06/01/2026
Pope Leo XIV published his landmark encyclical on artificial intelligence “Magnifica Humanitas” on May 25, comparing the attempt to build an AI future that excludes God to the “Tower of Babel.”
Fr. Tom Reese, SJ, a member of Jesuits West and senior analyst for RNS, said that Pope Leo “hit it out of the ballpark” with his first encyclical by addressing not only “artificial intelligence but more widely with digital technology and its impact on the real world we live in.”
Léocadie Lushombo, a professor of theological ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, was part of the panel at the Vatican on May 25 for the encyclical’s release.
Lushombo said that it offers warnings about the effects of AI on humanity, especially in the Global South. She noted the encyclicals’ concerns regarding the physical and environmental toll of AI infrastructure, as child labor is often used in the extraction of rare earth elements in the developing world.
She also highlighted the pope’s criticism of “a technological development that represses human dignity and widens the gap between the rich and the poor, as AI is doing, following the patterns of economic globalization.”
“Technology should serve human flourishing and human dignity, not as a form of control over consciences,” she said.
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