Bishop Paul Tighe pictured when he was appointed as adjunct secretary of the Vatican's Pontifcal Council for Culture. The role of the university in the fight for magnificence of humanity is “absolutely to be recovered,” said Bishop Paul Tighe of the Dicastery for Culture and Education during a June 17 panel on Pope Leo’s recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.
Speaking during the panel with Dr Linda Doyle, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, and Loyola Institute academics Prof. Massimo Faggioli and Dr Fáinche Ryan, Bishop Tighe, who serves as Secretary of the Section of Culture of the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education, maintained the importance of the university as a place to celebrate human achievement amongst the growth of AI in the education sector.
The Irish prelate has been involved heavily with the Vatican’s response to AI, and in responding to a question on the reaction that the encyclical received, he said “the education sector is one that will be absolutely crucial.” The focus on the role of the university during the panel emerged from a statement made by Dr Doyle on the danger of growing narratives that “university is a waste of time” because of AI.
The provost said she has observed AI being used as a way of “scaremongering”, setting up a perception that university education is useless and hopeless. In light of this narrative and Magnifica Humanitas’ focus on human dignity in the age of AI, Dr Doyle summarised her thoughts with the statement, “it is fitting and proper for a university to fight for the magnificence of humanity.”
Responding to Dr Doyle during the panel, Bishop Tighe echoed her sentiment, emphasising how community, formation and achievement must be the pillars of university education, even amidst the presence of AI. “If university is simply seen as a place where you get instruction…or that somehow credentialises you for employment, then maybe I think universities are no loss,” he said, “but universities are a community where people grow together.”
The bishop continued, noting that the real achievement of universities comes from enabling students to find their gifts and talents, “and enabling them to see those gifts and talents as something to put as a service to the broader community.”
Fighting back against the narrative that education is growing hopeless among AI’s presence, Bishop Tighe concluded by saying, “It’s a great moment for the universities if we think of them as places of growth and humanity.”