In May 2026, Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, the first papal encyclical devoted to AI. Pope Leo XIV chose his regnal name in deliberate continuity with Pope Leo XIII, whose 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum founded modern Catholic social teaching in response to the Industrial Revolution; the new encyclical situates AI within that same tradition of social doctrine alongside Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti.
The encyclical argues that AI is not morally neutral — that it must be examined in light of how it is designed as well as how it is used, and that it requires regulation through transnational, diplomatic dialogue of the kind the international community has developed for nuclear, biological, and other dangerous technologies.
The point about design is well taken, though one could observe that it applies to other technologies as well: the ethical use of stem cells depends on how the stem cells were generated; the ethical use of genetic engineering depends on the aims and goals of the project.
Particularly significant for Orthodox engagement is the encyclical’s linking of AI to transhumanism—the desire to be “more than human” through technological self-perfection. Whether the contemporary drive for AI is in fact closely connected to transhumanism is debatable, but Pope Leo’s theological response is striking and worth marking: being “more than human” for Christians is not a technological project but a vocation of grace and Christian humanism, a call to be drawn beyond ourselves into the fullest possible personhood.
This is the same theological intuition the Orthodox tradition expresses through theosis. The encyclical should not be read as the last word on these questions but as a substantial contribution to a continuing dialogue that the Church — both Orthodox and Catholic — is only beginning.
Gayle E. Woloschak, PhD, FASTRO is a professor at Northwestern University at Departments of Radiation Oncology and Radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center.
