May 22, 2025

By Jim Towey

I find myself with some interesting juxtapositions to ponder from my recent trip abroad.

Rome

I wrote previously of my days in Rome immediately following the funeral of Pope Francis. Two American cardinals were juxtaposed. One, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, was the unelectable one, particularly after President Trump endorsed him. The other was Pope Leo XIV. The widely-reported backstory behind the election – that Cardinal Dolan had gathered support for the eventual winner – is fascinating but not surprising.

Cardinal Dolan has been a great friend of Aging with Dignity and a national leader exposing the treachery of the assisted-suicide movement. He humbly assumed his place as a non-candidate but remained in the thick of the action in the Sistine Chapel because his conscience and faith, not his patriotic fervor, compelled him. Pope Leo is the man for our times, and Cardinal Dolan knew it.

Belgium

Next stop was Ghent, Belgium to be with the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s nuns, for days of prayer and sharing. It is home to what is considered one of the greatest works of art to ever come from Europe. Two brothers, Jan and Hubert van Eyck, began painting The Adoration of the Lamb (The Mystic Lamb) 600 years ago.  My friend Terry Boulos alerted me to it and told me where I could find it.

I spent time with this masterpiece when major announcements were being made about numerous, massive investments in artificial intelligence. There also was news about how Mark Zuckerberg had lied about whether Instagram was used to groom young people for sexual predators, and that Google was sued for its stranglehold on competition for ad dollars.

The contrast between the van Eyck brothers’ masterpiece and the illusory greatness of AI, and between the great cathedrals I saw in this Flemish city and the massive, soulless data centers under construction across the globe, is stunning. The devotion to God that inspired these sacred works of centuries ago, and the intense greed and desire to dominate by our AI masters who fancy themselves as God, tell two tales of clashing visions of humanity.

Those worshipping AI will see soon enough that it can lead only to super-intelligent tyranny, more sophisticated military weaponry, heightened government surveillance of citizens, and the suppression of human autonomy. But AI can be unplugged in an instant, while the Mystic Lamb will continue to amaze.

India

The next leg of my journey took me to India on the day of Pope Leo XIV’s election. I shared this joy with Mother Teresa’s nuns (the Missionaries of Charity) in Calcutta who had woken up to the news. They were delighted to see a missionary pope in the chair of Saint Peter who understands their lives. I spent many hours with sisters from Mongolia, Russia, Haiti, Uganda, and elsewhere as they took a brief respite from their work. They were gratified that a priest who rode on horseback through the winding stony paths of the Andes would now shepherd the global flock (this time in the Popemobile).

Pope Leo’s election was juxtaposed with a real threat of war between India and Pakistan. The dispute over the Kashmir region (1,000 miles from Calcutta) originated long before The Mystic Lamb was painted. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed – at least for now. But the reminder of what is at stake when two nuclear powers square off serves as a wake-up call on how genies don’t go back into bottles, and how AI won’t go down without a fight, either.

United Arab Emirates

Finally, on my way home, I touched down in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates within hours of President Trump’s arrival 90 miles to the south. He had just indicated his willingness to accept a $400 million gift of a new Air Force One from the government of Qatar.  I have great memories of flying on an earlier model Air Force One during my years of working on George W. Bush’s senior staff. I can’t imagine what else you could do to a plane to make it any nicer, or why you would even try.

The contrast of Qatar’s opulent mode of transportation with the solitary rickshaw puller I watched ply his trade in the searing heat of Calcutta’s mean streets, was food for thought for my 14-hour flight to Washington. It was good to return home to America. As Mother Teresa said, “Calcutta is everywhere if you have eyes to see.”  The poor and lonely in our midst need us. And we need them.

(The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Aging with Dignity and/or its Board of Directors.)