An algorithm decides your feed. Another filters your news. Still others dictate how we work. Pope Leo XIV dropped his first encyclical on May 25. Magnifica Humanitas treats artificial intelligence not as a gadget, but as the invisible plumbing of our lives.
This isn’t just tech talk. Leo XIV anchors this in the Catholic Church’s social doctrine. He explicitly revives Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 document marking its 135th year. Back then, the “new things” were factories and industrial capitalism. Now? It’s data centers and algorithms.
The scale has shifted. “Never has humanity had so many levers over itself,” the Pope writes.
The central question is stark: what happens to human dignity when an algorithm decides?
Disarming the Machine
Key phrase: disarming technology.
Don’t get it twisted. Leo XIV (formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost) isn’t calling for a rollback. He wants to stop AI from becoming a dominator.
Right now, the world is racing for the highest-performing algorithm and the largest data center. A handful of players hoard the compute power. This affects democracy. It affects economics.
“As happens with every major turning point, AI concentrates power in the hands of those with capital.”
Regulation isn’t enough. We need to break the link between technical might and the right to rule. AI must be taken from monopolies. It must be made open. It needs to be habitable by everyone, not just a tool for the few to control the many.
Who Controls the Truth?
Algorithms filter reality.
It’s not just about “fake news.” It’s about which truths get surface-level attention. Platforms optimize for engagement. Reactions. Outrage. Not accuracy.
Truth doesn’t vanish. It gets buried under opaque systems that shape opinion without showing their cards.
We have to train people to spot these mechanisms. Public judgment cannot belong to servers owned by corporations or governments.
The Death of Dignity at Work
Work is breaking.
AI doesn’t just automate. It redefines autonomy. Leo XIV warns of a potential social calamity. If innovation is only about cutting costs and boosting profits, humans get sidelined.
It’s not just job loss. It’s the kind of work. Surveillance. Fragmented tasks. Rigidity. The human element drains out, leaving only measurable, controllable units.
Remember Rerum Novarum? That was about the Industrial Revolution crushing people. Magnifica Humanitas sees the Digital Revolution doing the same.
Work should be a space for dignity. For participation. If AI turns a worker into a replaceable function, it’s a moral failure, not a technical success.
War Without Blood
Here’s where it gets cold.
Leo XIV attacks the old concept of a “just war ”. Not because self-defense is bad. But because war has changed.
Automated systems handle information. They shape strategy. They define the enemy.
The decisions move further away from the human body. Responsibility fades into code. Algorithms don’t feel. They calculate. And now they pull the strings of conflict while we stand back, safe and detached.
