National Catholic Register reports on the presentation of the first encyclical of the self-styled Leo XIV, “Magnifica Humanitas,” on artificial intelligence. The event, held in the Vatican’s Synod Hall, featured Christopher Olah, co-founder of the AI company Anthropic, who praised the document and called for dialogue between the “Church” and the tech industry. Leo XIV compared the impact of AI to the Industrial Revolution and called for AI to be “disarmed,” emphasizing the need for moral discernment and public control. He claimed the encyclical was born from listening to various voices, including scientists, engineers, and those concerned about autonomous weapons and biased algorithms. The event also included speeches by Cardinals Parolin, Fernández, and Czerny, as well as theologians Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo. This spectacle reveals the utter bankruptcy of the post-conciliar structure, which, having abandoned the supernatural mission of the Church, now seeks relevance by baptizing the latest technological idolatry and positioning itself as a mere “moral voice” among many in the globalist project.
The Neo-Church Embraces the AI Idol: Magnifica Humanitas and the Abandonment of Supernatural Truth
The presentation of “Magnifica Humanitas” is not a pastoral act; it is a public relations exercise for a dying institution desperate to remain “relevant” in a world it has long since surrendered to. The very choice of artificial intelligence as the subject of a purported encyclical — a genre reserved for the most weighty matters of faith and morals — reveals the profound theological impoverishment of the conciliar sect. Where the true Church once thundered against heresy and defended the divinity of Christ, the neo-church now pontificates on algorithms and autonomous weapons, reducing the pastoral office to that of a globalist NGO offering “moral discernment” on technological progress.
The Idolatry of Technology and the Betrayal of Leo XIII
The attempt to draw a parallel between “Magnifica Humanitas” and Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum is a blasphemous insult to the memory of that great pontiff. Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum from the unchanging principles of Catholic social doctrine, defending the rights of workers against the dehumanization of industrial capitalism, always within the framework of the Kingship of Christ and the supernatural end of man. His encyclical was rooted in the natural law as understood through the lens of divine revelation and the teaching authority of the Church. In contrast, Leo XIV’s document is born not from the deposit of faith, but from “listening” to scientists, engineers, and political leaders — the very architects of the technological dystopia he claims to critique. This is not the method of the Church; it is the method of the United Nations.
The claim that artificial intelligence represents a transformation “of perhaps even greater consequences” than the Industrial Revolution is a symptom of the technological fetishism that has infected the post-conciliar mind. The true “transformation” that demands the Church’s attention is the apostasy of the modern world from Christ the King — a truth that Leo XIII himself proclaimed in Quas Primas, establishing the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that now reigns triumphant in the very halls of the Vatican. Pius XI warned that “the Kingdom of Christ” encompasses all of human society, and that “there is no power in us that is exempt from this reign.” Yet here we see the usurper on Peter’s throne treating AI as a force to be “managed” rather than subjecting it to the absolute sovereignty of Christ the King. The omission of any mention of sin, grace, the supernatural end of man, or the duty of nations to publicly confess Christ is not an oversight; it is the very essence of modernist naturalism.
The Cult of Dialogue and the Worship of the “Other”
The presence of Christopher Olah, a self-described non-believer and co-founder of a major AI company, as a speaker at the presentation of a purported papal encyclical is a scandal of unprecedented magnitude. Leo XIV’s words — “What a great sign of hope it is that with our differences we can listen to one another” — are not Christian charity; they are the very antithesis of the Church’s mission. The Church does not “listen” to the world in order to discern truth; she teaches the world the truth revealed by God. As St. Paul warns, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema” (Gal. 1:8). The idea that a representative of the tech industry — an industry built on the commodification of human attention and the erosion of privacy — should be welcomed as a partner in “discernment” is a betrayal of every principle of Catholic apologetics.
Olah’s call for “informed critics” and “moral voices that the incentives cannot bend” reveals the true nature of this exercise: it is not about truth, but about “pushing events in a better direction” — a purely pragmatic, consequentialist ethic that has nothing to do with the absolute moral law of God. The Church has never needed the tech industry to tell her when she is “failing”; she has the Magisterium, the Fathers, and the saints. The very notion that the Church requires “informed critics” from the world of AI is an admission that the conciliar structure has lost all confidence in its own divine mandate.
The Silence on Sin, the Supernatural, and the True End of Man
The most damning feature of this entire spectacle is what it does not say. There is no mention of the fall of man, no mention of original sin, no mention of the need for redemption through the sacraments, no mention of the reality of hell or the final judgment. The “troubling voices” that Leo XIV claims to have heard are limited to autonomous weapons and biased algorithms — grave concerns, certainly, but utterly superficial when compared to the spiritual catastrophe unfolding within the Church herself. Where is the cry against the sacrilegious “Mass” that has stripped the faithful of the true Sacrifice of the Mass? Where is the condemnation of the systematic destruction of the priesthood through the ordination of manifest heretics and sodomites? Where is the warning against the idolatry of technology itself, which promises salvation through human effort apart from God?
Pius XI, in Quas Primas, declared that “Christ must reign in the mind of man, whose duty it is to accept revealed truths with complete submission to the divine will and to believe firmly and constantly in the teaching of Christ; let Christ reign in the will, which should obey God’s laws and commandments; let Him reign in the heart, which, having despised desires, must love God above all and belong only to Him; let Him reign in the body and its members, which, as instruments, or — to use the words of St. Paul the Apostle — as weapons of justice for God, should contribute to the inner sanctification of souls.” This is the teaching that should govern any Catholic reflection on technology: not “disarmament” in the political sense, but the subjection of all human activity to the supernatural end of the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The silence of “Magnifica Humanitas” on these matters is not accidental; it is the silence of a church that has lost the faith.
The Method of “Listening” and the Democratization of Truth
Leo XIV’s claim that the encyclical was born from “listening” to various voices — scientists, engineers, political leaders, parents, teachers — is a repudiation of the Church’s prophetic mission. The Church does not derive her teaching from opinion polls or focus groups; she receives it from God through divine revelation and transmits it through the Magisterium. The “method of listening” is the method of the modernist, who, as St. Pius X condemned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, “places the origin of religion in the human mind” and reduces faith to “a feeling of the heart” rather than an assent to revealed truth. The very idea that a papal encyclical should be shaped by the concerns of the tech industry and political elites is a grotesque parody of the papal office.
Moreover, the inclusion of theologians like Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo — representatives of the conciliar academy that has spent decades undermining Catholic doctrine — confirms that this document is not a work of Catholic theology, but a product of the post-conciliar bureaucracy. These are the same voices that have promoted gender theory, religious liberty, and the dissolution of Catholic moral teaching in the name of “dialogue” and “discernment.” Their presence at this event is a seal of approval from the modernist establishment.
The Call to “Disarm” AI: A False Peace
The call to “disarm” artificial intelligence, while couched in the language of peace and human dignity, is a false prophecy. True disarmament is not the regulation of technology; it is the conversion of hearts to Christ. As Pius XI taught, “the peace of Christ” is only possible “in the Kingdom of Church.” The neo-church’s call for “moral discernment” and “public control” of AI is not a call to submit technology to the law of God; it is a call to submit it to the “global governance” agenda of the United Nations and the World Economic Forum — the very forces that seek to establish the kingdom of Antichrist on earth.
The Church has always taught that true peace is the “tranquility of order” (St. Augustine), and that order requires the submission of all things to God. The “disarmament” called for by Leo XIV is not the disarmament of sin, but the disarmament of man’s God-given dominion over creation — a dominion that technology, properly ordered to the supernatural end, should serve. Instead of calling for the submission of AI to the Kingship of Christ, the neo-church calls for its submission to the “moral voices” of the globalist elite — a category that includes, notably, the non-believer Olah himself.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation in the Holy Place
The presentation of “Magnifica Humanitas” is not a sign of hope; it is a sign of the times. It reveals a church that has abandoned its supernatural mission and reduced itself to a “moral voice” in the global conversation on technology. It is a church that welcomes non-believers as partners in “discernment” while excommunicating (or ignoring) those who defend the traditional faith. It is a church that speaks of “disarmament” while remaining silent on the spiritual warfare that is the true battle of our age.
The faithful who still profess the integral Catholic faith must reject this document and the entire conciliar apparatus that produced it. The true Church — the Church of all ages, founded by Christ and guided by the Holy Ghost — does not “listen” to the world; she teaches it. She does not seek “relevance” in the latest technological fad; she proclaims the unchanging truth of the Gospel. Let us pray for the conversion of those ensnared in the concilar sect, and let us remain faithful to the true faith, “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3), regardless of what emanates from the abomination of desolation that now occupies the Vatican.
Source:
Pope Leo Unveils His Encyclical: AI Has ‘Even Greater Consequences’ Than Industrial Revolution (ncregister.com)
Date: 25.05.2026