2 July 2026

One of the passages which Pope Leo  explored in his encyclical, ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ is the myth about the Tower of Babel. The story is set in the land of Shinar. In the previous chapter, we learn that Nimrod, the first on earth to become a mighty warrior, conducted his conquering exploits in the land of Shinar too.

It is an ominous preface for the Tower of Babel was being built taller and taller by people who were determined to reach the heavens. It was a technological project constructed with bricks instead of stone and bitumen for mortar. It looked increasingly successful.

But it was built on a foundation of human pride. ‘Let us make a name for ourselves.’ They were self-possessed and remarkably unaware of the dangers which lay ahead. As they built one storey on top of the other, they didn’t give any attention to the God whose place they had usurped!

As a result, the tower collapsed and the people who had at first spoken the same language were scattered to the four corners of the earth without a common language. Because they had divided themselves off from God, they were now divided from each other – person against person, nation against nation.

This is our world. It is a place where warfare and the threat of war scars the earth. Modern warfare is fuelled by drones and robots designed and operated by AI. But in this warfare, the face of the enemy is unseen and the operator views him not as a human being with a distinctive face, a heart which loves, a functioning brain but as a set of co-ordinates, a piece of data to be eliminated!