EWTN News reports on the announcement of Leo XIV’s forthcoming encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: “On the Protection of Human Dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” framing it as a continuation of the social teaching tradition begun by Leo XIII. The article presents papal encyclicals as authoritative expressions of doctrine, emphasizing their role in shaping global discourse and guiding Catholics amid technological change. It highlights Leo XIV’s stated intent to address AI and labor issues, echoing Rerum Novarum, while noting the modern trend of addressing “all men of goodwill” rather than solely the faithful. This framing reveals not merely a shift in audience but a fundamental inversion of the Church’s mission—from proclaiming Christ the King to promoting a secularized, humanistic gospel devoid of supernatural truth.
The Reduction of Sacred Authority to Moralistic Humanism
The article describes papal encyclicals as part of the pope’s “ordinary magisterium,” carrying “significant doctrinal weight” and requiring from Catholics “a religious submission of the intellect and will.” Yet this language, drawn from post-conciliar canon law (notably the 1983 Code), reflects a juridical fiction that presupposes the legitimacy of the current occupant of the Vatican—a man who, like his predecessors since John XXIII, has never been validly elected according to the immutable laws governing papal elections. As Pope Paul IV declared in Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, any promotion to the cardinalate or papacy by one who has defected from the Catholic faith is “null, void, and of no effect.” The entire edifice of post-conciliar magisterium rests upon a foundation of heresy and schism; thus, its teachings—no matter how rhetorically polished—lack any binding authority over true Catholics.
Moreover, the article reduces the purpose of encyclicals to “suggesting ways to apply [Church teachings] to modern issues,” such as “sexuality, Catholic social teaching, and stewardship of the earth.” This is a far cry from the understanding articulated by Pope Pius IX in Qui Pluribus, who warned that “the Church alone has received the mission to guard and interpret the deposit of faith,” and that “no one is free to publish his own interpretations of the Scriptures.” The modern encyclical, far from safeguarding revealed truth, functions as a vehicle for naturalistic ethics, substituting the supernatural end of man—his salvation through Christ—for temporal concerns like labor rights, ecological stewardship, and now, artificial intelligence.
The Heresy of Addressing “All Men of Goodwill”
The article notes approvingly that since St. John XXIII’s Pacem in Terris (1963), pontiffs have increasingly addressed their letters to “all men of goodwill,” signaling a shift “from a mainly Catholic audience to the global stage.” This is not progress but apostasy. The Church was founded by Christ not as a dialogue partner among world religions, but as the sole ark of salvation: Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (Outside the Church there is no salvation). Pope Leo XIII, in Immortale Dei, explicitly condemned the idea that the Church should be “reconciled with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization”—a proposition anathematized by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (Proposition 80).
By addressing “all men of goodwill,” the post-conciliar sect implicitly denies the necessity of the Catholic faith for salvation, embracing the very indifferentism condemned in Proposition 17 of the Syllabus: “Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ.” This universalist rhetoric masks a deeper denial: that truth is not relative, that error has no rights, and that Christ’s kingship extends over all nations—not as a suggestion, but as a divine mandate. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, insisted that “the State must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… who contribute most to the expansion and establishment of Christ’s Kingdom.” The modern encyclical, by contrast, seeks accommodation with the world, not its conversion.
The Idolatry of “Human Dignity” Without Grace
The title of Leo XIV’s encyclical—Magnifica Humanitas—is itself revealing. It glorifies “human dignity” apart from the context of original sin, redemption, and the supernatural order. True Catholic teaching holds that human dignity flows from man’s creation in the image of God and, more profoundly, from his elevation to the supernatural state of sanctifying grace. Without baptism, without faith, without membership in the true Church, man remains a fallen creature, “dead in sins” (Eph. 2:1), incapable of merit or true justice.
Yet the post-conciliar sect, following the errors of Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae, promotes a Pelagian notion of inherent dignity independent of grace. This is the “cult of man” condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, where he identified Modernism as the synthesis of all heresies—precisely because it begins with the affirmation of human experience and ends in the denial of the supernatural. The focus on AI and labor, while superficially aligned with Rerum Novarum, omits any reference to the primary purpose of human work: the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Pope Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum not to endorse secular social reform, but to reaffirm the Church’s divine right to teach, govern, and sanctify—a right now usurped by a counterfeit hierarchy.
The Omission of Christ the King and the Social Reign of Christ
Most damning is the article’s silence on the social kingship of Christ—the central theme of Pius XI’s Quas Primas. There is no mention of Christ’s authority over states, laws, education, or technology. The encyclical is presented as a response to “industrial revolution” and “AI,” but never as a call for nations to submit to the Gospel. This omission is not accidental; it is doctrinal. The post-conciliar sect has abandoned the Church’s prophetic mission to kings and rulers, replacing it with interfaith platitudes and technocratic ethics.
Pius XI declared: “The State must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… who contribute most to the expansion and establishment of Christ’s Kingdom.” He warned that when Christ is removed from laws and states, “the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The modern encyclical, by contrast, operates within the framework of secular governance, offering moral advice to powers that the Church once claimed the right to judge and, if necessary, depose. This is not continuity with Leo XIII—it is betrayal.
The Myth of Doctrinal Continuity
The article claims Leo XIV “builds on” previous encyclicals, especially those of Leo XIII and John Paul II. But continuity requires fidelity to immutable truth, not mere thematic resemblance. Leo XIII wrote in defense of the Church’s divine constitution against Freemasonry and liberalism; Leo XIV writes in service of a globalist agenda indistinguishable from secular humanism. The “social teaching” cited is not the perennial doctrine of the Church, but its modernist counterfeit—a theology of “human development” stripped of eschatology, sacramental life, and the reality of eternal judgment.
As St. Pius X warned in Lamentabili Sane Exitu, the Modernists “aim at such a development of dogmas as appears to be their corruption.” The post-conciliar encyclical tradition is precisely this: a corruption disguised as progress. To present it as authoritative is to participate in the great deception—the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15).
Conclusion: Return to the Immutable Magisterium
The faithful must reject this latest exercise in neo-Catholic moralism. True doctrine is found not in the pronouncements of usurpers in Rome, but in the unchanging teaching of the pre-conciliar Magisterium: the councils, the Fathers, the encyclicals of true popes like Leo XIII, St. Pius X, and Pius XI. These alone safeguard the deposit of faith against the ravages of Modernism.
Let Catholics return to the sources: to the Syllabus of Errors, which condemns religious liberty; to Pascendi, which exposes Modernism; to Quas Primas, which proclaims Christ the King. Let them abandon the false authority of the conciliar sect and seek the true Church—hidden, persecuted, but enduring in the hearts of the faithful and the valid sacraments administered by true priests.
For “the gates of hell shall not prevail” (Matt. 16:18)—but neither shall the synagogue of Satan, which now occupies the Vatican, deceive those who hold fast to Tradition.
Source:
EWTN News explains: What is a papal encylical? (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 20.05.2026