Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” on May 25, 2026. The 245-paragraph document was signed on May 15 — the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s landmark social encyclical “Rerum Novarum” — and is addressed to Catholics and “every person of goodwill.” The encyclical warns that AI risks widening inequality, undermining democracy, and eroding human dignity, and calls for AI to be “disarmed” by removing it from narrow military and economic interests. It urges stronger state and international regulation of AI companies and broader public participation in shaping the technology’s development.
The document situates its arguments within the Church’s social teaching tradition running from “Rerum Novarum” through “Laudato Si’,” framing AI as the defining technological rupture of the present era, analogous to the industrial revolution of the 19th century. Across five chapters, the encyclical critiques the ideological underpinnings of transhumanism and posthumanism, warns of a “technocratic paradigm” concentrating digital power among a few actors, and raises concerns about AI’s role in normalizing warfare. Drawing on the Tower of Babel as a cautionary image, Leo XIV argues that technology must be directed toward the common good rather than self-aggrandizement, and that human dignity exists independently of ability, wealth, or social standing — a benchmark no AI system can replace.