When C19 Popes addressed the spiritual implications of the steam engine, it was with the utmost obliqueness, and in the context of the foundational principle that material conditions are the things that one must transcend for the sake of one's spiritual integrity.
The fact that the steam engine totally redefined work, and human dignity along with it, was suppressed in favor of an attempt to preserve the status quo at all costs.
That attempt directly caused all of the wars and revolutions of the Long 19th and 20th Centuries, the total cost of which, tangible and psychic, may yet turn out to have been unsurvivable for the species.
Here we have Pope Leo XIV not repeating his predecessors' mistakes; but the pressure upon him to repeat them is only barely getting underway.
The fact that the steam engine totally redefined work, and human dignity along with it, was suppressed in favor of an attempt to preserve the status quo at all costs.
That attempt directly caused all of the wars and revolutions of the Long 19th and 20th Centuries, the total cost of which, tangible and psychic, may yet turn out to have been unsurvivable for the species.
Here we have Pope Leo XIV not repeating his predecessors' mistakes; but the pressure upon him to repeat them is only barely getting underway.