Pope Leo XIV warns of 'eclipse of humanity' in AI encyclical
The Pope breaks Vatican tradition by attending his own encyclical launch, as he condemns delegating life-and-death decisions to machines and signals the Church's stance against AI weaponization.
May 25th 2026 · Vatican City
Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas," on May 25, 2026, marking a historic moment as the first pope to attend the presentation of his own encyclical in person. The document, signed on May 15 to coincide with the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's groundbreaking Rerum novarum, addresses the ethical and social challenges posed by artificial intelligence. The encyclical dedicates itself to "the custody of the human person in the time of artificial intelligence," positioning itself as the Catholic Church's response to what the Pope has called "the great anthropological debate of the 21st century." The Pope's presence at the presentation, unprecedented in Vatican history, drew a notable audience including Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, which is currently engaged in a legal battle with the U.S. military after refusing to allow its AI technology to be used for lethal autonomous warfare or mass surveillance. This attendance underscores the encyclical's firm stance against military applications of AI, with Pope Leo XIV previously condemning the "delegating decisions concerning the life and death of human beings to machines" as a "destructive spiral." The Pope, who holds a mathematics degree and has spoken about AI threats more than a dozen times since his election in 2025, has warned that humanity is experiencing "an eclipse of the meaning of what it means to be human" and that the challenge posed by AI is fundamentally anthropological rather than technological. The encyclical is expected to rival the influence of Pope Francis' 2015 climate document "Laudato Si," with experts suggesting it serves as a wake-up call for civilization. The document builds on years of Vatican deliberation on AI ethics, including the 2020 Rome Appeal for an AI Ethic, which called for new technologies to respect human dignity. According to UN estimates, AI could be worth up to $4.8 trillion by 2033, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that "the window is closing to shape AI" for peaceful and just purposes.