On Artificial Intelligence.
“In his long-awaited first encyclical, the Holy Father insists that the fullest truth about man is revealed ultimately and most completely in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Fr. James Shea, National Catholic Register.
As anticipated, Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, while wide-ranging in its scope, primarily addresses the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), which he identifies among the res novae, the “new things,” confronting the modern world, much as Leo XIII treated the new things of his time in Rerum Novarum, issued 135 years ago this month.
Early in Magnifica Humanitas — and again at its conclusion — Pope Leo describes the present moment as a “change of era” and an “epochal change,” echoing language used frequently by Pope Francis. Thus, the document views AI as arising not simply within an “era of change,” in which many developments occur within an otherwise steady framework, but within a true “change of era,” in which the tectonic plates of the world’s social life are shifting beneath our feet.
Accordingly, Leo insists that it is not enough for Christians simply to be “watching and waiting, observing from afar and merely hoping for the best.” The Holy Father believes that something more profound is underway than simply the emergence of another powerful technology, and that concerted thought and action is needed.
Modern Catholic social doctrine has itself arisen and developed over the last 135 years precisely amid this great civilizational transition, as Christianity has increasingly been displaced as the governing vision of Western culture. That fact provides an important interpretive key for reading the social encyclicals generally, and for this document in particular.
Catholic social doctrine presupposes and emerges from the drama of salvation and the eternal truths of the Gospel, but it is not confined to the internal life of the Church. Leo notes this explicitly, quoting Pope St. John XXIII: While “the Church’s primary mission is the sanctification and proclamation of eternal goods, she does not neglect the concrete needs of people’s daily lives.” A social encyclical, therefore, is addressed not only to Christians speaking among themselves, but to all men and women of good will, including those outside the Church, and this necessarily shapes both its language and its method.
Leo thus argues that Catholic social doctrine must employ an “evangelical language” capable of presenting principles derived from the Gospel in a way that can be applied within contemporary society through what he calls “standards of discernment.”
Pope Leo’s Full Speech and Challenge Regarding Artificial Intelligence
JD Vance on the Pope’s AI Encyclical
Raymond Arroyo & Friends on the Pope’s Encyclical
Fr. Gregory Pine
“Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), reflects on the dignity of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). In this video, Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. walks through the entire encyclical chapter by chapter, unpacking its major themes, from Catholic Social Teaching and human dignity to the moral, spiritual, and cultural challenges of emerging technology.
How should the Catholic Church respond to rapid technological change? What does it mean to remain truly human in a world shaped by artificial intelligence, automation, and digital culture? Fr. Gregory guides us through the full document and its most important insights. In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV offers a distinctly Christian vision of progress rooted in truth, freedom, work, communion, and love.”
Emphasis supplied
