Pope Leão XIV Issues Encíclica Magnifica Humanitas on Artificial Intelligence

Overview

• The Vatican published the 105‑page encíclica Magnifica Humanitas on Monday, May 25, 2026, making AI a central concern of Pope Leão XIV's papacy.
• The document frames AI as a threat to human dignity and calls on governments to slow development where needed and build robust legal frameworks to govern data, platforms and models.
• It demands independent oversight, clear chains of responsibility for AI systems, protections for workers whose jobs are disrupted, and safeguards to keep children safe online.
• The pope declared it impermissible to entrust lethal decisions to AI, urged the strictest ethical limits on military uses of the technology, and repudiated routine appeals to the theory of 'just war'.
• The encíclica links this intervention to Catholic social teaching by citing Rerum Novarum, offers a formal apology for the Church's role in slavery, and is meant to shape global debates between states, tech firms and multilateral bodies.