Pope Releases Landmark Encyclical on AI and Human Dignity

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” will be published May 25, addressing artificial intelligence and the protection of human dignity, the Vatican has announced.

The encyclical, the title of which is Latin for “Magnificent Humanity,” was signed by the pope on May 15, the 135th anniversary of “Rerum Novarum,” Pope Leo XIII’s foundational 1891 social encyclical on labor and capital written during the first Industrial Revolution.

In an unprecedented first, Pope Leo XIV will be present in person at the Vatican press conference to mark the publication of the social encyclical, along with a tech founder from one of the world’s fastest growing AI companies.

The timing of the release underscores its historical and theological significance. Pope Leo XIII issued “Rerum Novarum” on May 15, 1891, just days before Pentecost that year, inaugurating what would become a sustained body of Catholic teaching on social and economic life. A century later, St. John Paul II commemorated the milestone with his 1991 encyclical “Centesimus Annus,” also published near Pentecost.

Celebrating Mass in St. Peter's Square with an estimated 100,000 people, including workers and labor representatives from 15 countries, Pope John Paul said Pope Leo XIII was inspired by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Gospel in the language of his day and declare the evil of "social sin."

Just as the Holy Spirit at Pentecost enabled the disciples to address the crowd in a way each would understand, the Holy Spirit helped Pope Leo XIII communicate the truth of the Gospel to his contemporaries with the encyclical "Rerum Novarum" on capital and labor, he said.

Filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the apostles "spoke and speak with the always new language of human experience of the problems and human needs appropriate to individuals, communities, nations and the entire human family," the pope said.

The language Pope Leo XIII used "marked the beginning of a new teaching of the Church," which has been built on by succeeding popes, individual bishops and groups of bishops, he said.

"This specific teaching, which is called social doctrine, expresses and fulfills an aspect of the mission which the Apostles received from Jesus Christ," Pope John Paul said.

The release of “Magnifica Humanitas” appears poised to extend that tradition into the digital age. Vatican officials have increasingly signaled concern about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, including its impact on human dignity, labor, communication and social cohesion.

Pope Leo XIV agreed to the creation of an inter-dicasterial commission on Artificial Intelligence during an audience with Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, at the Vatican May 3, 2026.