VATICAN CITY (RNS) — On Monday (May 25), Pope Leo XIV will release his first major papal document, an encyclical titled “Magnifica Humanitas” or “Magnificent Humanity,” expected to update Catholic social teaching for the age of artificial intelligence.
Leo signed the document May 15, on the 135th anniversary of “Rerum Novarum,” the landmark 1891 encyclical by his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, that laid the foundations for modern Catholic social thought by defending workers and unions amid the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution.
The parallel is deliberate. Since his election a little over a year ago, Leo has repeatedly described AI as a new industrial revolution, one whose consequences reach far beyond technology into war, labor, education, communication, truth, community and the environment.
“The challenge we currently face is not technological, but anthropological, and it is my hope that the Encyclical Letter to be published within a few days will contribute to answering this challenge,” Leo wrote in a post on X on Friday (May 22).
As evidenced by the unbridled promotion and implementation of technology at the expense of human dignity, we are truly experiencing an eclipse of the sense of what it means to be human. It is imperative to recover an understanding of the true meaning and grandeur of humanity as…
— Pope Leo …