In his inaugural address, Pope Leo XIV expressed concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence, warning that it could undermine human dignity and replace human conscience with algorithms. The pope’s discomfort with AI resonates with a long history of the Catholic Church confronting transformative technologies that challenge its authority and influence.

While non-Catholics may have no place critiquing Vatican policy, Christian-Jewish relations have been impacted by its responses to major shifts. It thus behooves us to review those pivotal moments and apply their lessons today.

The printing press, invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century, marked a turning point in human history. It democratized knowledge, allowing the mass production of books and, for the first time, making texts like the Bible widely accessible. Yet, for the Catholic Church, the press was seen as a threat. The Church feared the loss of its monopoly on interpreting scripture, as individuals and groups began to interpret the Bible independently, leading to the Protestant Reformation.

The tremors of such reinterpretation extended far beyond the Christian community. For more than a millennium, the Catholic Church had promoted a theology that fueled anti-Semitism called “replacement theology” or “supersessionism.” According to this doctrine, God’s covenant with the Jews was superseded by the Christian covenant; biblical references to Jews, Israel, Hebrews and Zion were to be interpreted as symbolic of Christians. These teachings underpinned centuries of Christian hostility toward Jews.

While the Vatican struggled to control the flow of information, leaders of the Protestant Reformation utilized all the printing press had to offer to spread their ideas. Despite the continued commitment of Reformation leaders Martin Luther and John Calvin to their anti-Semitic proclivities, their newfound insistence on a literal reading of scripture laid the foundation for the modern Christian Zionist movement. Theodore Beza was the first Protestant leader to argue that God’s promises to the Jewish people, including their eventual return to their homeland, remained valid.

This new interpretation became a key driving force in supporting the Christian movement to restore the Jews to the Land of Israel. This revised doctrine culminated in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, and later, the U.N. Partition Plan of 1947, which led to the establishment of the modern-day State of Israel. Thus, the Catholic Church’s resistance to the information age ushered in by the printing press allowed others to fulfill God’s plan for the Jewish people.