One short but very important section of Pope Leo’s encyclical Magnifica humanitas reminds us of the need to disarm words. We must disarm the words that we use, and we must also choose words that themselves disarm. Well-chosen words create peace; well-chosen words create understanding. This, too, must be seen as part of the Franciscan vocation to be contemplative: the search for the right words in the right context.
This insight is especially helpful when we consider how we speak about science and the guidance it offers. Scientific objectivity can be so stark as to feel brutal. During the pandemic, the phrase “follow the science” was often wielded with excessive force. I noticed something else as well: people who had never shown the slightest interest in scientific understanding suddenly insisted that I “follow the science.” They enjoyed the power the phrase gave them.
The lure of power is always a danger for those who possess scientific information. But we can speak more gracefully if we emphasize science not as a set of commands but as information—valuable, reliable information that deserves respect. Even if science reveals only a small part of the story that attentive hearts find in nature, it has one particular advantage: by being so objective, it can bring us close to creation in its original beauty.
When we study nature at the level of molecules, scientific objectivity strips away human interests and the distortions introduced by human sin. Sin has been part of the human condition for so long that it has distorted everything. But basic science, which is the kind that simply seeks to understand nature at its most fundamental, can lead us into a realm of understanding less burdened by those distortions.
Still, our language must remember that once we begin drawing conclusions about how we ought to act, we are back in the realm of human sin and error. Even when scientific knowledge is certain, we cannot be certain that we know what to do with it.
We are called to use disarming words. Scientific understanding will often allow us to disarm others by countering deception. And we are called to disarm our own words: not to weaponize science in political discourse, not to turn knowledge into a tool of domination.
“We have a real opportunity to contribute to the common good each time we speak the truth, offer wise advice, support those in need of comfort, denounce injustice and give a voice to the voiceless,” writes the pope, concluding this paragraph. This is what science is for, and this is how we should talk about its results.