Brigidines welcome Pope Leo’s first Encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.
The encyclical, published on 25 May 2026, calls on humanity:
– to resist the power-driven use of modern technology that may exploit the most vulnerable, create new forms of slavery and seek to profit from conflict.
– to recognise and use technology as a helpful tool – to invest in education, communicate other-centred wisdom, cultivate relationships, promote truth, peace and justice.
It offers the world a warning, a challenge and Hope.
It calls for a reflective read.
” …this should not be read as an encyclical about artificial intelligence,
but as an encyclical in the time of artificial intelligence.”
– Dr Claudio Betti
Consider:
Dr Claudio Betti, in Jesuit magazine, Eureka Street, offers reflection on the encyclical: Pope says AI must serve humanity, not power
CAFOD UK offers Q and A about the encyclical: What is Magnifica Humanitas
Magnifica Humanitas – the full text: Here
The document contains references and quotes from theological writings, previous encyclicals and Vatican letters. Pope Leo also chose to quote “Gandalf, Tolkien’s wizard sage,” highlighting humanity’s role and challenging all to do our part:
“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.”
— The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter IX
