Pope Leo XIV Calls for AI to Be ‘Disarmed’ in Sweeping New Encyclical ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ -

VATICAN CITY – 25 May 2026 – In a historic teaching document released on May 25, 2026, Pope Leo XIV has called for the global community to “disarm” artificial intelligence, warning that without immediate moral safeguards, the technology could lead to “new forms of slavery” and render traditional just war doctrines obsolete. In his first encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), the Pope drew a direct line between the Industrial Revolution that prompted his namesake’s 1891 Rerum Novarum and the current AI revolution, arguing that the Church must provide the moral vocabulary to govern an era where algorithms risk replacing human judgment . Presenting the 43,000-word document personally at the Vatican—an unusual move for a pontiff—Leo issued a stark mea culpa for the Church’s historical complicity in slavery, linking the exploitation of “infidels” in the 15th century to the modern extraction of rare minerals and the exploitation of data laborers in the Global South. “It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow,” he wrote, asking for pardon on behalf of the Church while warning that “digital colonialism” now threatens to profile and control human behavior under the guise of progress .

The encyclical unequivocally rejects the notion of machine personhood, insisting that while AI may simulate empathy, it lacks the conscience, body, and relational experience that define human dignity. However, the Pope went further than his predecessors by declaring that the Church’s traditional “just war” theory is “now outdated,” arguing that autonomous weapons systems lower the threshold for violence by reducing victims to mere data points . Addressing tech leaders directly, including Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah who attended the presentation, Leo warned that the arms race is not merely military but economic and cognitive, driven by monopolies that concentrate power without accountability. He urged the development of new metrics beyond GDP to measure prosperity and demanded that workers, families, and local communities be given a voice in how algorithms govern hiring, healthcare, and education. “The word is strong, I know,” the Pope said of his call to disarm AI, “but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity” .

Finally, the Pope also borrowed an insight from Tolkien’s famous wizard, Gandalf: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”

To read the Encyclical Letter, please click below:

ENCYCLICAL LETTER
MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS
OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE LEO XIV
ON SAFEGUARDING THE HUMAN PERSON
IN THE TIME OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

INTRODUCTION

The res novae of our time
Two biblical images
Building for the common good
Remaining human

CHAPTER ONE
A DYNAMIC APPROACH FAITHFUL TO THE GOSPEL

A Church journeying through human history
         The wisdom of the word of God in dialogue with the human sciences
         Social Doctrine as a shared discernment
The development of Social Doctrine from Leo XIII to the present
         The first stages of the Church’s Social Doctrine
         The years of the Second Vatican Council
         The recent Magisterium
         Interpreting history in the light of faith

CHAPTER TWO
FOUNDATIONS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

The foundations of Social Doctrine
         The human person: image of the Triune God
         The equal dignity of all human beings
         The supreme value of human rights
The principles of Social Doctrine
         The principle of the common good
         The principle of the universal destination of goods
         The principle of subsidiarity
         The principle of solidarity
         The principle of social justice
Integral human development
An examen for the Church