In May 2025, Pope Leo XIV presented his first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas. In a lengthy, thoughtfully constructed, insightful document, the Pope addresses a broad range of questions from the nature of human personality to artificial intelligence to peaceful international order. It emphasizes the role of human dignity as an ultimate ethical principle for navigating the challenges and leveraging the opportunities that our rapidly changing world holds for humanity. It warns against both unlimited belief in technological progress and Luddism-style rejection of it. This blog series has united theologians, constitutional theorists, political scholars, software business managers, and human rights lawyers to reflect on this powerful document and on the ethical approaches and solutions it advocates to make our use of technology safer and more dignified, and the world more just, equal, and peaceful.
Posts in the series:
Ingeborg G. Gabriel. Magnifica Humanitas: An Ethics for AI and a Substantive New Pillar of Catholic Social Doctrine
Greg Marcar. Magnifica Humanitas: Rejecting Babel and Building Peace
Montserrat Gas-Aixendri. From Dignitatis Humanae to Magnifica Humanitas: Disarming AI to Protect Freedom of Conscience
Luca Pietro Vanoni and Benedetta Vimercati. What Do You Say AI Am?: The Anthropological Revolution of Magnifica Humanitas
Yuryi Tykhovlis. Magnifica Humanitas and the Organic Evolution of Catholic Social Teaching on Online Exploitation
Erik Longo. Building Babel or Rebuilding Jerusalem: Magnifica Humanitas on AI, Power, and the Measure of Civilization
Yulia Razmetaeva. The Holy See Noticed What Many Prefer to Be Blind to: Magnificent Humanity vs. Artificial Intelligence
Viktor Poletko. Disarming AI: Human Rights on Shifting Ground