Babel or Jerusalem?

Pope Leo XIV's call for a moral AI

photo: Debra Manny Mosley

On May 15, 1891, Pope Leo XIII signed his encyclical Rerum Novarum, or “Of New Things.” It was a response to the rapid rise of urbanization, factory labor, and the plight of workers during the Second Industrial Revolution.

One month ago, on the 135th anniversary of its publication, Pope Leo XIV, who chose his name in honor of Leo XIII, signed his first encyclical. Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence was released to the public ten days later, on May 25, 2026. The 5-chapter, 245-paragraph letter aims to equip the global community with a moral framework and vocabulary of ethics for our rapidly changing, techno-centric world.

While formal papal letters, or epistles, are nearly as old as the Church itself (the first was written in 96 AD to the church at Corinth by Pope Clement I), they have evolved in scope, and with them, the role of the papacy itself. Formal communications from the Pope historically focused on doctrinal issues or matters within the Church. Encyclicals emerged as a distinct papal communication in the mid-18th century with the 1740 publication of Ubi Primum by Pope Benedict, addressing the role and responsibilities of the bishops of the Church.

The 1891 publication of Rerum Novarum was the first to extend beyond cloistered walls to address pressing issues in world affairs, ushering in a new genre of “social encyclicals” with a broader mission. In 1963, Pope John XXIII’s publication of Pacem In Terris, explicitly addressed “to all men of goodwill,” was the first by a pope to a global, non-Catholic audience. It was his response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, rising concerns about human rights, and the need for nuclear disarmament. Subsequent social encyclicals have addressed issues from the Cold War to the global debt crisis, COVID, and the environment. Each has been published in response to the defining issue of the time, with far-reaching, generational implications for the world.

In taking on artificial intelligence, Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical urgently calls for a shared ethics to address the consequences, intended or unintended, of the rapid ascendancy of the technology and its increasing reach into every aspect of human life.

Magnifica Humanitas opens with a vivid contrast between two widely-referenced images: the Tower of Babel and the ideal City of Jerusalem, both the literal and metaphorical representation of a society built upon the ideals of human dignity and cooperation. Leo XIV returns to this dichotomy repeatedly throughout his encyclical, inviting the world to consider and consciously choose which to build with this new technological capacity.

As with previous social encyclicals, Magnifica Humanitas centers human dignity at the core of its moral argument. “The fundamental dignity of each person... is neither acquired nor earned, nor does it need to be justified.” In a world increasingly defined almost exclusively by the productivity of human work, Leo XIV reminds us that dignity is intrinsic to the human being, not conditioned on an arbitrary measure of output.

Magnifica Humanitas raises concerns about power and control as technology reaches increasingly deeper into private lives, with the power to shape practices before public policy has a chance to respond. He calls for AI to be “disarmed:” stripped of the assumption that “technical power automatically confers the right to govern.” Disarming, he writes, “does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity.”

Leo XIV brings renewed focus to AI’s implications for human work. “The ‘new ways’ of working are not necessarily better... while AI promises to boost productivity by taking over mundane tasks, it frequently forces workers to adapt to the speed and demands of machines, rather than machines being designed to support those who work.” (MH 150) On AI in warfare, he doesn’t equivocate: “No algorithm can make war morally acceptable.” (MH 198) AI risks making the inhumanity of armed conflict easier and more impersonal by lowering the threshold for the possibility of using force to resolve conflict.

But perhaps most striking is Leo XIV’s juxtaposition between the transhumanist vision emerging from Silicon Valley and his celebration of the humanness of humanity itself. Where tech leaders hail AI as the remover of all barriers and limitations to being human - limits to human memory, cognition, even mortality itself; Leo XIV deliberately celebrates those limitations. ”Humanity flourishes not despite limitations, but often through them.” (MH 118) As head of a 2000-year-old institution that has, throughout most of its complex history, waged ideological war on the human condition, this positioning evolves the more humanistic stance of the modern Church into a full embrace of the frailty and fallibility of the human condition, while calling for its ongoing transformation.

Papal encyclicals have influenced public policy, extending far beyond traditional ecclesiastical spheres. They have been read and frequently cited by political leaders and policymakers, as well as religious leaders from other traditions. Rerum Novarum shaped labor law in countries with almost no Catholic population. Laudato Si’ was cited at UN climate negotiations by people who had never set foot in a church. Anthropic’s own co-founder, Dario Amodei, responded to Magnifica Humanitas by reaffirming the need for a slower pace of development of the technology to ensure it is done ethically.

Leo XIV reminds us that the ultimate power to decide how this era will be defined rests in human hands. ”Technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it.” It is not “a force antagonistic to humanity,” nor is it “inherently evil.” (MH 4, 9) But it is also not neutral or innocent. It carries the imprint of the values of whoever built it, and whoever uses it.

Whether one is Catholic or not, religious or not, Magnifica Humanitas is a treatise that calls every one of us to participate actively, fully, and consciously in determining how this new technology will define this era and the ongoing evolution of our species by insisting on the democratization of public policy and an ethics-based set of guardrails to its development.

Will we build a Tower of Babel or the New Jerusalem? The choice is ultimately in our human hands.

- S

Sources

Magnifica Humanitas (Vatican.va)
Pope Leo’s ‘Magnifica humanitas’: AI must serve humanity not concentrate power - Vatican News
‘Magnifica Humanitas’: Pope Leo Invokes Justice to Combat ‘Anti-Human Vision’ in AI - NC Register/CNA
What’s in a name? Why the pope picked ‘Leo XIV’ - America Magazine
Pope Leo XIV explains his choice of name - Vatican News (X)
Ubi Primum - Papal Encyclicals
First Epistle of Clement - Wikipedia
Pope St. Clement I - Letter to the Corinthians - Catholic Culture
Here is a list of all the social encyclicals of the Catholic Church - Aleteia
Pacem in terris - Wikipedia