Catholic Social Theory

May 28, 2026

Magnifica Humanitas is an important contribution to Catholic Social Teaching which has a consistent focus on the common good and human dignity. The mass media response to this encyclical has a focus on AI - tending to ignore the broader and historic analysis. There is, for example, an analysis of the culture of power and the normalisation of war with force as an instrument of international power. Putin and Trump are prime examples of this might is right but, then, the enablers of war are complicit.

Australia, for example, has decided not to condemn the illegal attack on Iran by Israel and the US yet criticises the Russian invasion of Ukraine as against international law. Australia laments the excessive taunting of an Israel Minister but not the torture and sexual assault of Australians - yet alone the ongoing torture and sexual assault of Palestinians. Australia laments the Israel-Palestinian conflict but refuses to name, shame and punish Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians.

There is a saying: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to say nothing. Australia’s good men and women in Federal and State Governments are unwilling and/or unable to condemn Israel’sevil.