If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man’s ethical formation, in man’s inner growth (cf. Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16), then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world. [Spe Salvi §22]
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Aquinas, Etc. 
Alvin Toffler,in his opus entitled Future Shock, made a similar inference concerning the use and
potential abuse of technology in the mid-70’s. Unfortuately, Mr. Toffler did not relate this to man’s
ethical formation. Thanks for those words of Benedetto XVI.
Yep. One of my favorite books is The Technological Society, written by Jacques Ellul in the early 60s. His argument was that advancements in technology and in technique would inevitably lead to a police state/surveillance society because of the inexorable logic of withholding means from the law for fighting crime: no one wants to help criminals, so “of course” we should be willing to suffer a few (and later, a lot) of losses of privacy. Ellul was prescient. It is not a cheerful read. :-)
Thanks for commenting!
Fred