On progress

In his latest Encyclical letter Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict highlights how misguided progress can lead to dehumanization and humanity's demise. Progress is only real progress if matched in all aspects with ethical progress and human inner-growth. He makes an important point. After-all, what good is progress if it results in the destruction of human rights and the degradation of human life and the autonomy and dignity of the person? Progress must therefore be measured in all its aspects and must be guided by rational conscience and ethics, without which it would not be real progress at all.

We have all witnessed the way in which progress, in the wrong hands, can become and has indeed become a terrifying progress in evil. If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man's ethical formation, in man's inner growth, then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world.

- Pope Benedict XVI. Spe Salvi