In May 2026, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), a major Catholic social teaching document focused on one of the defining issues of the modern era: artificial intelligence. Signed on the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, which addressed the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution, the encyclical draws a parallel between industrial transformation in the nineteenth century and digital transformation today.
Rather than condemning AI itself, Pope Leo presents a more nuanced argument: technology is valuable, but it must remain under human moral guidance. The encyclical repeatedly emphasizes that artificial intelligence should serve humanity rather than redefine it. According to the document, AI can process information and imitate aspects of human reasoning, but it cannot experience relationships, conscience, responsibility, or the deeper dimensions of human life.
A central concern of Magnifica Humanitas is the concentration of technological power. Pope Leo warns that unchecked development of AI could deepen inequality, weaken democratic institutions, spread misinformation, and place critical decisions into systems that cannot exercise compassion or ethical judgment. He also criticizes the hidden human costs behind AI development, including exploitative labor practices and environmental extraction that often remain invisible to users.
The encyclical further addresses military uses of AI, arguing that machines should never be entrusted with irreversible or lethal decisions. Instead, Pope Leo calls for international cooperation, transparency, and ethical governance. Ultimately, Magnifica Humanitas argues that the question of AI is not simply what machines can do, but what humanity should become in an age increasingly shaped by algorithms.
