Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical: Magnifica Humanitas

How to Remain Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Pope Leo XIV has published his first encyclical, entitled Magnifica Humanitas — “Magnificent Humanity.” The title itself reveals the central concern of the new Pope: the human person, human dignity, the soul, conscience, freedom, and our call to communion. The encyclical bears the subtitle: “On the Preservation of the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” It was signed on May 15, 2026, on the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s great social encyclical Rerum Novarum, which defended the dignity of workers during the industrial age.

This connection is not accidental. Just as Leo XIII spoke to the Church and the world during the Industrial Revolution, when workers, families, and society were being deeply affected by new economic and technological changes, so Leo XIV now speaks in the midst of the digital revolution. Artificial intelligence, automation, algorithms, and digital platforms are already changing the way we work, learn, communicate, make decisions, and even perceive one another. For this reason, Magnifica Humanitas should not be read simply as a document about technology. It is, above all, a social encyclical for our time.

Some may ask: why speak about artificial intelligence in a parish bulletin? The answer is simple: because the Church is not concerned only with what happens inside the sacristy. The Church is concerned with the human person. If technology is changing the family, the school, the workplace, public speech, truth, conscience, freedom, war, and peace, then this is not merely a technical matter. It is a deeply human, moral, and Christian question. The Church is not against progress. But the Church must always ask: what kind of progress, for whom, and at what cost?

Pope Leo XIV begins the encyclical with a powerful biblical image. Humanity, he says, stands before a choice: to build a new Tower of Babel, or to build a city where God and humanity can dwell together. Babel is the image of a world that relies only on its own power, technology, and pride. It is a world that wants to reach heaven without God and that can easily turn the human person into a tool. In contrast, the Pope also recalls the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in the Book of Nehemiah: there, the city is rebuilt through prayer, patience, shared labour, and responsibility.

This is also an important message for us today. Every generation builds something. The question is whether we are building a world where speed, profit, power, and control come first, or a world where God, the human person, the family, truth, justice, and peace come first. Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool, but it must never become the master of the human person. It can assist us in work, learning, medicine, and communication, but it cannot replace conscience. It can process data, but it cannot love. It can produce texts and images, but it cannot pray. It can imitate human speech, but it does not have a soul.

It is especially fitting that we present this encyclical on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. In the encyclical, the Pope reminds us that the human person is created in the image of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not isolation, but communion of love. Therefore, the human person must never be reduced to a number, a data point, a user, a consumer, or a replaceable part of a system. The human person has a face, a name, a history, a conscience, wounds, hopes, and an eternal dignity.

In the age of artificial intelligence, the Pope reminds us of an ancient Christian truth: the human person is not a machine, but the image of God. Our value does not come from usefulness, productivity, success, speed, or ability. Human dignity comes from God. It is not earned, and it cannot be lost. It belongs to every human being: the child, the elderly, the sick, the worker, the migrant, the poor, the unborn child, the lonely person, and everyone whom society too easily forgets.

For this reason, the Pope gives special attention to three major areas: truth, work, and freedom. Truth is threatened today because lies, manipulation, images, videos, and messages can be produced and spread at great speed. Work is threatened when the human person becomes merely an extension of the machine or a cost to be reduced. Freedom is threatened when digital systems, advertising, addictions, and surveillance begin to shape our desires and decisions without our awareness. The encyclical therefore calls us to recognize truth once again as a common good, to defend the dignity of work, and to protect freedom from new forms of dependency and commercialization.

The Pope does not speak out of fear. Even less does he speak against science. He speaks as a shepherd who sees that technological progress without moral guidance can become dangerous. In his address at the presentation of the encyclical, Pope Leo XIV said that artificial intelligence must be “disarmed,” that is, freed from the logic of domination, exclusion, and death, so that it may serve all people and the common good. This does not mean rejecting technology. It means preventing technology from taking control of the human person.

For this reason, the encyclical does not end in pessimism, but in a call to build a civilization of love. This is not a naïve phrase. It is the Christian answer to a culture of power. Technology without love can easily become an instrument of control. Knowledge without conscience becomes cold. Power without God becomes violent. But technology shaped by responsibility can serve life, education, healing, peace, the family, and the common good. The Pope makes clear that the civilization of love is not a naïve dream, but a demanding project in which love must be translated into just relationships, institutions, and social structures.

In the end, we return to Christ. We do not fully understand the human person by looking at a screen, an algorithm, or a machine. We understand the human person by looking at Jesus Christ. In Him, God became man. In Him, we see what true humanity means: to love, to serve, to forgive, to suffer, to pray, to carry the cross, and to give oneself for others. The Pope reminds us that the true dignity of the human person is revealed in the mystery of the Word made flesh.

The message of Magnifica Humanitas is therefore simple and powerful: progress is truly progress only when it protects the human person. Artificial intelligence can be a useful instrument, but it can never replace the human heart, conscience, love, prayer, and soul. In a time of great change, Christians are not called to panic, nor to blind enthusiasm, but to wisdom, prudence, and faith.

On this Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we pray that our parish, our families, and our society may be places where the human person is not reduced to a number, a data point, or usefulness, but is recognized as a beloved child of God. The future of humanity will not be decided only in computers, laboratories, or the offices of the powerful. It will also be decided in the human heart: wherever a person chooses truth over falsehood, service over selfishness, communion over loneliness, and God over a new Tower of Babel.