Mons. Vincenzo Paglia

Dear friends,

In the turbulent century just past, some great transformations have taken place. Life expectancy has grown by twenty, even thirty years, and what we may call a mass old age has come into being — a phenomenon without precedent in human history.

Technological progress has allowed humanity to take enormous strides, and has granted to many — though sadly not to all — a real liberation from hunger, from disease, from poverty. Today artificial intelligence reveals extraordinary opportunities: many goals that once seemed distant now feel within reach.

And yet we know very well that there is also the other side of the coin.

So many more years to live, yes — but to do what with them? Old age is often the most difficult season: the loneliest, marked by some ailment and some financial hardship. We do not really know how to live those years. And too many of us come to feel, at a certain point, like a discard of society.

Technology, too, has its shadows. At times it seems to sharpen inequalities rather than reduce them: a very few become extremely rich, while many others slip into poverty. Artificial intelligence itself, for our young people, sometimes risks becoming a toxic delegation — a handing over to the machine of our memory, our writing, our capacity to reason.

Meanwhile loneliness grows: not only among the elderly, but also among the young — perhaps even more.

And then there is our planet. The scorching heat of this summer is telling us that something is wrong, something is out of order in our behaviour and in our relationship with nature.

These, then, are the questions on which we wish to reflect together. To help everyone live old age well, with dignity, and with the awareness that we older people — I am one myself — can still contribute much, and have much to give.

So that artificial intelligence may become a tool useful to all, around which agreements and treaties can limit its reckless use — such as making wars and conflicts even more lethal. And so that we may once again learn to care for the common home entrusted to us.

Together with the friends of the board and of the steering committee, we have ideas and projects we wish to nurture. And to do so, we need you.

The Gospel, read with faith, will help us find our way in this complicated world of ours, and not lose the path of our humanity.

I would welcome the contribution of every one of you. Write to us. Bring us your concerns, your questions, your proposals. We will know how to listen.

+ Vincenzo Paglia Archbishop