By Carlos Mendoza Álvarez
In recent days, the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has gone viral on social media due to Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical letter. Ironically, in this age of systems—as Ivan Illich termed this new social paradigm that should be considered when analyzing the digital world—the pontiff's warnings have already been devoured by algorithms and accounts on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook (for the older generation of the digital world). Memes of Pope Leo battling AI have flooded social media, such as the one of the pontiff with his staff firmly warning Palantir: "You shall not pass." And to top it all off, thousands, perhaps millions of people have used AI to create a summary of the encyclical, mostly out of curiosity, sometimes with the aim of criticizing the Pope or the power of the companies that produce and control it. A slow, personal reading of the encyclical letter would be worthwhile to analyze its content.
Without losing sight of the ethical critique and the international legal regulation that must be promoted for the production and use of AI, it seems to me that it is important to first realize that we are already immersed in that tangle of data driven by individual, corporate and governmental wills, with an ever-increasing “autonomy” of what was called years ago “the internet of things” (IoT)., Internet of ThingsThis network of digital data flow systems is here to stay, monitoring information circulating in the digital environment in an automated way within systems created by humans, but operating with increasing “autonomy” to generate new data and produce unprecedented social, commercial, scientific and cultural effects.
The dystopian science fiction series Black Mirror, Created in Great Britain in 2011, the series depicted fascinating and chilling episodes of a society controlled by technology, where the boundaries between human reality and the virtual world were so porous that they created apocalyptic scenarios. Fifteen years ago, this reality of the algorithm's power seemed like a figment of the imagination. Today, it's already part of our daily lives.
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I am currently preparing a couple of talks on AI. I will be giving the first one this week at the Diocesan House in San Cristóbal de Las Casas to a group of priests from Generations X and Y—both born after 1965, following the generation of the Baby boomers- until 1982 when the Millennials. Of course, this classification, proposed by British and Canadian colonial sociology to designate first a generation without a defined desire, and then the first generation of digital natives, is relevant for describing certain social strata in each country. But it also designates the other side of the coin of globalization, due to the technological impact that television and computers have had on the lives of all people.
Later, with the team of JobeLab We will hold a discussion on AI at the end of June in the Temple of Charity to reflect on the recent Encyclical Letter Magnificent Humanity by Pope Leo XIV, published last Monday, May 24th. We will approach this from an interdisciplinary perspective, first giving voice to colleagues in computer science, education, and philosophy. There, I will offer some reflections on the meaning theological of the problem in question, from a phenomenological and decolonial perspective, deepening an intuition present in the Encyclical Letter, human vulnerability, but unfortunately not developed sufficiently by Pope Leo.
There are many ecclesial, university, and social forums where we must open intelligent conversations, with creative imagination, to think together about the digital reality that has already reached us, with its enormous possibilities for the flow of information and its challenging scenarios of post-human control of production and knowledge processes that we have never imagined.
AI is perceived today as a threat, even though it's already part of our digital-age "customs and practices." Perhaps we should learn to coexist with it as a "creature," that is, as a reality marked by the finiteness of all creation and, therefore, incapable of supplanting our imagination and creativity—much less divine glory—though we must remain vigilant against the danger of its control over our lives and destinies. Today more than ever, the bastion mystical The human condition is presented more clearly as a source of freedom in times of AI.
500 OP Chiapas
This Thursday, June 4th, we begin the commemorative events for the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Dominican friars to Tierra Firme of the American continent, on June 23, 1526 in Villa Rica de la Veracruz, as the first anchor of European colonization and the arrival of the Gospel with its model of Western Christianity.
In Chiapas, the small community of Dominican friars in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, along with friends and colleagues, has prepared cultural and liturgical events to commemorate this historic event. We will begin on Thursday, June 4th, with a concert by the San Cristóbal de Las Casas Symphony Orchestra and Choir at the Santo Domingo Church, where this youth ensemble will perform works of Baroque and modern classical music, with interludes that will briefly recall the friars' arrival in these lands, their evangelizing mission, their heyday during the colonial period, and their subsequent decline in the 19th century, leading up to their gradual resurgence in the 20th century.
On Friday, June 5, an academic colloquium on the Dominicans' contribution to Chiapas culture will take place at the friars' former convent in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, now the Museum of the Highlands of Chiapas. Two historians specializing in Dominican architecture in Chiapas during the colonial period will participate. The event will also feature the presentation of Friar Pablo Iribarren's latest book on the Dominicans in the 20th century, focusing on their evangelization efforts in dialogue with the indigenous peoples of Chiapas. Marimba music by the Díaz Sisters will provide a festive atmosphere.
On Saturday, June 6th, the celebration will take place in Zinacantán, thanks to the generous collaboration of the faithful communities of the Parish of Saint Lawrence the Martyr. A solemn Mass of Thanksgiving at the Church of Saint Lawrence the Martyr, the parish seat, will be followed by the cultural event “Transfigurations: Mayan Spiritualities Today,” which I have had the honor of organizing along with two masters of contemporary Mayan art. We will begin with the unveiling of the mural 500 OP Chiapas, a masterful work by Antún Kojtom, a Tseltal artist from Tenejapa, depicting the encounter between the spiritual traditions of the Tsotsil people and other Mayan communities of the Highlands and Rainforest of Chiapas with the Dominican friars throughout history. Tsotsil poetry by Xun Betán and some of his students from the creative writing workshop, held this month in preparation for this event, will be accompanied by traditional Tsotsil music performed by musicians from the parish church. And in the afternoon, a talk about the Dominicans in Zinacantán will be given by Friar Pablo Iribarren, as a framework for a closing liturgical act in which young people from Zinacantán will make their initial promises as members of the Dominican Youth Movement.
And to conclude the commemorative events, on Sunday, June 7, with a Eucharist presided over by Don Rodrigo Aguilar, current bishop of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the Dominican family and the faithful of the city will give thanks to the God of Life for this half-millennium of preaching, with its lights and shadows, invoking divine mercy to walk with hope as the people of God in the arduous times we are living through, to bear witness to the Gospel of liberation with justice and peace for all creatures of the cosmos.
We look forward to seeing you soon in Chiapas.
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, May 31, 2026