Pope Leo issues 1st encyclical, urges safeguarding of human person in AI era

May 25, 2026

Pope Leo XIV promulgated his first encyclical letter today and emphasized the importance of safeguarding the human person in the era of artificial intelligence.

“Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together,” the encyclical, entitled Magnifica Humanitas, began. “Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible.”

“Yet every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world,” Pope Leo continued. “Whenever humanity is in danger of marring its true identity, we Christians lift our eyes to the Incarnate God, knowing that it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear. In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening the path for each of us to grow toward fullness.”

Though promulgated today, Magnifica Humanitas is dated May 15, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s landmark social encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of new things). In his encyclical, Pope Leo XIV reflects on the res novae, or new things, of the current era, writing:

Crucial questions impose themselves on our conscience and can no longer be avoided: Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community? Two biblical images.. In order to answer these questions and discern how to navigate responsibly the era of AI, I would like to bring to mind two scenes from the Bible: the construction of the Tower of Babel (cf. Gen 11:1-9) and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (cf. Neh 2–6) ...

With the heart of a shepherd and a father, I ask everyone to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good, so that humanity will never lose its beauty, and the world once again will come to recognize the human heart as the place where God desires to dwell. (nos. 6-7, 11)

Following an introduction, the 245-paragraph encyclical has five chapters, each with at least two sections:

• 1. A dynamic approach faithful to the Gospel
  • A Church journeying through human history
  • The development of Social Doctrine from Leo XIII to the present
• 2. Foundations and principles of the social doctrine of the Church
  • The foundations of Social Doctrine
  • The principles of Social Doctrine
  • Integral human development
  • An examen for the Church
• 3. Technology and dominance, the grandeur of humanity in light of the promises of AI
  • The technocratic paradigm and digital power
  • What must not be lost
  • The authentic “more than human”: grace and Christian humanism
  • Two cities and two loves
• 4. Safeguarding humanity at a time of transformation: truth, work, freedom
  • Truth as a common good
  • The dignity of work at a time of digital transition
  • Protecting freedom against dependencies and commercialization
  • A shared responsibility
• 5. The culture of power and the civilization of love
  • The civilization of love in the digital age
  • Building the civilization of love

At the conclusion of his reflection, Pope Leo proposed a “sober yet demanding program of Christian life with which we can navigate this epochal change in the light of the Gospel. This avenue emerges through contemplating God’s plan, living ecclesial unity by partaking of the Eucharist, building a world centered on the common good and praying in union with the Blessed Virgin Mary” (n. 229). He concluded:

With the same faith as Mary, let us become “weavers of hope” in our world, sharing who we are and what we have, so that the presence of Jesus may grow among us and his Kingdom take shape. In 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. Indeed, 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.

I entrust our desire to the Mother of Christ, to the Woman of the Magnificat, that she may guide our steps through this time of change and preserve in each of us true faith in the Gospel, so that we may bear witness to the grandeur of humanity, in which God has made his dwelling. (n. 245)

Papal address at press conference: Pope calls for AI to be ‘disarmed’

Pope Leo XIV made the unprecedented decision to deliver an address this morning at the press conference at which his encyclical was presented (video).

“135 years ago, my venerable predecessor Leo XIII observed the situation of factory workers, their families uprooted and new forms of poverty generated by rapid industrial transformation,” Pope Leo said. “Today we find ourselves facing a transformation of similar magnitude, with perhaps even greater consequences.”

“Magnifica Humanitas was born from listening like Leo XIII did,” he continued. “I have listened to scientists and engineers who work with sincere enthusiasm on technologies capable of alleviating immense suffering; to political leaders and public officials who have perseveringly sought just rules; to parents and teachers who are deeply concerned for the future of younger generations.”

Having listened to these concerns, the Pope said that “very troubling voices have also reached me about increasingly autonomous weapons systems practically beyond any human reach to govern them effectively. I hear very troubling accounts of algorithms that can block access to healthcare, employment and security on the basis of data tainted by prejudice and injustice.

“The Church has long been working for nuclear disarmament, aware that every great technical power can affect people’s lives and so must be accompanied by adequate moral discernment and public control,” the Pope continued. “Nuclear disarmament remains a service to peace and the dignity of the human family. In a similar sense, artificial intelligence now demands to be ‘disarmed,’ freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death. Like nuclear energy, it must be at the service of all and of the common good.”

“Disarming, however, is not enough,” the Pope said. “We must build.”

He explained:

True development, says St Paul VI, always concerns “each man and the whole man.” “Each” means that no person can be left at the margins of digital transformation. “Whole” means that no one can be reduced to productivity, to cognitive performance, or to mere data. The person bears within him—or her-self a freedom, an interiority and a vocation to love and worship that no machine can replace or block.

Only with such an integral vision can artificial intelligence be directed toward the common good. Only together—those who design systems and those affected by them, richer countries and poorer ones, institutions and individuals, power centers and peripheries—will we be able to build a future, not for a privileged few, but for the entire human family.

This is the civilization of love which St Paul VI spoke and which St John Paul II so forcefully proclaimed as a horizon to seek together. It is not a naïve dream. It is a direction. It is the path that Jesus Christ opens within history.

“For this reason, the Church wishes, with humility and frankness, to be part of conversations on artificial intelligence,” the Pope added. “We do not possess technical answers, nor do we seek to displace those with expertise. But we bring a wisdom concerning the human that our present time desperately needs: every person is unique and irreplaceable, a free and intelligent subject with a conscience, capable of seeking God, serving one another, caring for our common home.”

Press conference: other speakers

Other speakers at the press conference at which the encyclical was presented (video) included Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness; Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Professor Anna Rowlands of Durham University; Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic; and Professor Leocadie Lushombo, I.T., of Santa Clara University.

Vatican News noted that Cardinal Parolin moderated the discussion and situated the new encyclical in the historical context of Catholic social teaching. Cardinal Czerny focused on “ingenuity, conscience, and care”; Cardinal Fernández noted the encyclical’s reference to figures of the last century such as Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Benazir Bhutto.

As Vatican News reported, Olah said that “we need competent critics to tell laboratories when they are going astray. We need moral voices that cannot be swayed by incentives.”

Lushombo, a member of the Teresian Association, said that “colonialism in our time reveals a new face. It no longer dominates merely bodies; rather, it appropriates data, transforming personal lives into exploitable information.” Rowlands warned of wealthy private actors “whose cultures elude the oversight of the public interest and risk emerging as a new empire” as she recalled an observation of Romano Guardini: “modern man has not been educated in the proper use of power.”

[CWN founder Phil Lawler has published an analysis of Magnifica Humanitas.]

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• First Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 5/25/26)
• Presentation and promulgation of the Encyclical Letter “Magnifica humanitas” (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 5/25/26)