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With Magnifica Humanitas, his first encyclical devoted to artificial intelligence, Leo XIV places the technological challenge at the heart of the Church’s social doctrine, grounded in scripture and two millennia of theological tradition.
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Its clearest geopolitical diagnosis: innovation is no longer driven by states but by private, often transnational actors whose power surpasses that of many governments — and who control data, platforms, and algorithms without democratic accountability.
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Its central geopolitical thesis: war, fueled by AI, is becoming « normalized, » and only a « civilization of love » founded on justice and genuine multilateralism can stand in its way.
Published on May 15, 2026, the anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas bears a programmatic subtitle: « on the protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence. » While the document opens with a lengthy review of the Church’s social doctrine, chapters 3, 4, and 5 constitute a thorough analysis of contemporary technological power and its consequences for work, public truth, and peace. It is on these that we focus, without omitting the beginning of the encyclical, where Leo XIV summarizes the history of the Church’s social doctrine since Leo XIII.
The central theme is a dual biblical image: the Tower of Babel, « a work conceived without reference to God, » and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, « a work of shared responsibility. » The first sentence of the encyclical states the choice plainly:
« The magnificent humanity created by God now faces a decisive choice: to erect a new Tower of Babel or to build the city where God and humanity dwell together. »
Read also: Magnifica Humanitas: what Leo XIV really wrote on technology, work and war
Technological power has become privatized
The encyclical’s clearest geopolitical diagnosis concerns the shift in power. Leo XIV observes that innovation is no longer driven by states.
« In the past, it was primarily states that guided and directed innovation. Today, however, the main drivers of development are private actors — often transnational — with resources and capabilities for intervention that surpass those of many governments. »
Chapter 3 expands on this insight: control over platforms, infrastructure, data, and computing power belongs to major economic players who set « the conditions for access, the rules of visibility, and the possibilities for participation. »
The Pope emphasizes an unprecedented structural opacity. AI systems, he writes, are « more ‘cultivated’ than ‘built' »: their designers themselves know little about how they actually function. From this asymmetry of knowledge stems an asymmetry of power. Leo XIV warns that AI « tends above all to reinforce the power of those who already possess economic resources, expertise, and access to data, » at the risk that small groups « will steer information and consumption, shape democratic processes, and influence economic dynamics to their advantage. »
The proposed response can be summed up in a single word, which the Pope advocates: « disarm. » « Disarming AI means removing it from the logic of armed competition, which today is no longer merely military, but also economic and cognitive. » The text explicitly targets the race « for the most powerful algorithm and the largest database with the aim of consolidating a geopolitical or commercial advantage. » Leo XIV specifically names the « new AI monopolies » and frames data ownership as a matter of the common good: « data ownership cannot be entrusted solely to private actors, but must be regulated. »
Read also: Artificial intelligence and global governance: who decides?
Work, truth, freedom: the divides of the digital transition
Chapter 4 examines the concrete repercussions of this transformation. On the subject of work, the encyclical rejects unqualified optimism. Far from necessarily being better, the « new ways » of working can « paradoxically de-skill workers, subject them to automated surveillance, and relegate them to rigid and repetitive tasks. » The Pope fears, in the « fourth industrial revolution, » « a significant and rapid contraction of available jobs » and a widening of wage inequalities.
« It is certainly desirable that technology relieve humans of certain particularly arduous, repetitive, or dangerous tasks and that it provide intelligent support for human activity, but the general rule must remain the protection of jobs and the irreplaceable role of the person. »
Economic history has clearly shown that new technologies enable productivity gains that create new professions — less arduous and more fulfilling — but which entail professional transitions that can sometimes be complex. As Leo XIV puts it:
« At the same time, we must recognize that every real transition occurs in fits and starts: it is uneven, fragmentary, and sometimes conflictual. There is therefore no single model for change or one-size-fits-all solution: there are regions and histories that require different responses. »
The analysis has a clear geographical dimension. Leo XIV describes a two-speed world: « Wealthy societies are rapidly and chaotically automating, reducing the need for labor, » while vast regions « remain trapped in hybrid economies » and « become reservoirs of precarious labor and hotbeds of instability and forced migration. » The text goes further by evoking a « colonialism » of a new kind, based on data extraction rather than on the domination of bodies: health flows, epidemiological profiles, genetic maps, and demographic data constitute, in the Pope’s words, « the new ‘rare earths’ of power. »
The encyclical also highlights invisible labor — data labeling, content moderation, and the mining of materials — upon which the digital economy relies, as well as human trafficking facilitated by digital tools. Regarding truth, the encyclical links disinformation to democratic fragility. Disinformation, the Pope reminds us, « did not arise with AI, but today finds in it a powerful multiplier. » He quotes Hannah Arendt on the ideal subject of totalitarianism, for whom the distinction between fact and fiction disappears. His proposal is for an « ecology of communication » that treats « truth as a common good, » supported by serious journalism, schools, and civil society organizations.
Read also: Disinformation, democracy and AI
The trivialization of war
It is in Chapter 5 that the encyclical offers its most directly geopolitical analysis. There, Leo XIV observes « a genuine paradigm shift in public discourse and in decisions regarding rearmament, with a disturbing rehabilitation of war as an instrument of international policy. » Sixty years after Paul VI’s « never again war » at the UN, the Pope believes that the ethical criteria governing the use of force « are gradually being eroded. »
Several factors converge in this assessment: the influence of the arms industry, which creates an « armed nation » where « the arms market becomes an autonomous driver of bellicose choices »; the return of the nuclear threat and the « miniaturization » of weapons; the end of the state’s monopoly on force, with the emergence of « jihadist groups, private militias, and criminal networks »; and a « disturbing loss of historical memory » as witnesses to the world wars pass away.
Military AI occupies a central place in this reflection. The Pope sums up the risk with a striking statement:
« There is no algorithm capable of making war morally acceptable. »
« AI, » he writes, « can only make conflict faster and more impersonal, by lowering the threshold for the use of violence and transforming defense into operational forecasting, with victims reduced to mere data. » Hence a firm demand: the decision to use lethal force « must remain under effective, conscious, and responsible human control. »
Leo XIV also denounces the crisis of multilateralism, which he describes not as « authentic multilateralism » but as « a disorderly and conflict-ridden multipolarism, where mistrust of the other prevails. » The « force of international law, » he continues, is « replaced by the so-called ‘law of the strongest.' »
Read also: The crisis of multilateralism and the future of international order
Against Realpolitik, a « healthy realism »
The encyclical devotes several dense pages to what it calls a « so-called political realism. » The Pope rejects the idea that war is « inevitably part of human nature » and describes Realpolitik as a « realism » that « sows resignation in the face of an inevitable war, both in people’s consciences and in culture. »
To this degraded realism, Leo XIV contrasts a « healthy realism » that « does not give up on changing the world » but « begins by clearly seeing interests, fears, obstacles, and power dynamics. » The distinction is subtle and is undoubtedly the chapter’s most original contribution: the pope does not advocate for a disembodied irenicism, but for a lucidity that « seeks viable paths » — credible institutions, verifiable guarantees, patient negotiations.
It is within this framework that he calls for a shift from a « culture of power » to a « culture of negotiation, » echoing a phrase by Giorgio La Pira. He also quotes the words he spoke at the beginning of his pontificate: a call to leaders to « meet, dialogue, negotiate, » and the assertion that « war is never inevitable. »
Finally, the encyclical reaffirms « the need to move beyond the theory of ‘just war,’ which is all too often invoked to justify any war, subject to the right to self-defense in its strictest sense. »
A geopolitical encyclical
Beyond its spiritual dimension, Magnifica Humanitas reads as a contribution to the debate on the global governance of technology. Leo XIV rejects both catastrophism and irenicism: his text invites us to evaluate each innovation in light of a question inherited from John Paul II — does AI make human life « more human »? The answer, the pope suggests, will depend less on the technology itself than on the power dynamics that shape it.
In this sense, the encyclical is less a text about machines than a text about the state, the market, and war in the algorithmic age.
Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas. Encyclical Letter on the Protection of the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, signed May 15, 2026, presented May 25, 2026. Full text: vatican.va.
