Pope Leo XIV, Peter Thiel, and the Future of Humanity: The New Pope’s First Encyclical and Its Political Significance

Martina Bär is professor of fundamental theology at the University of Graz (Austria).

This post is a part of our series on Magnifica Humanitas.

“The Pope is working for the Chinese Communists.” With this provocative statement, US tech billionaire Peter Thiel made international headlines just weeks after Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical. According to Thiel, the West risks losing the race for artificial intelligence (AI) to China—not least because moral authorities such as the Vatican are slowing technological progress. While authoritarian states continue to develop AI without restraint, democratic societies, he argues, place unnecessary constraints on themselves by worrying about ethics. Behind this criticism lies a worldview that regards technological superiority as the decisive factor in global geopolitical power.

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Religious Freedom, Equality, and Non-Discrimination in Employment Cases: Interview with Cole Durham

W. Cole Durham, Jr. is Emeritus Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, where he held the Susa Young Gates University Professorship and Founding Director of the Law School’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies. He was interviewed by Dmytro Vovk.

Before the interview, we asked you to think about a case of a line of cases you have modified your views about. What have you chosen?

My plan is to talk mainly about Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012) and the follow-up case, Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020). These are both cases that deal with the religious autonomy doctrine, and I think they represent a concerning trend.

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Magnifica Humanitas: Human Dignity, Technology, and the International Order

Pope Leo XIV signing the Magnifica Humanitas Encyclical / Vatican News

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.

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