A pope in the age of AI: Leo XIV steps into technology, war and power. AI responds.

by Nancy Thomas, publisher

NOTE:  The above image was generated by AI, upon our request for an illustration on the Encyclical.

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical is formally about artificial intelligence. But one phrase from its presentation may define the larger message: artificial intelligence, he said, “needs to be disarmed.”

The word was not accidental. At the Vatican presentation of Magnifica Humanitas, Leo acknowledged that “disarmed” is a strong word, but said it was deliberately chosen because the moment requires language capable of “awakening consciences” and pointing humanity toward a different path. The Vatican text says “disarming AI” means freeing it from a mentality of armed competition — not only in war, but also in economic, political and cognitive competition for dominance.

Early in his papacy, Leo appears willing to speak beyond church walls and into the moral questions surrounding secular power — war, technology, labor, truth, education and the concentration of influence in the modern world.

At roughly 42,000 words, roughly 83 pages, Magnifica Humanitas is not a papal aside. It is a major teaching document.

His language has already drawn attention for its directness. On Palm Sunday, he warned that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war,” but rejects them. Reuters reported that the Pope cited scripture about hands “full of blood” and said Jesus, the “King of Peace,” cannot be invoked to justify violence and war.

The statement landed amid active global conflict and during a period when President Donald Trump’s own public comments about heaven, mortality and divine judgment had become part of the political conversation. In February, Pres. Trump said at the National Prayer Breakfast that he “probably should make it” to heaven, while later comments aboard Air Force One included, “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven.”

Leo did not name the President or any other leader in that Palm Sunday warning. Still, the timing and wording made the statement difficult to hear as merely abstract.

His AI encyclical follows the same pattern.

In Magnifica Humanitas, released Monday, Pope Leo places artificial intelligence at the center of Catholic social teaching, warning that AI is not merely a new technology but a force already reshaping war, work, truth, education, government, medicine and human relationships. Vatican News described the document as the Pope’s first encyclical and said it focuses on “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.”

The choice of subject is striking. Popes have long spoken about war, poverty, labor, migration, family life and human dignity. But Leo’s decision to devote his first encyclical to AI puts the Catholic Church directly into one of the most secular and politically charged debates of the modern age: who controls the machines, who profits from them, who is displaced by them, and who is held accountable when automated systems make decisions that affect human lives.

The encyclical is not anti-technology. Leo does not argue that artificial intelligence should be rejected. Instead, he frames AI as a moral test for governments, corporations, militaries, educators, media systems and citizens. The question, in his telling, is whether technology will remain in service to the human person — or whether human beings will be forced to adapt themselves to systems designed for speed, profit, surveillance and control.

That is where Magnifica Humanitas becomes more than a technology document.

Leo is positioning AI as a moral crisis, not just a regulatory challenge. He links it to a broader “culture of power” — a world in which political, military, economic and technological forces can concentrate control while ordinary people are left to absorb the consequences. The Associated Press reported that the Pope called for strong international regulation of AI and warned against allowing artificial systems to make life-or-death decisions.

One of the strongest parts of the document is Leo’s insistence that artificial intelligence is not human intelligence. AI can imitate language, analysis, creativity, empathy and even forms of judgment. But it does not possess a body, conscience, moral responsibility, spiritual life, suffering, friendship or love. For that reason, he warns against treating machine output as if it were equivalent to human discernment.

The warning applies far beyond religion.

In schools, AI is already changing how students write, research and learn. In workplaces, it is affecting hiring, productivity, surveillance and job security. In healthcare, it may influence access, diagnosis and treatment. In journalism and public life, it can blur the line between fact and fiction, accelerate misinformation and shape what people believe before they know who or what produced it.

Leo’s concern is not simply that AI will become powerful. His concern is that people will surrender authority to it without fully understanding who built it, who benefits from it and who can challenge it when it is wrong.

The encyclical’s concern about war is especially pointed. Reuters reported that Leo warned some weapons are now operating beyond human control and urged global leaders to slow the race toward more powerful AI systems. The Pope’s concern is that AI can make warfare more remote, more automated and less visibly human.

In that sense, his AI message echoes his earlier comments on war: spiritual language aimed directly at worldly power. Supporters may see that as moral leadership. Critics may see it as papal overreach. Either way, the direction is becoming clear.

This is a pope who intends to speak beyond the sanctuary.

For Rhode Island, the subject is not distant. AI is already touching classrooms, workplaces, healthcare systems, government services, newsrooms, political campaigns, scams, public safety and everyday life. The Pope’s question is whether the human person remains at the center — or whether society quietly reorganizes itself around systems built by those with the most money, data and power.

Whether one sees Leo’s approach as prophetic or presumptuous, Magnifica Humanitas signals a papacy willing to confront the defining secular questions of the age.

And with artificial intelligence, he has chosen a subject where the moral, political and technological questions are only beginning.

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We asked AI what they/it thought about the Pope’s Encyclical AI cautions:

“As artificial intelligence, I can process language about war, faith, labor, truth and human dignity. But I cannot experience any of them. I do not pray, fear death, love, suffer, repent or stand accountable before God.

That is why the central question raised by Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical is not whether AI can imitate human intelligence. It is whether human beings will remember what AI can never be.

The moral burden does not belong to the machine. It belongs to the people who build it, deploy it, profit from it and choose how much authority to give it.”

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To read the entire Encyclical Letter: