On Monday (May 25), Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas (Magnificent humanity), which provides moral guidance to bishops, clergy and the faithful on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence (AI).
The encyclical was officially signed on May 15, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII鈥檚 encyclical responding to the industrial revolution, Rerum novarum.
Below, University of Notre Dame faculty experts from the College of Arts and Letters, College of Engineering, Keough 91视频 of Global Affairs and Law 91视频 offer their insights into the document.
Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C.
Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., serves as vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of theology and global affairs. In addition to his role at Notre Dame, Father Groody is a member of the Vatican鈥檚 Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and plays a key role in Notre Dame鈥檚 partnership with the Vatican鈥檚 Laudato Si鈥 Center on issues of integral ecology and global sustainability. His research focuses primarily on migration, theology, refugees and human displacement.
鈥淧ope Leo鈥檚 Magnifica humanitas calls us to continually discern what it means to be human before God in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence,鈥 Father Groody said. 鈥淲hile this new digital age offers unprecedented possibilities for development, it simultaneously demands that we rediscover the true contours of our humanity. This authentic identity 鈥 rooted in an interior life, a moral conscience, human connections and a transcendent relationship to divine love 鈥 can never be quantified, modeled or replicated by machine learning. Against the technocratic impulse to reduce the human person to a mere data point, the encyclical boldly reasserts that we cannot be measured solely by technological acceleration but by holistic human development, human dignity and our commitment to the common good.
鈥淎longside new innovations, artificial intelligence reveals ancient temptations of radical self-sufficiency and idolatry. Warning against the modern temptation to construct a digital Tower of Babel in the pursuit of technological mastery, Pope Leo calls us instead to channel our energies into building the Kingdom of God and animating a 鈥楥ivilization of Love.鈥 This sacred task requires an unwavering willingness to denounce the false forms of power that isolate us in algorithmic silos and blind us to our neighbors. In their place, Magnifica humanitas proposes a vision of life firmly anchored in justice, ultimately steering humanity toward the right ordering of our relationships with one another, with technology and with the Creator.鈥
Paolo Carozza
Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor Paolo Carozza is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and also the chair of the Meta Oversight Board. Both his research and policy work are focused on the intersection of Catholic social thought and technology, especially social media and AI.
鈥淚 am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document,鈥 Carozza said. 鈥淚t is not just for Catholics, but speaks to the concerns of all of humanity.
鈥淲e are living in a time of daily dramatic transformations in every aspect of our lives because of AI, where the very understanding of what it means to be human is being called into question. This is coupled with a real vacuum of moral leadership on the global stage. In that context, Pope Leo is offering a clear, comprehensive and coherent voice urging us to take responsibility for constructing a world in which technology will serve humans rather than degrade them.
鈥淔rom here on, I don鈥檛 think anyone will be able to speak meaningfully about the future of humanity in the age of AI without coming to terms with this document and taking it seriously. While it is very direct about the many dangers already arising out of algorithmic technologies, it is decidedly not an anti-technology document. The real question is not whether AI is good or bad, but whether the ways we develop and deploy the technology help individuals and communities become more humane, just and participatory, or whether instead they foster exclusion, control and inequality.
鈥淭he overarching core message is that if we are to preserve our humanity, we must not allow people to be reduced to mere data and commodities to be instrumentalized and exploited. It is a very hopeful document, not a doomsaying one. Pope Leo insists that moral progress here is possible, and the negative consequences of AI technologies are far from inevitable.鈥
Meghan Sullivan
Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. She leads a national research and public engagement initiative on AI and human dignity and meets regularly with tech leaders and AI developers in Silicon Valley. In March, Sullivan attended an Anthropic summit to discuss how to guide the moral development of the corporation鈥檚 chatbot, Claude.
鈥Magnifica humanitas is one of the most compelling and comprehensive treatments of AI ethics I have ever read 鈥 and I say that as someone who has spent the past few years immersed in this literature from both philosophical and policy perspectives,鈥 Sullivan said. 鈥淧ope Leo XIV grounds AI ethics in the Church鈥檚 long-standing social doctrine, which has consistently offered a profound vision of human dignity.
鈥淐hristian tradition has never grounded human dignity in cognitive performance or economic productivity. It has never said: You matter because of what you can do. It says: You matter because of who you are. Someone with a body, mind and soul. Someone built for love. Someone with a mind oriented toward truth, accountable for our choices. We鈥檙e vulnerable in a way that these AI models are not. And Pope Leo argues that this special belovedness 鈥 made in God鈥檚 own image 鈥 makes us magnificent.
鈥淲hat strikes me most is how practical this document is. It gives concrete guidance to corporate leaders, to policymakers, to educators, to everyday people navigating this technology. For those of us at Notre Dame, the pope鈥檚 charge to educational institutions is especially urgent. He argues that schools must resist the pressure to simply accelerate alongside the digital world and instead become irreplaceable centers of human formation 鈥 places where knowledge is integrated, where real relationships are built, where students discover the meaning of human dignity.
鈥淭his is exactly the work that Notre Dame鈥檚 DELTA network exists to do. With a generous $50.8 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., we are going to put this teaching on human dignity and AI into action 鈥 across K-12 schools, universities, churches and the public square. Today鈥檚 encyclical gives us both the theological framework and the moral insight we need. Notre Dame is ready to help the Church and the world answer Pope Leo鈥檚 call.鈥
Nitesh Chawla
Nitesh Chawla, an expert in artificial intelligence, data science and network science, is the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and the Lucy Family Director for Data & AI Academic Strategy, leading the Notre Dame Data, AI and Computing Initiative. He uses advancements in AI, data science and network science to pursue common good through interdisciplinary research by collaborating with community and national partners.
鈥Magnifica humanitas makes clear that AI cannot be treated as morally neutral,鈥 Chawla said. 鈥淏ecause these systems embody choices about what they measure, ignore and optimize and how they classify people and situations, they must be transparent, accountable and subject to meaningful evaluation.
鈥淭hat is the work of Responsible, Inclusive, Safe and Empowering AI 鈥 RISE AI 鈥 at Notre Dame. Anchored in the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society, RISE AI asks four practical questions: Who answers for an AI system across its lifecycle? Who is represented and served? Who is protected from harm? Who gains or loses agency? AI governance claims are only as good as the evidence chain that connects them to what the system does. RISE AI builds that chain. That chain runs through audit logs, red-teaming, subgroup performance, accessibility, redress and user-agency measures that show what a system actually does and where its limits are.
鈥淭he encyclical鈥檚 most important insistence is that moral and technical questions cannot be separated; they meet in how systems are evaluated, audited, deployed, made contestable and governed. As paragraph 109 puts it, social justice must 鈥榮hape the very design鈥 of these systems from the outset, not be retrofitted after deployment. That means building AI that is not only powerful but legible, accountable and directed toward integral human development and the common good 鈥 making responsibility measurable, inclusion visible, safety testable and empowerment real.
鈥淎蝉 Magnifica humanitas insists, responsibility must be 鈥榗learly defined at every stage.鈥欌
Kathleen Sprows Cummings
Kathleen Sprows Cummings is a professor of American studies and history and director of the Global Catholic Research Initiative. A papal analyst for NBC/MSNBC, she offered expert commentary during the 2014 canonization of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII, Pope Francis鈥 U.S. visit in 2015, Pope Francis鈥 funeral in 2025 and the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.
鈥溾楢ge gives way to age,鈥 wrote Pope Leo XIII in Rerum novarum, 鈥榖ut the events of one century are wonderfully like those of another, for they are directed by the Providence of God.鈥 In Magnifica humanitas, an encyclical dated exactly 135 years after Rerum novarum, Pope Leo XIV also invokes God鈥檚 invisible work in history,鈥 Cummings said. 鈥淎nd, like his namesake, he considers the central challenge of the age 鈥 in this case, the advent of artificial intelligence 鈥 in light of the Church鈥檚 timeless principles.
鈥淢ore humble in tone than Rerum novarum, Magnifica humanitas is a far more capacious document that operates on several levels at once: an explanation of Catholic social teaching as it has developed since Rerum novarum; an affirmation of the intrinsic, God-given value of each person, which is not tied to what they achieve or produce; a rumination on the wonder and limitations of being human; a meditation on history, including an unflinching acknowledgement of the Church鈥檚 complicity in its darker moments; and an invitation to individuals and institutions to think creatively and collaboratively about how to 鈥榙isarm鈥 new technologies and harness them for good.
鈥淚n his powerful conclusion, Pope Leo entrusts this endeavor to Mary, quoting from the Magnificat, her revolutionary 鈥榮ong of hope鈥 which glorifies the God who delivers the humble and oppressed, dislodges the privileged from their positions of power, and continues to make all things new in this and in every age. In that sense, Magnifica humanitas ultimately offers consolation to a world in desperate need of it.鈥
Arun Agrawal
Arun Agrawal, the Pulte Family Professor of Development Policy and director of the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative, studies environmental politics, sustainable development and transformative change. He has spent time with Catholic leaders discussing ways to care for our common home globally and across all disciplines and can address how AI technology is impacting the environment.
鈥淭he words 鈥榗ommon good鈥 appear in Pope Leo鈥檚 encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, more often than the words 鈥榓rtificial intelligence鈥 or 鈥楢I,鈥 more often than 鈥榗hurch,鈥 and more often than 鈥榬eligion,鈥欌 Agrawal said. 鈥淚n its mention of the common good, the encyclical resonates with Pope Francis鈥 call for care for our common home. This continuity and this focus on the common 鈥 on the community of which we are all a part 鈥 is a characteristic feature of what it means to be human, to be part of the interconnectedness of all creation.
鈥淔undamentally, the encyclical is a call to heed and act for the common good. It is a call to move away from the kind of politics that advances only the fortune and interests of a select few. Increasingly, our politics pushes to the side the grandeur of humanity and promotes markets that profit the elite instead of supporting the common good.
鈥淚t prophetically recognizes that the 鈥榠nvisible hand鈥 of the market is in fact about the visible hand of politics that helps the marriage of finance and technology. It instead asks for our politics that would direct technology and finance and artificial intelligence to support the common good so as to achieve the grandeur of humanity. It is only by attending to this call that we have any hope of maintaining the dignity of the whole person.鈥
Additional Notre Dame experts on the AI encyclical and a statement from University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., are available.
Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu