Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, urges humanity to safeguard human dignity, justice, and truth in the age of artificial intelligence.
Newsroom (25/05/2026 Gaudium Press ) Published on Monday, May 25, the Pope signed the encyclical on May 15, — the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s groundbreaking social encyclical Rerum Novarum — Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. The sweeping, 245-paragraph document draws on the full depth of Catholic Social Doctrine to confront what the Pope calls the defining challenge of our era: the rapid and largely ungoverned rise of artificial intelligence and digital technology.
The document is at once a theological treatise, a social manifesto, and a moral warning. It addresses heads of state, technology developers, educators, labor unions, families, and ordinary believers alike — urging all people of goodwill to resist what the Pope describes as a creeping dehumanization embedded in the logic of algorithmic power.
A New “Rerum Novarum” for the Digital Age
The choice of date was deliberate. Just as Leo XIII responded to the upheavals of industrialization by publishing Rerum Novarum in 1891 — a document that gave birth to the Church’s modern social teaching — Leo XIV has now sought to do the same for the digital revolution. The parallel is not merely symbolic. The new encyclical situates itself explicitly within the living tradition of Catholic Social Doctrine, reviewing the contributions of every pope from Leo XIII through Francis before turning to the present moment.
“We must ask God for the wisdom to interpret the great trends of our time,” the Pope writes, “particularly technological advances.”
The document traces how the Church’s social teaching has evolved through Pius XI’s articulation of subsidiarity, John XXIII’s global vision of human rights, the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et Spes, Paul VI’s concept of integral human development, and more recent encyclicals including John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus, Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate, and Francis’s Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti. Leo XIV presents his own encyclical not as a break from this tradition but as its natural continuation into new and urgent territory.
Two Biblical Images, One Moral Choice
At the heart of Magnifica Humanitas lies a striking contrast drawn from scripture. The Pope sets the Tower of Babel — a project of pride, uniformity, and self-sufficiency built without God — against the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls under Nehemiah, a communal effort rooted in prayer, shared responsibility, and trust in the Lord.
These two images, he argues, represent the fork in the road that humanity now faces in its relationship with technology.
“The primary choice is not between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to technology,” the encyclical states, “but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem.”
The Babel syndrome, as Leo XIV calls it, is the tendency to let digital technology become an idol — reducing persons to data, sacrificing the weak for efficiency, and imposing a single algorithmic language onto the irreducible mystery of human life. The way of Nehemiah, by contrast, is the path of dialogue, subsidiarity, shared discernment, and work oriented toward God and the common good.
What Artificial Intelligence Is — and Is Not
In one of the encyclical’s most philosophically substantive sections, Leo XIV offers a careful account of what artificial intelligence actually is and, crucially, what it is not. He cautions against equating machine intelligence with human intelligence, warning that the comparison is fundamentally misleading.
“So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean,” the document states. AI systems, however sophisticated, are forms of statistical adaptation based on data — not inner growth, conscience, or wisdom.
At the same time, the Pope is careful not to condemn technology outright. AI, he writes, “can be a valuable tool” that has the potential to heal, connect, educate, and protect. The problem is not the technology itself but the vision of humanity embedded within it — and the concentration of power in the hands of those who build and control it.
That concentration is a recurring theme. The encyclical observes that the main drivers of technological development today are private, often transnational corporations whose resources and influence exceed those of many governments. This creates what the Pope calls an “unprecedented, predominantly private” form of technological power — one that is difficult to subject to democratic accountability or to orient toward the common good.
Responsibility, Transparency, and the Governance of AI
The encyclical devotes considerable space to questions of governance, accountability, and ethical oversight. It insists that the use of AI is never a purely technical matter — when automated systems make decisions that affect employment, credit, healthcare, or access to public services, they touch on fundamental rights and human dignity.
Leo XIV warns against what he calls the “veneer of neutrality” that AI systems often project. When an algorithm decides who is worthy of credit or employment without any human bearing responsibility for that judgment, he writes, injustice becomes invisible. “Compassion, mercy and forgiveness gradually disappear from view.”
The document calls for robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, transparent algorithms, and meaningful avenues for recourse. It insists that communities and intermediary organizations — not just corporations and governments — must have a voice in shaping the digital systems that govern daily life.
In a striking phrase, the Pope calls for AI to be “disarmed” — freed from the logic of monopolistic control, geopolitical competition, and commercial dominance, and returned to the plurality of human cultures and ways of life.
A Direct Challenge to Transhumanism
Among the encyclical’s most pointed passages are those directed at transhumanist and posthumanist ideologies — currents of thought, increasingly influential in technology circles, that envision human beings as projects to be upgraded, enhanced, or ultimately surpassed.
Leo XIV treats these ideas with philosophical seriousness before firmly rejecting their premise. “If the human being is treated as something to be perfected or surpassed,” he writes, “it becomes easier to accept that some lives are less useful, less desirable or less worthy.”
The Christian alternative is not a fearful rejection of technology but what the Pope calls “the authentic more than human” — the possibility of self-transcendence through relationship, love, and divine grace. Citing Saint Thomas Aquinas and Pope Francis, he argues that human beings become most fully themselves not through technological enhancement but through openness to God and to one another.
“What saves humanity,” the encyclical states, “is not enhanced self-sufficiency, but a relationship that liberates, a communion that transforms.”
Human limitation itself, the Pope argues, is not a defect to be corrected but a condition through which wisdom, compassion, and spiritual depth become possible. To eliminate suffering entirely, he writes, “would mean extinguishing love and desire as well.”
Truth, Democracy, and the Information Ecosystem
Turning to the realm of public communication, Magnifica Humanitas issues a stark warning about the erosion of truth in the digital age. AI-powered disinformation, the Pope argues, is not merely a technical problem but a moral and democratic one.
“When questions about what is true lose their appeal, and a pragmatism takes hold that is content with what appears useful or effective, then democratic life is weakened,” he writes, citing Hannah Arendt’s observation that the ideal subjects of totalitarian regimes are those for whom the distinction between fact and fiction has ceased to exist.
The encyclical calls for an “ecology of communication” — transparent platform governance, strong independent journalism, media literacy education, and a renewed commitment by schools, families, and Christian communities to the honest pursuit of truth. It also acknowledges the Church’s own failures in this area, praising journalists who have exposed abuse within ecclesial institutions and calling for ongoing vigilance.
Work, Dignity, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution
In a section drawing heavily on John Paul II’s Laborem Exercens, the encyclical insists that work is not merely an economic variable but a fundamental dimension of human dignity and social participation. It warns that the convergence of AI, automation, and robotics risks producing not liberation but new forms of exploitation.
“AI frequently forces workers to adapt to the speed and demands of machines, rather than machines being designed to support those who work,” the document states, citing a 2025 document from the Dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith and for Culture and Education. The result can be deskilling, automated surveillance, and the erosion of human agency in the workplace.
Leo XIV calls unemployment a “grave evil” and demands that access to dignified work remain a high priority for public policy. He calls for social criteria to accompany every major deployment of automation, including verifiable protections for employment and worker retraining. He also challenges conventional economic metrics, arguing that GDP fails to capture what actually matters for human flourishing and calling for the development of complementary indicators.
The encyclical is notably attentive to the situation of families and young people, arguing that job insecurity is particularly devastating for the young, not only because of income but because work is a crucial sphere in which identity is formed, relationships are built, and vocation is discerned.
New Forms of Slavery
One of the document’s most forceful sections addresses what it calls “new forms of slavery” embedded in the global digital economy. Behind every seamless AI interaction, the Pope argues, lies a chain of hidden labor: data labelers, content moderators, and resource extractors — often young, often women, often working in dangerous or degrading conditions for minimal wages.
“The bodies of these people are scarred, injured and worn down so that computational flow may continue uninterruptedly,” the encyclical states.
Criminal networks, the document notes, also exploit digital platforms, payment systems, and profiling technologies to recruit and control trafficking victims — reducing human beings to data to be tracked and packages to be moved.
In an unusual and historically significant passage, Leo XIV explicitly acknowledges the Catholic Church’s own historical complicity in slavery, including instances in which the Apostolic See issued documents that regulated or legitimized forms of subjugation. He calls this “a wound in Christian memory” and, in the name of the Church, asks for pardon.
“The memory of past complicity and blindness in the face of the injustice of slavery becomes a call to vigilance,” he writes.
War, Weapons, and the Crisis of Multilateralism
The encyclical’s final major thematic chapter turns to the normalization of armed conflict — and specifically to the role of AI in lowering the threshold for violence.
Leo XIV argues that the concept of just war, long a cornerstone of Catholic moral theology, has become obsolete as a practical framework given the realities of modern warfare. “Humanity possesses far more effective and capable tools for promoting human life and resolving conflicts, such as dialogue, diplomacy and forgiveness,” he writes.
The document offers an extended critique of autonomous weapons systems, insisting that lethal decisions cannot be delegated to machines. “No algorithm can make war morally acceptable,” it states. A clear chain of human accountability must be maintained at every stage.
The Pope also raises alarms about the broader normalization of conflict in public discourse, the erosion of international law, the growing influence of the arms industry on political decision-making, and the weakening of multilateral institutions. He makes a direct personal appeal to world leaders: “Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate. War is never inevitable.”
Interreligious dialogue receives particular attention as a resource for peacebuilding, and the encyclical cites the “spirit of Assisi” inaugurated by John Paul II and continued by Francis through dialogue with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar.
A Call to Builders, Not Spectators
The encyclical closes with what the Pope frames as a “sober yet demanding program of Christian life” for navigating the digital age. It calls on believers to remain faithful to truth, invest in education, cultivate genuine human relationships, and love justice and peace — not as abstract ideals but as practical commitments embedded in daily choices.
Quoting J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the Pope reminds readers that not every person is called to master the great tides of history — but all are responsible for what they do in their own corner of it.
The document concludes with extended reflection on the Magnificat, the hymn of Mary, as a model for the kind of hope required in the present moment — one that sees what is invisible, begins from the perspective of the lowly, and trusts that God’s hidden work is already underway even in the darkest circumstances.
“With the same faith as Mary,” Leo XIV writes, “let us become weavers of hope in our world.”
Magnifica Humanitas runs to more than 200 pages and is available in multiple languages through the Holy See’s official website. It is the first encyclical of Leo XIV’s pontificate and is expected to shape Catholic engagement with technology, economics, and international affairs for years to come.
- Raju Hasmukh
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