“Magnifica humanitas”: Pope Leo XIV Makes Major Appeal to “Disarm AI” in His First Encyclical
By Mikael Corre, Permanent Special Correspondent in Rome, La Croix
Published May 25, 2026 at 11:30 a.m.
(Translated from French into English)
Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical on Monday, May 25, devoted to “the protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence.”
With Magnifica humanitas, the encyclical presented Monday, May 25, 2026, Pope Leo XIV seeks to “disarm artificial intelligence,” removing it from the logic of domination and making the world it creates more humane and livable. This sweeping text of 245 paragraphs reflects an updated vision of 135 years of Catholic social teaching.
There is one word in the document that stands out. In paragraph 110, at the heart of the chapter on technology, Leo XIV writes that “artificial intelligence (AI) is already an environment in which we are immersed and a power with which we must contend,” and that therefore “it is not enough to regulate it: it must be disarmed and made accessible.” The pope says this word is especially important to him. It returns throughout the encyclical like a refrain: disarming words, the race for algorithms, military arsenals. “Disarm” is one of the defining words of this pontificate.
In Continuity with Catholic Social Teaching
Magnifica humanitas (“magnificent humanity”) is a long encyclical: 245 paragraphs and 45,000 words—three times the length of Rerum novarum and roughly equal to Laudato si’. Like Pope Francis with integral ecology, Leo XIV offers a major social encyclical. It would be reductive to see Magnifica humanitas merely as a document about technology. Its subtitle makes this clear: “On the Protection of the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
Before addressing AI directly, Leo XIV spends two lengthy chapters laying the foundation. The first traces the development of Catholic social teaching from Rerum novarum (1891) to Pope Francis, emphasizing the “dynamic” nature of Church doctrine. It is not a fixed code, Leo XIV explains, but a “communal discernment” attentive to the “new questions” of every age.
The second chapter revisits major principles—human dignity, the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity, and social justice—and connects them to the digital age. The pope also calls the Church itself to “an examination of conscience,” including mention of abuse victims.
The “Universal Destination” of AI Models
These opening chapters respond to critics who might argue that the Church should not concern itself with algorithms. Leo XIV presents AI as the res nova (“new thing”) of this pontificate, much as industrial labor conditions were for Leo XIII in the late nineteenth century.
One of the document’s strongest claims is the extension of the principle of the “universal destination of goods” to AI systems. Data, algorithms, and platforms, Leo XIV argues (§67), cannot be treated as the absolute property of those who control them. Taken seriously, this thesis carries major legal implications.
The central intention of the encyclical is clear: to evaluate the digital revolution through the lens of Catholic social teaching. Each principle becomes a criterion of judgment—the common good against platform concentration, subsidiarity against algorithmic governance, solidarity against the invisible labor of rare-earth miners and content moderators.
Condemnation of “AI Monopolies”
This framework leads to striking statements. In Chapter 3, on the objectivity of AI, Leo XIV writes: “We cannot consider AI morally neutral” (§104). On governance: “A more moral AI is useless if that morality is decided by only a handful of people” (§107). On data ownership: “Control of data cannot be entrusted solely to private actors” (§108).
Leo XIV denounces the “new AI monopolies” and the “epistemic, economic, and political asymmetry” they create (§109). The new pope continues the recent magisterial critique of an unchecked market economy.
Another concern running through Chapter 3 is the danger of unreality. The words “simulation” and “imitation” recur repeatedly in paragraphs 99 and 100. AI simulates empathy, imitates relationships, and creates the feeling of being heard when no one is truly listening.
Leo XIV warns: “When speech is simulated, it does not build a relationship, but only its appearance… The risk is not so much that a person believes he is speaking to another person, but that he loses the very desire to seek the other authentically” (§100).
Apology for the Church’s Role in Slavery
Chapter 4—the longest section of the document—is also the most concrete. Its focus is the impact of digital transformation on labor. Leo XIV frames AI as a new labor question.
The pope supports state regulation, labor unions, and “social criteria for innovation” (§156). His diagnosis is largely critical: contrary to marketing promises, AI can “paradoxically deskill workers, subject them to automated surveillance, and relegate them to rigid and repetitive tasks” (§150).
He names specific realities: data labelers, content moderators exposed to violent images for poverty wages, and children mining rare materials under dangerous conditions (§173).
Leo XIV calls these “new forms of slavery” before turning to older forms of slavery and acknowledging the Holy See’s historical role in the slave trade. “In the name of the Church, I sincerely ask forgiveness,” he writes. This statement is unprecedented.
Beyond the “Just War” Theory
The final chapter, dedicated to war and multilateralism, extends themes already present in recent papal teaching. But it introduces language that moral theologians will likely examine closely.
One of the most significant passages concerns the “just war” theory, recently invoked to justify military strikes against Iran. Leo XIV writes that “today more than ever, it is important to reaffirm the need to move beyond the theory of ‘just war,’ too often invoked to justify virtually any war, while preserving the strict right to legitimate self-defense” (§192).
This is not a condemnation of the sixteen-century-old doctrine itself, but a signal that in an age of nuclear weapons and autonomous systems, the theory has reached its limits.
Regarding autonomous weapons specifically, the text becomes almost juridical. It establishes three requirements: traceability of decisions, meaningful human control over lethal action, and international rules capable of slowing the technological arms race.
A “Magnificent Humanity” in the Age of AI
Ultimately, Magnifica humanitas offers a coherent, accessible, and deeply argued contribution to AI ethics. Yet the key to its title lies elsewhere.
Two biblical images frame the entire text: the Tower of Babel, symbolizing technology cut off from God, and Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem, representing patient work ordered toward the common good.
Leo XIV writes explicitly in his conclusion that he invites humanity to “contemplate in the face of the Son a magnificent humanity that also illuminates the age of AI.”
The pope’s humanism is transcendent and therefore radical: human dignity is inviolable because it does not originate from humanity itself.