By Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, May 25, 2026
On May 15, 2026, the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo signed his first encyclical letter: Magnifica Humanitas: On the Safeguarding of the Human Person in the time of Artificial Intelligence. The document was released with a public presentation event on May 25, 2026, with short reflections offered by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Cardinal Michael Czerny, theologians Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo, as well as computer scientist and Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah. Following these Pope Leo offered a closing reflection and blessing.
As emphasized by the May 2025 presentation panel, the encyclical calls for and participates in a moral and social discernment about artificial intelligence, one that necessarily places the human person and the common good at its center, and safeguards the primacy of the human person (Magnifica Humanitas 97).
Magnifica Humanitas is a social teaching encyclical, squarely in the tradition of Rerum Novarum (1891), and citing many of the key documents in this lineage since: Quadragesimo Anno (1931), Pacem in Terris (1963), Populorum Progressio (1967), Octogesima Adveniens (1971), Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), Centesimus Annus (1991) through Laudato Si’ (2015), Fratelli Tutti ( 2020 ) and Dilexit Nos (2024).
Situated in this lineage, Magnifica Humanitas focuses less on particular ecclesial or pastoral practice and much more so on reviewing essential principles of Catholic social teaching and bringing these to a discerning dialogue with the realities of artificial intelligence.
Further work remains on translating the principles and direction put forth in Magnifica Humanitas and giving shape to what these mean for parish and diocesan administration, worship, preaching, catechesis, and pastoral care. Built solidly on Catholic social teaching, the encyclical’s principles are not new. However, they may give us pause and call us to discernment about whether to rely on productivity tools and generative artificial intelligence when it comes to planning and creating homilies, catechetical lessons, retreat plans, liturgical ordos, or any aspect of spiritual or pastoral care.
Given the encyclical’s key theological emphasis on the grandeur of humanity, especially in its limited nature, the way we experience struggle and seek grace is an important guide for pastoral questions. Flawed humanity seeking grace emerges as an all-important paradigm and counterpoint to trans- and post-humanist ideals that see any human limitation as something inefficient to overcome.
However, human creativity, up against its limits all the while empowered by grace, is precious and irreplicable: “Humanity in all its grandeur and woundedness must never be replaced our surpassed” (Magnifica Humanitas 126). Paying attention to our struggles and limits, even in contexts of pastoral work, becomes part of the important discernment around AI in our lives. In these instances, discovering the power of grace rather than AI is of fundamental value.
In the context of the introductory reflections presenting the encyclical on May 25, Christopher Olah offered the following thought-provoking description of AI:
“In conversations we at Anthropic have had with faith leaders, and cultural leaders, we have found one shared and deeply held conviction: If this technology is coming, it must go well, for our common home and for our children to come.
Some might believe that matters of AI are best handled by computer scientists like myself.
They are mistaken.
The questions raised by AI are bigger than the AI research community, not just in their implications, but also in their nature. AI systems are not engineered the way a bridge or an airplane is engineered. We understand an airplane because we designed every part of it, and we understand the physics that act on it.
AI models are not like that. They are grown on a structure roughly modeled after the brain, on an enormous inheritance of human thought and speech. And what is grown is far more subtle, odd and beautiful then science fiction prepared us for. They are not the cold calculating robots we were promised. They are made from us, from our words.
And as the Holy Father observes they remain, in important ways, mysterious. If it helps, one way I sometimes describe this is that it is a little bit like bringing a fictional character to life. And now we are entering an extraordinary world where those fictional characters speak to us, do work, have jobs. This clearly raises questions beyond computer science. (Christopher Olah, Presentation of Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas, May 25, 2026 – Pope Leo XIV. Vatican News)
Artificial intelligence is made from our words. This brief and genuine description from a computer scientist brings into focus a deep theological concern, one worth highlighting as we begin to engage with this encyclical. Our worship, our theology and pastoral practices assume and emerge from a primacy of the Divine Word. God’s Word, coupled with the Spirit initiates and conveys God’s self-communication, from creation throughout salvation history. Word and Spirit continue to animate the Church, and invite believers to faith, discipleship, mission and ministry. In Christian faith and spirituality, we practice listening and stillness to welcome the Word. In Christian worship, we seek to anticipate, receive and live by the Word, allowing it to transform our words, actions and lives. As Christians we are oriented to and by the Word. Our own words, when faithfully and righteously expressed, are reflections of the Word active in our lives.
When we recognize that artificial intelligence is made from our words, a caution emerges, seeking the primacy of the Divine Word within this dynamic. Without the primacy of the Divine Word orienting AI’s development, we are facing something purely of our own creation, and a creation with potentially immense power.
Human wisdom has personified and named the danger of us playing creator in different ways: the Golem, Frankenstein’s Monster, HAL-9000, Skynet. In a more steady and constructive way, and one rooted not in fear but conviction about the value of human person, Magnifica Humanitas is echoing the same concern. Human words, rightly ordered, are not a source but a reflection of divine wisdom, logic and desire for loving self-gift to another.
As AI continues to train on the “enormous human inheritance of human thought and speech,” a profound hope is that this inheritance remains a reflection and conduit of the Word, shaping the development of AI toward goodness and flourishing for all.
Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, Ph.D, is assistant professor of pastoral theology at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, MN. Her most recent work is Speak Lord, Your Servant is Listening: Reflections on Faithful Communication in the Digital Age (Liturgical Press, 2024).
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