Pope issues wide-ranging encyclical focused on AI

In the 82-page document, released on May 25, the Pope also asked forgiveness for the Church’s long tolerance of slavery, and he declared that its “just war theory” was now outdated.

The document, signed on May 15, marked the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s landmark social encyclical, Rerum Novarum, which reflected on society, the economy and politics, and ushered in what is now known as the social doctrine of the Church.

Pope Leo used nearly the first half of the document to outline the role and development of the Church’s social teaching, and why and how it continues to be needed.

While the Church is concerned with theological, “anthropological” and social questions, it is also “necessary to establish adequate regulatory tools capable of upholding justice and curbing the distorting effects of technological power”, the Pope wrote.

“Nevertheless, the issue is not limited to regulation. As Pope Francis warned, we must realistically ask ourselves who holds this power today and how they use it,” he added.

One of Leo’s most robust criticisms of AI took aim at the concentration of power among a technocratic class of AI developers. To make his case, Leo invoked the principle of subsidiarity, which holds that social and political decisions should be made at the most local level possible, the National Catholic Reporter stated. 

“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,” Pope Leo XIV wrote.

While the document was embedded “in a time of artificial intelligence”, it also included a wide gamut of ongoing, lingering ills such as: the exploitation of people and nature; war; the arms race; disrespect for human life; threats to democracy and the common good; discrimination against the poor and women; and new forms of slavery, including human trafficking.

“The search for the truth in public life, education in the digital environment, the transformation of work, the fragility of families and new forms of slavery are not isolated phenomena,” Pope Leo XIV wrote. “Rather, they reflect a common underlying issue, namely that if technology becomes the ultimate criterion, the human person risks being reduced to data, a cog in a machine or a commodity.

“If, however, technology is integrated with a wise perspective, it can become an instrument of growth, justice and fraternity,” he added.

Touching on disinformation, which “finds a powerful amplifier in AI,” Leo said “democratic life is weakened” when truth is not pursued by a society. “Indifference to the truth leads, slowly but surely, to a descent into totalitarianism,” he wrote.

Leo urged society to “exercise restraint in the use of AI and to protect our young people from the promise of the perfect machine, from that subtle temptation which renders human thought seemingly superfluous precisely when it is most needed”.

At one point Pope Leo quoted from The Lord of the Rings to call for people to do what they can in their time and circumstances.

Pope Leo proposed five paths toward daily and public responsibility: “the need to disarm words; building peace through justice; adopting the perspective of victims; cultivating a healthy realism; and reviving dialogue and multilateralism.”

Fundamentally, he added, what is needed is the Christian view of humanity and understanding of God’s plan for his creation.

FULL TEXT

Pope urges humanity to build a civilization of love in the digital world | USCCB (By Carol Glatz/Catholic News Service)

Pope Leo calls to ‘disarm’ AI in major document, warns of technologic threats to humanity (National Catholic Reporter)

Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas (15 May 2026)