The confrontation with the Encyclical is of civilisational significance

The digital revolution is having profound effects on our civilisation, changing the way we live, work, interact, and organise power and governance. The beginning of a new era is already well under way, marked by artificial intelligence and connectivity. This brings opportunities for empowerment and troubling ethical challenges.
    Leo XIV addresses these questions squarely in “Magnificent Humanity,” the Encyclical the Vatican promulgated on 25 May. In the face of all these technological advances, what has become of human dignity? Artificial intelligence is already intervening in people’s lives and affecting their rights, opportunities, reputations, development, and freedom. Sensitive decisions concerning employment, access to services, credit, and personal reputation risk falling into the “hands,” as we are invited to think of this, of fully automated systems.
    What is more, the Pope’s and humanity’s greatest fear is the use of AI in war and violence. All these challenges are reflected in Leo XIV’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” in its original title, which bears the subtitle “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
    The text was presented in the New Synod Hall. The Pope intended to lend the event greater weight and attended the presentation in person, flanked by three cardinals, two theologians (one English and one Congolese) and Christopher Olah, the atheist co-founder of the AI company Anthropic. While “Magnifica Humanitas” was published on 25 May, it is dated 15 May – the same day on which Leo XIII published the Encyclical “Rerum Novarum” in 1891.
    A hundred and thirty-five years ago, Pope Gioacchino Pecci dedicated his social Encyclical to the industrial revolution of his time. Leo XIV placed the digital revolution of our time at the centre of the Church’s reflection, paying particular attention to artificial intelligence. It should be recalled that, two days after the conclave had elected him to succeed Pope Francis, on 8 May 2025, he declared in his first address to 249 assembled cardinals that the choice of his papal name was a tribute to Leo XIII. It was his intention to continue the legacy of Leo XIII and to defend human dignity.
    Just as Leo XIII confronted the social, moral, and labour problems of the nineteenth century, humanity today faces the digital revolution and, AI in particular. Was Catholicism endangered in 1891? Did the new industrial bourgeoisie not stand firmly behind the Catholic Church? We should remember that there was a third factor: Socialism. Thus, “Rerum Novarum” was fundamentally an anti-modern response to both predatory capitalism and a socialism that had gained support, especially among the working class.
    Is the Catholic faith currently threatened by the digital revolution? In principle, yes. According to the Pope, AI has neither faith, nor soul, nor compassion. AI is not neutral: It serves the interests of insatiable and ambitious technology entrepreneurs. We are speaking of the select group of Silicon Valley magnates and their dreadfully powerful corporations, including Apple, Google, Meta,
Facebook, Nvidia, and Netflix. Some of the technology tycoons who own and operate these companies strongly support Donald Trump, such as the billionaires Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.
    The latter, founder of Palantir, recently labelled Leo XIV during a lecture series in Rome as a “heretic and Antichrist,” claiming that the Pope’s condemnations would hinder the full development of new technologies. In his Encyclical, Leo openly criticises the postulations and technological models promoted by oligarchs such as Thiel. He advocates the “disarmament of AI” and argues that the technological tycoons advancing it must neither dominate human beings nor undermine their dignity. Peter Thiel, incidentally, is a mentor to Vice-President J. D. Vance.
    Another critical factor is the support that Trump and technology companies receive from politically influential fundamentalist Christians. It is evident that some of these religious radical evangelicals support Trump in his war against Iran. Here we refer to Zionist Christians in the United States. It should also be remembered that Pope Leo XIV knows what he is talking about: He has a background in the sciences: Before entering religious life, Robert Francis Prevost earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Villanova University in 1977.
    In the opening words of the Encyclical, the Pope invokes biblical imagery that runs throughout the entire text, revealing his methodological intention in the spirit of Saint Augustine. He begins with the words: “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.” Unregulated AI, he argues, would become the new Babel.
    The text also recalls the proximity to duality theory, developed in the 1980s by sociologists Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu, which recognises the interaction – as against the opposition – of social structures and individual will. The Pope strongly opposes the instrumentalization of religion to justify war and violence. In warfare, the issue is not only the efficiency of new weapons but also the danger that technology, detached from ethics, will make decisions about life and death even more destructive.
    The Church has addressed the significance of technology as the “sanctuary” of contemporary civilisation. The Pope and the Catholic Church are themselves at risk, as they are exposed to negative campaigns on social media, the dissemination of hostile narratives, and reputational attacks. •

Source: https://www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2026/06/03/opinion/la-confrontacion-de-la-enciclica-de-leon-xiv-es-civilizatoria of 3.6.2026
(Translation Current Concerns)