by Giorgio Bernardelli

Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical letter, presented today at the Vatican, represents a comprehensive reflection on the "new paradigm" that technological transformations are bringing to today's world. For the pontiff, it is not enough to dictate a few rules; instead, he urges us to question the "new monopolies" that are oppressing people and cultures around data. Truth, work, and the defence of freedom are crucial challenges. For Christians, only in Jesus is humanity greater than our limitations.

Milan (AsiaNews) – Right after his election, Pope Leo XIV said he chose his name after Leo XIII because of today’s Rerum novarum, “new things” that the Church and society must reckon with, namely the transformations that artificial intelligence (AI) is introducing into our lives and into relationships between individuals and peoples.

A year later, Leo offers his overall perspective on the matter with his first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas, which was released today: some 105 pages of reflections focused not on technical issues, nor even a vague reminder of the need to establish rules in the face of the overwhelming power of algorithms.

As the document's subtitle explains, much more is at stake today, namely the challenge to "remain human” and safeguard that fundamental principle of the dignity of every person, which the astonishing power of the new data science is increasingly calling into question.

“The power and prevalence of emerging technologies are interwoven into the fabric of daily life,” writes Leo XIV at the start of Magnifica Humanitas, “shaping decision-making processes and deeply affecting the collective imagination”.

This is a process whose “main drivers of development are private, often transnational, parties that are endowed with resources and the capacity to intervene that surpass those of many Governments.”

The face of this technological power is “predominantly ‘private’”; for this reason, it is “even more challenging to discern, govern and direct such power toward the common good.”

Precisely for this reason, the Church has a duty today to help the world face this challenge, look at it, guided by the foundations and principles that it has developed in its social teaching over the course of the journey begun in 1891 with Rerum Novarum: human rights founded on the inviolable dignity of every person, the common good, justice, solidarity, the method of subsidiarity...

What does this perspective say today in a context where algorithms risk being used to erase every limit? How can we address tragic consequences such as those we already see today in the "dehumanization" of others that is spreading via increasingly devastating wars, fought, among other things, with the massive use of digital propaganda?

The Tower of Babel and the Walls of Nehemiah

To find our way in this complex theme, Pope Leo XIV offers two contrasting biblical images from the very first pages.

One is the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), in which human endeavour based solely on pride and the claim of self-sufficiency turns into confusion. This is a form of "self-affirmation” that “sacrifices human dignity for efficiency and aspires to reach heaven without God’s blessing.”

Doesn't this resemble certain tendencies, like transhumanism and posthumanism, that start from the new possibilities of technology and provide theoretical underpinning to today's philosophical visions?

Yet, the Scriptures also offer a model to respond to these tendencies, namely the reconstruction of Jerusalem's walls carried out by Nehemiah after the exile, when the city lay in ruins (Nehemiah 2-6). According to this model, “Before taking action,” the prophet “fasted, prayed and interceded for the people. [. . .] He did not impose solutions from above. He convened the families, assigned each of them a section of the wall to rebuild, listened to their concerns”.

For Leo, “the primary choice is not between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence.”

The universal destination of data

Overcoming Babel, however, requires a thorough understanding of what is at stake. This is what the encyclical letter offers, especially in the third chapter, in which the pontiff analyses in detail why we must commit ourselves to “safeguard our humanity" in the age of AI.

Leo begins with the personal aspects of using this tool, which can certainly be a valuable aid to everyone, provided that three aspects are carefully monitored, i.e. “the ease with which results are obtained, the impression of objectivity and the simulation of human communication.”

If we forget this, he explains, we'll easily “encourage excessive reliance and the search for ready-made answers," forgetting that they always reflect “the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them”.

When this insinuates itself into a context without relationships, AI can even lead us to “gradually lose the very desire to form genuine human connections.”

But the theme of safeguarding the dignity of each person becomes even broader when the gaze broadens to include its social uses.

For example, this happens when automated systems end up being entrusted with “sensitive decisions — concerning employment, credit, access to public services or even a person’s reputation”, not to mention, “clearly harmful uses, such as the manipulation of information or violations of privacy.”

Faced with such problems, Leo XIV clearly states that it is not enough to imagine "an alignment" of devices with a few generic values, as if they were parameters like any other.

“A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few. What is needed is a more active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating, and of protecting the opportunities for communities still to be able to participate and ask questions.”

He therefore calls for disarming AI “from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition, which today is not limited simply to the military context”, and “freeing technology from monopolistic control and opening it to discussion and debate, therefore making it human-friendly and restoring it to the plurality of human cultures and ways of life.”

Applying the principles of the Church's social doctrine in this field means asserting, for example, that the "universal destination of goods" also applies to the universe of data.

Solidarity requires us to "recognize the hidden, often exploited workers who sustain algorithmic systems." And “To speak of justice requires questioning the global distribution of power that decides who in fact can train these models and who is merely subjected to them.”

Truth, work and freedom

In the fourth chapter, Leo XIV identifies three particularly relevant issues.

The first one is the question of "truth as a common good". To this end, the encyclical thoroughly analyses the relationship between information and democracy, citing Hannah Arendt to stress how pervasive the risk of totalitarianism becomes when the distinction between true and false no longer exists.

To avoid this, the letter calls for an "ecology of communication" in which truth “is a common good and not the property of those with power or influence.” In practice, this highlights the importance of serious journalism (even in the Church), of real forums for discussion, but also the key role of education, especially schools.

The pope urges us to avoid handing children a mobile phone too early and to teach young people ways of fasting from AI, to rediscover the joy of research and thought.

Another crucial area is that of the "dignity of work in the digital transition." In fact, Leo warns against "new ways of working" that are not necessarily better. In the reorganisation of the productive world that artificial intelligence is bringing about, he calls for designing "systems that are centered on the human person and not solely on performance."

He points to the urgent need for pro-labour policies.”[I]t is not enough to react only when jobs disappear; we must oversee the transformation in advance,” and be concerned about the consequences for families and young people of a form of social organisation that exacerbates precariousness and imposes a rhythm that lacks balance between work, services, and rest.

Finally, there is a third major issue, that of safeguarding human freedom in the digital revolution. Here, the pontiff touches the crucial issue of the new slaves who make the "wonders" of artificial intelligence possible.

“A significant part of the digital economy’s functioning relies on the silent work of millions of people engaged in essential yet largely unseen activities, such as data labeling, model training”.

In addition, there is the toil of those who physically crush the materials from which the so-called rare earths are extracted. Not to mention those exploited by criminal networks engaged in illegal business online, which then passes through “the same digital circuits that support much of the global economy.”

In this passage, Leo XIV acknowledges that in past centuries the Church was too late to condemn the scourge of slavery and asks for forgiveness, but precisely for this reason, he urges greater vigilance today vis-à-vis this issue, as well as the new form of colonialism that “no longer dominates only bodies, but appropriates data, transforming personal lives into exploitable information.”

In all these fields, Leo calls for forms of true AI governance that can only come from multi-level cooperation between “institutions capable of regulating without stifling, [. . .] by businesses that recognize work and dignity as measures of success; by intermediary organizations and educational communities that rebuild trust and relationships; and by citizens who cultivate responsibility, moderation, discernment and a sense of truth.”

Artificial Intelligence: War or the Civilisation of Love

The fifth chapter of the encyclical specifically addresses the issue of war, which has become particularly tragic in relation to AI. Reiterating concepts that he has already expressed in recent months, Leo XIV emphasises the role that AI has played not only in the development of increasingly terrifying weapons but also in the "normalization" of the use of military force.

The very dehumanisation of others that these tools facilitate, he denounces, has fuelled a "false realism" in which we resign ourselves to the assertion of the logic of power.

“The reduction of complex issues into simplistic categories — ‘me first,’ ‘friend or foe,’ ‘us or them’ — facilitates decisions that are often irresponsible and undermine mutual trust among nations. The force of international law is thus replaced by the claim that ‘might makes right’.

“Consequently, tribunals that are competent for settling disputes between States or dealing with war crimes are often weakened or bypassed, with devastating ramifications for political culture and social cohesion.”

But even this is not an inevitable consequence. Against the unbridled culture of power, Pope Leo calls for a rediscovery of the "civilization of love", which Paul VI spoke about. He notes that the logic of pulling together the data on which machine learning is based should ultimately be calling for this.

He urges everyone to do their part against the temptation of thinking “that the problems are too big and we are too small”.

In this regard, he suggests five very concrete steps that are valid both on a personal and community level: disarming words, building peace through justice, embracing the perspective of the victims, cultivating a healthy realism, and reviving the method of dialogue.

In international relations, “diplomacy must be capable of operating effectively in this new environment,” establishing rules that protect civilians and the most vulnerable.

Regarding the United Nations' current weakness, he explains that more than “technical adjustments" are needed, since the crisis is one of "convictions and values," without which multilateralism cannot be oriented toward the true common good.

The last word of Magnifica Humanitas is addressed, finally, specifically to Christians. In its conclusion, the encyclical outlines a “sober yet demanding program of Christian life with which we can navigate this epochal change in the light of the Gospel.”

It points to the face of Christ as the true answer to the desire "for a fuller life, less exposed to limitations and suffering" that certain AI aberrations claim to offer.

Indeed, Jesus shows us a different way that does not outdo humanity but elevates it, urging us “to cooperate in the work of creation, rather than be disinterested observers of technological processes that limit our freedom and responsibility”.

• vatican
• pope leo xiv
• encyclical letter
• magnifica humanitas
• artificial intelligence