The Holy See has released the first papal encyclical by Pope Leo XIV, titled ‘Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence’, which invites reflection on the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on war, relationships and the battle between good and evil. The Pope signed the encyclical on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the release of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum’. The encyclical was then released to the public on May 25.

In this article, Anglican News features some Anglican responses to this important encyclical and their perspectives on the expanding role of AI.
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With its 243 paragraphs and more than 200 references, “Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” the first encyclical of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, will undoubtedly stand as a milestone in the development of Roman Catholic social doctrine. In retrospect, one better understands Cardinal Robert Prevost’s choice of the name “Leo” a little over a year ago: it signals a clear intention to situate his pontificate within a tradition of continuity, particularly in the Church’s mission to serve the most vulnerable in society, as did Pope Leo XIII.
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Since “Rerum Novarum,” Catholic social teaching has generally assumed that the state served as the primary counterweight to concentrated economic power. “Magnifica Humanitas” suggests that this arrangement no longer adequately describes reality.

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical declares artificial intelligence as the “rerum novarum,” the “new thing,” of our age. And while artificial intelligence is the encyclical’s stated focus, its analysis reaches far beyond AI itself into the broader social order that created the technology in the first place — presenting a critique of economic power that all Christians should wrestle with.

As an Episcopal priest and theology professor, let me begin by acknowledging that Protestants have historically had a complicated relationship with papal encyclicals. Beyond the obvious historical divisions, the very understanding of “church” that grounds Catholic social teaching is not ours. The concept of a magisterium does not bind us, and not all of the doctrinal moves made in the document are ones that we would necessarily share.
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Sometimes the pope knows how to nail some theses to the door, too.

In his first encyclical, Pope Leo XIV articulated a message all human beings need to hear—a protest this Protestant can gladly join, against the tech-bro utopia on offer right now. On this matter, every Christian should listen to the pope—both in his warning and in his underlying hope. What’s at stake is the very meaning of the soul.

In Magnifica Humanitas, Leo contends that the accelerating speed of artificial intelligence is not just a technological development or a foreseeable economic crisis but a spiritual and civilizational test that forces us to face what it means to be human. And the danger, the pope rightly warns, is not so much that artificial intelligence will become too humanlike but that human beings will become more like machines.
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As Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical ‘Magnifica humanitas’ is unveiled, Professor Anna Rowlands, theologian at Durham University, tells Vatican News that such a powerful message—addressing both the benefits and dangers of our AI era—will leave an enduring mark on the Church and the world.

“There is not a tomorrow to begin thinking about these issues.”

Professor Anna Rowlands, theologian at Durham University in the United Kingdom, stressed this point in an interview with Vatican News following the release of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, presented at the Vatican on May 25.
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Pope Leo XIV published his landmark encyclical on artificial intelligence, “Magnifica Humanitas”, on May 25, comparing the attempt to build an AI future that excludes God to the “Tower of Babel” and underlining the need to safeguard human dignity as it is “threatened by new forms of dehumanization.”

“The risk of dehumanization — of building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means — is an ancient and ever-new temptation that today takes on a technical guise,” Pope Leo wrote in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”
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Pope Leo XIV’s “Magnifica Humanitas” places human dignity at the centre of the AI age and calls the Church to guide technology with ethics and justice.

On May 25, ten days after Pope Leo XIV signed his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence, he made it public, prompting the Church to become the first major institution to offer ethical guidance for the AI era and underscoring the primacy of the human person.

Just a day after signing the encyclical, Leo, through a Rescriptum ex Audientia, established an interdicastery Commission on Artificial Intelligence, bringing together seven Vatican institutions under rotating coordination.

Taken together, the two acts constitute the most significant institutional response to AI by a major religious body anywhere in the world—and perhaps the clearest signal yet that the Vatican intends to do more than issue clever warnings from the margins of the debate.
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“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.”

The opening words of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, summarize its underlying reasons and purpose.

Published on Monday, May 25, the Pope signed the encyclical on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum.
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