Published Monday, the pope\u2019s new encyclical warns of a \u201cculture of power\u201d fueled by the digital revolution and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, published Monday, Pope Leo XIV calls on society and AI developers to implement \u201cshared standards of social justice\u201d in order for artificial intelligence to respect human dignity and serve the common good.<\/p>\n
AI is not a morally neutral tool; It matters not only how it is used, but how it is designed, Leo writes in \u201cMagnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,\u201d published May 25. Magnifica Humanitas means \u201cMagnificent Humanity\u201d in Latin.<\/p>\n
He also warns that \u201ca more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few \u2026 In fact, as with every major technological shift, AI tends to amplify the power of those who already possess economic resources, expertise and access to data.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first encyclical letter of Leo XIV covers a wide range of social issues, focusing heavily on the impacts of AI in the areas of education, the economy, unemployment, work, the development of young people, human trafficking and war.<\/p>\n
He proposes the principles of Catholic Social Doctrine \u2014 the dignity of the person, the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity and justice \u2014 as guidelines for decision-making and the \u201ccriteria for judging whether technologies truly serve humanity or are subjugating it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While rejecting dichotomous thinking that pits the opportunities of AI against its risks, or enthusiasm against fear, Leo offers a stark assessment of the technological paradigm the world finds itself in today and describes a path of progress that serves people \u201cor a progress that subjects them to the mentality of power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risk extends beyond the misuse of certain technologies. More gravely, the pervasive technocratic paradigm in which we are immersed, and that is amplified by the digital revolution and AI, threatens to normalize an anti-human vision,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n
Leo borrows the term, \u201ctechnocratic paradigm,\u201d from Pope Francis\u2019 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, in which, Leo writes, Francis critiqued a paradigm \u201cthat seeks to reduce everything to an object to be dominated.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that anti-human vision, he continues, \u201cthe fullness of life is equated with having more, reducing weakness, eliminating uncertainty and exerting total control. When efficiency becomes the ultimate measure of value, human beings are tempted to see themselves as a project to be optimized rather than as persons called to relationship and communion.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Pope Leo, the central question \u2014 safeguarding our humanity \u2014 is something everyone should have a role in answering.<\/p>\n
He invokes one of his spiritual guides, St. Augustine of Hippo, quoting from \u201cDe Civitate Dei\u201d (\u201cThe City of God\u201d): \u201c\u2018Two loves have built two cities: the earthly city, the love of self even to the contempt of God; the heavenly city, the love of God even to the contempt of self.\u2019 As throughout history, these two loves continue to contend for dominance in our hearts today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV signed his first encyclical, ‘Magnifica Humanitas:’ On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, on May 15, 2026, the 135th anniversary of the encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum’ by Pope Leo XIII. ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ was released on May 25, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media. Image composition: EWTN News<\/p>\n
From Catholic Social Doctrine to the fight for power<\/p>\n
The encyclical\u2019s 245 paragraphs are broken down into an introduction and five chapters, with the first two dedicated to an explanation of the development of the Church\u2019s Social Doctrine from Pope Leo XIII to today, the main principles of that doctrine, and how they can be applied to the current technological age.<\/p>\n
Chapter three introduces \u201cthe technocratic paradigm\u201d of artificial intelligence and the imbalance of digital power.<\/p>\n
Chapter four turns to the importance of safeguarding truth, democracy, work, education, and human freedom in the age of AI, while the fifth chapter is dedicated to an analysis of the normalization of war, the fight for power, and how everyone has a responsibility to help build a civilization of love through the cultivation of peace and justice.<\/p>\n
Throughout the encyclical, Leo draws on the image of construction to ask how humanity will respond to the new technological age. Humanity, he says, must choose between building the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) and building a city where God and humanity can dwell together, as Nehemiah gathered together people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile (Nehemiah 2-6).<\/p>\n
\u201cIn light of these two images, the Holy Spirit challenges us today regarding our relationship with technology and the ongoing digital revolution,\u201d he writes. \u201cTechnology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV draws on quotations from prominent 19th and 20th-century thinkers, both Catholic and Jewish, including St. John Paul II, Victor Frankl, Hannah Arendt, J.R.R. Tolkien, Giorgio La Pira, and Fr. Romano Guardini, to argue that while technology is not a solution in itself to humanity\u2019s problems, nor is it inherently evil.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise it, finance it, regulate it and use it,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n
The choice, he continues, is not between a \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d to technology, but \u201cbetween constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frequently cited sources for the encyclical letter include Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s encyclical Caritas in Veritate and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.<\/p>\n
Writing that he does not wish to give a comprehensive overview of AI, the pope points readers to previous writings by the Church on AI, in particular, the 2025 note Antiqua et Nova by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education and Quo Vadis, Humanitas? published earlier this year by the International Theological Commission \u2014 both of which are cited often in the footnotes of Magnifica Humanitas.<\/p>\n
Christian humanism and the technocratic paradigm<\/p>\n
The pope writes about the mindsets of transhumanism and posthumanism and how they are the ideological vision underlying technology.<\/p>\n
He proposes a Christian humanism, where human beings \u201care not confined by the boundaries of their own nature; rather, they are called to self-transcendence, not through an escape from reality or a contempt for their limitations, but through their fulfillment in love.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Magnifica Humanitas, the Holy Father also expresses concern about the \u201cnew monopolies of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo speak of the common good means exposing this new form of epistemic, economic, and political asymmetry,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n
The key question, he says, is that posed by Saint John Paul II: Does AI \u201cmake human life on earth \u2018more human\u2019 in every aspect of that life? Does it make it more worthy of man?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Leo writes that \u201ca decisive test for the ethical discernment of AI and digital transformation\u201d is in the fight against new forms of slavery, such as human trafficking. The pontiff goes on to \u201csincerely ask for pardon,\u201d in the name of the Church, for the \u201cimmense suffering and humiliation endured by so many\u201d before slavery was unequivocally condemned in the 19th century.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis development offers a clear example of the Church\u2019s growth in understanding the perennial truths of Revelation that she safeguards. Although there was not always consistency in practice,\u201d he writes, \u201cthere has been a continuous affirmation throughout history of the dignity of every human being, created in the image of God, even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n
The memory of past blindness and complicity regarding the injustice of slavery is \u201ca call to vigilance,\u201d the pope says. \u201cWhat we have learned must be translated into discernment and responsibility in the present.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018A violent culture of power\u2019<\/p>\n
A large section of the pope\u2019s letter is devoted to what he writes is, \u201ca troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics,\u201d AI use in warfare, a crisis in multilateralism, and the erosion of ethical principles that used to limit war.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumanity is slipping into a violent culture of power,\u201d he warns. \u201cToday, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the \u2018just war\u2019 theory which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated. Humanity possesses far more effective and capable tools for promoting human life and resolving conflicts, such as dialogue, diplomacy and forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe modern Babel can be seen not only in the globalized technocratic paradigm, but also in the remote clash between opposing imperialisms, between powers that wish to preserve their supremacy, and those that aspire to seize that supremacy, resulting in a multiplicity of local conflicts. Moreover, there seems to be no limit to the race \u2014 driven by a dehumanizing ambition \u2014 to develop evermore powerful technologies or to secure control over them,\u201d Pope Leo writes.<\/p>\n
But the pontiff does not conclude on a negative note. He adds that, \u201cdespite this downward spiral, we can also glimpse a great part of humanity that is striving to remain human and working to build the holy city of coexistence and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concluding the document, he expresses the hope that, \u201cIn the humble fidelity of daily life, even the era of AI can become a time in which the Holy Spirit brings about the civilization of love in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, the Lord continues to make all things new and offers every era the possibility of becoming part of salvation history in the light of the Incarnation.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was originally published by EWTN News English.<\/p>\n