching many fish because she cast the net as told, just like Peter in Luke 5. All her work, teaching students, writing books, and providing spiritual guidance while claiming it was her work on the path of following the Lord, was nothing more than casting her net where told.

Today, she returned after a meeting with a desire to live in a deeper community with her fellow nuns. Many nuns are now going to nursing homes, and she promised to work hard to build a smaller but deeper community of love.  She hopes to live anew with a humble heart and focus more on God.

The sight of the nuns who will soon be scattered and leaving the Bay Area, to which they have grown accustomed, is sad and beautiful. "We are people destined to sing about how we have always lacked love and our desperate hopes to become fishers of men from now on. So today, as we finished our meeting, we shared a delicious chocolate cake. And we whispered blessings for each other's old age. Ah! Until yesterday, we were ruined. So, from now on, let's fish for people and love."

Three Day Resolutions

A religious sister in the Catholic Peace Weekly reminds us about our New Year's Resolutions that have lasted no more than three days. As the Korean proverb says, a resolution lasts only three days.

Keeping your resolution is a great thing that creates a new habit through constant repetition. She mentions a person living without plans and finally made a resolution, and there were three. First, lose weight, read one book a month, and do some studying for a certificate.

A resolution is about making up your mind, so it is praiseworthy. However, making a resolution and keeping it are very different. To lose weight, you have to exercise consistently. He, who didn’t usually read books, had to make time to read one book a month until he developed the habit, and to get a certificate, he had to study while working. Keeping a resolution is a great thing that creates a new habit through consistent repetition.

Three days of determination (作心三日). It means that even though you have decided, keeping the resolution for over three days is difficult. It shows how weak our willpower is. But is it really because we lack will and effort? 

Our nuns also make spiritual and material resolutions every year and make annual plans. You must break away from your old habits and create new ones to carry out a new plan. However, our brains like familiar things more than good and meaningful things. That’s why setting new and creative goals is exciting and joyful, but it’s never easy to repeat them until you get used to them. Moreover, keeping your resolutions has become unfamiliar and boring in a digital environment where immediate pleasure is just around the corner.

You wake up early and decide to ‘exercise’ for an hour. However, as soon as you wake up, you reach for your smart device, and ‘5 minutes’ becomes 10 minutes and then 30 minutes. Naturally, you postpone it until ‘tomorrow.’ You decide to read one book a month, but you waste your ‘free time’ on digital devices while commuting to and from work or during a short break. The reason why you keep making resolutions in the digital age is not just due to your own laziness or lack of will. Sister thinks it’s a matter of how you use your free time and deal with familiar emotional habits. We need to practice staying with less stimulating, boring, dull emotions. 

Many people are addicted to their smartphones, so much so that there is a saying that refraining from smartphones is more difficult than quitting smoking. It’s natural to take out your smartphone whenever you have ‘free time.’ Nine out of ten people say it’s because of ‘boredom’. The fear of boredom prevents us from putting down our smartphones. Emotions are also habits. Emotions that have been repeated for a long time and become familiar are comfortable, like old friends. Emotions that have become accustomed to immediate rewards cannot tolerate boredom. Boredom is an emotion that responds even without a reward.

In fact, neither exercising nor reading books or studying can provide immediate rewards. Exercising for a month or two will not help you lose the weight you want or become healthy, and reading will not immediately accumulate the knowledge you want. In some ways, exercising or reading is truly boring. However, if you cannot endure this boredom, you will not be able to secure quality leisure time to keep your resolutions.

Research shows that enduring boredom strengthens self-control and fosters creativity and perseverance. British psychologist Professor Sandi Mann had a group do monotonous and boring activities and then evaluated their creative problem-solving skills. As a result, the deeper the boredom, the more creative thinking was activated, producing more original and creative results.

How long will we only make three-day resolutions? Digital devices we indulge in when bored and tired create emotional habits that make boredom unbearable. They occupy our spare time as we become accustomed to immediate rewards. Eventually, we rationalize it and postpone it until ‘tomorrow’, which may never come. We long for some new change, but we stop at' three-day resolutions due to our habit of searching for stimulation.’

There is still time. The moment when you feel bored is the precious ‘free time’ that helps us keep our resolutions. I hope you will keep your resolutions this year with ‘free time’ that turns 24 hours into 25 and three days into a year.

Challenges of Artificial Intelligence

 

From the View from the Ark of the Catholic Times, a research professor at the Catholic University of Korea Graduate School of Life Sciences provides some guidelines for the proper use of artificial intelligence.

Have you ever experienced similar content being recommended while searching the Internet? You may have experienced time passing by quickly as you cheered at the abundance of content with similar opinions to yours and continued to view it. This is thanks to AI algorithms that analyze the interests, tendencies, and content usage behavior of service users and provide customized content to users. However, users are only provided with content that suits their tastes, and they mainly communicate with people with similar opinions or tendencies. As a result, their existing beliefs are further strengthened, making accepting other perspectives increasingly difficult. This is called the ‘echo chamber effect’.

This phenomenon has both advantages and disadvantages. First, a strong sense of identity is formed among people who share similar opinions, strengthening the bond and allowing them to enjoy confidence and pride in their beliefs. On the other hand, exposure to only similar information can lead to a deepening of bias in thinking and a decrease in communication with people with different positions. As a result, the tendency to accept only information that matches one’s beliefs and ignore information that contradicts them becomes more pronounced.

In this process, verification of information is treated as a secondary issue. Therefore, as unverified information (false facts or fake news) spreads, incorrect beliefs are reinforced, and it becomes difficult to make balanced judgments because various perspectives are inaccessible. 

In addition, social division occurs as conflicts between groups with different opinions deepen. In fact, it is questionable whether we, busy every day, even need to examine the truth of the information. We may be deeply immersed in the swamp of AI algorithms.

On January 28, 2025, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Culture and Education published Antiqua et Nova (Old and New) on the proper use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

This document comprises 117 articles and aims to guide Catholic institutions and humanity on AI's ethical development and use, explaining the challenges and opportunities that AI development brings in education, economy, work, health, and human relations. 

Despite the conveniences of science and technology in modern society, human beings still ask themselves the question of who they are and what makes life full. As a key clue, the document quotes Pope Francis, emphasizing that AI should not be considered an artificial form of human intelligence but a product of human intelligence since using the word “intelligence” about AI can be misleading (article 35). 

In the philosophical and theological tradition, human intelligence (intellect) reveals two fundamental and complementary dimensions: reason (ratio) that argues and intellectual insight (intellectus) that intuitively understands truth (paragraph 14). 

This document emphasizes that to properly use AI, we must understand human intelligence more broadly, and based on this, it presents guidelines that ensure human dignity and the harmonious development of human society.  “Based on the wisdom of ‘the old and the new’ (Matthew 13:52), we are called to reflect on the challenges and opportunities brought about by the development of science and technology, especially the recent rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI).” (Article 1)