The National Catholic Register reports that the AI corporation Anthropic has called for a global “pause or slowdown” in artificial intelligence development, citing fears that humans may lose control of AI systems capable of recursive self-improvement. The article notes the timing follows closely after the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas issued by Leo XIV on May 25, 2026, which warned against constructing “a new Tower of Babel.” Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah reportedly met with Leo XIV at the encyclical’s unveiling. The article quotes moral theologian Charles Camosy, who claims Anthropic’s stance aligns with Leo XIV’s desire to “disarm” AI, and suggests the Church should lead a global movement demanding “ethical AI,” even proposing a papal visit to Silicon Valley. What unfolds beneath the veneer of moral concern is a seamless convergence of technocratic hubris, modernist ecclesiology, and the complete abandonment of the Church’s supernatural mission in favor of a naturalistic partnership with the architects of humanity’s digital enslavement.
The Tower of Babel Rebuilt — With Ecclesiastical Blessing
The article presents Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas as though it were a legitimate exercise of the papal magisterium — a moral beacon guiding humanity through the perils of technological advancement. This is the foundational deception that must be dismantled at the outset. Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, is not the Pope of the Catholic Church. He is an antipope, a usurper occupying the Vatican apparatus since his installation following the resignation of the previous usurper, Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), who himself had succeeded the arch-heretic John Paul II (Karol Wojtylla). The entire line from John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli) onward constitutes a succession of manifest heretics who, by the very fact of their public and pertinacious heresy, ipso facto lost all jurisdiction and never validly held the office of Supreme Pontiff.
St. Robert Bellarmine teaches with crystalline clarity: “A Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church” (*De Romano Pontifice*, II, 30). This is not a disciplinary opinion but the unanimous teaching of the Fathers. St. Cyprian, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome — all affirm that manifest heretics immediately lose all jurisdiction, not after warnings or declarations, because “heretics are already outside the Church before excommunication and deprived of all jurisdiction. They have indeed been condemned by their own judgment, as the Apostle teaches (Titus 3:10-11)” (Bellarmine, On the Roman Pontiff 2:30). Pope Celestine I confirmed this principle regarding Nestorius: those who broke communion with the heretic bishop before any papal pronouncement acted rightly, for “he who has departed from the faith with such preaching cannot depose or remove anyone.”
The 1917 Code of Canon Law codified this truth in Canon 188.4: every office becomes vacant “by the mere fact and without any declaration” if the cleric publicly defects from the Catholic faith. And Pope Paul IV’s bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio — cited 19 times in the marginal notes of the 1917 Code — declares null and void any promotion of one who has defected from the Catholic faith or fallen into heresy, “even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals.”
Magnifica Humanitas is therefore not an encyclical. It is a corporate press release issued by the public relations department of the conciliar sect. It carries no more doctrinal authority than a white paper from the World Economic Forum. To treat it as a papal teaching is to grant legitimacy to the very antipapal structure that has, for over six decades, systematically dismantled the Catholic faith from within.
The Idol of “Ethical AI” — A Modernist Substitute for the Supernatural Mission
The article’s central thrust is the proposal that the Catholic Church should partner with Silicon Valley corporations to develop “ethical AI.” Charles Camosy, identified as a moral theologian at The Catholic University of America, is quoted suggesting the Church “help lead a global movement that demands ethical AI” and encouraging Leo XIV to “consider a trip to Silicon Valley.” This is not Catholic social teaching. It is the complete reduction of the Church’s mission from the supernatural order to the naturalistic — a capitulation to the very secularism that Pope Pius XI identified in Quas Primas as the defining plague of the modern age.
Pius XI wrote in 1925: “This plague is the secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors… It began with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations; the Church’s authority to teach men, to issue laws, to govern nations, which authority she received from Christ the Lord to lead men to eternal happiness, was denied.” The proposed partnership between the conciliar structures and AI corporations is laicism wearing a cassock. The Church’s mission is not to regulate artificial intelligence. The Church’s mission is to teach, govern, and lead all to eternal happiness — to bring souls to sanctifying grace through the sacraments, to form them in the virtues, and to prepare them for the Beatific Vision. Every moment spent negotiating with Anthropic about “recursive self-improvement” is a moment stolen from the salvation of souls.
The article’s language reveals the depth of the capitulation. Camosy speaks of “disarming” AI, of “preventing it from dominating humanity,” of “outsourcing” human interactions to AI. These are the concerns of a naturalistic humanism that has lost sight of the supernatural entirely. The Catholic concern is not whether AI will “eclipse” human capabilities — it is whether human beings will lose their immortal souls through sin, whether they will receive the sacraments worthily, whether they will die in the state of grace. The article contains not a single mention of sanctifying grace, the sacraments, the state of grace, mortal sin, final judgment, or eternal salvation. This silence is not accidental. It is the defining characteristic of the modernist mentality condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and in the 65 propositions of Lamentabili Sane Exitu.
The Condemned Propositions — Alive and Well in the Conciliar Sect
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili, condemned the following propositions, each of which finds its living embodiment in the article and the phenomena it describes:
**Proposition 58:** “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him.” The entire framework of “ethical AI” presupposes that moral truth is something to be negotiated between corporations and religious leaders — that it evolves with technological development rather than being immutable, revealed by God, and taught infallibly by His Church.
**Proposition 64:** “The progress of sciences requires a reform of the concept of Christian doctrine concerning God, creation, Revelation, the Person of the Incarnate Word, and Redemption.” The suggestion that the Church must adapt its teaching to accommodate AI development is precisely this condemned error. Doctrine does not reform itself to keep pace with technology. Technology must be judged by doctrine.
**Proposition 65:** “Contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism.” The article’s vision of the Church as a moral consultant to Silicon Valley, stripped of dogmatic content and reduced to “ethical” guidance, is dogmaless Christianity in its purest form.
**Proposition 48:** “Catholics may approve of the system of educating youth unconnected with Catholic faith and the power of the Church, and which regards the knowledge of merely natural things, and only, or at least primarily, the ends of earthly social life.” The outsourcing of “teaching, tutoring, parenting, care for the sick” to AI — which Camosy himself identifies as a concern — is precisely the substitution of natural, technological means for the supernatural means of grace that the Church provides.
Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned proposition 80: “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.” The entire article is an exercise in precisely this condemned reconciliation — the conciliar structures “coming to terms” with artificial intelligence, seeking not to condemn or convert but to collaborate and regulate.
The Omission That Condemns: Christ the King Has No Place in the Algorithm
Pius XI, in Quas Primas, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that removes Jesus Christ and His law from private, family, and public life. He wrote: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations or to those who, by receiving baptism according to law, belong to the Church… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” And further: “It matters not whether individuals, families, or states, for men united in societies are no less subject to the authority of Christ than individuals.”
The article discusses the governance of artificial intelligence — a force that will shape the minds, relationships, and daily lives of billions — without once mentioning the Kingship of Christ, the obligation of states to publicly recognize His authority, or the duty of all human institutions to conform their laws and practices to divine law. This is the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet: the removal of God from the public square and His replacement by human — or in this case, artificial — authority.
Pius XI warned: “When God and Jesus Christ — as we lamented — were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed, because the main reason why some have the right to command and others have the duty to obey was removed.” The “global cooperation among countries and AI companies” proposed by Anthropic and endorsed by the conciliar structures is authority derived not from God but from men — and now, from machines designed by men. It is the Tower of Babel rebuilt with silicon and code, and the antipope is not warning against it but blessing it with a press conference.
The “Moral Theologian” and the Abdication of Judgment
Charles Camosy is presented as a voice of Catholic moral reasoning, yet his statements reveal the bankruptcy of conciliar moral theology. He expresses astonishment at “how many different kinds of people are interested in this encyclical” and claims “many people were kind of waiting for someone to fill the moral space.” This is the language of a religious consumer seeking a product, not of a Catholic seeking the truth. The moral space was filled two thousand years ago by Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, and His Church teaches it infallibly without need of corporate partnerships.
Camosy’s suggestion that Leo XIV visit Silicon Valley is particularly revealing. The Vicar of Christ — were one legitimately seated — would not visit the headquarters of corporations building systems that threaten to enslave humanity. He would preach repentance, condemn the idolatry of technology, and call all men to submit to the Kingship of Christ. The fact that this suggestion is made at all demonstrates that the conciliar structures no longer understand the papacy as an office of divine authority but as a platform for moral influence — a kind of global ethicist-in-chief.
The Deeper Apostasy: When the Church Serves the World Instead of Governing It
The article’s most damning feature is not what it says but what it assumes. It assumes that the proper role of the Church is to engage with the world’s power structures as a partner, a consultant, a voice at the table. This is the exact inversion of the Church’s divine mission. The Church does not sit at the table of the world’s powers. The Church judges the world’s powers. “The Church, established by Christ as a perfect society, demands for itself by a right belonging to it, which it cannot renounce, full freedom and independence from secular authority,” Pius XI declared in Quas Primas. “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations, both male and female, who are indeed the most valiant helpers of the Pastors of the Church.”
The conciliar sect has abandoned this independence. It does not demand freedom from secular authority; it seeks partnership with secular authority. It does not judge the world; it serves the world. It does not preach the Gospel to AI corporations; it asks them how the Church can help. This is the aggiornamento* of John XXIII fulfilled — the “updating” of the Church that was, in reality, the capitulation of the Church to the spirit of the age.
St. Pius X, in Pascendi, identified the modernist as one who “abandons all restraint” in the pursuit of novelty, who “aims at such a development of dogmas as appears to be their corruption.” The conciliar structures have pursued novelty for seventy years, and the result is the corruption not merely of dogma but of the Church’s very identity — from the Mystical Body of Christ to a non-governmental organization specializing in “ethical” consultation with the architects of transhumanism.
Conclusion: The Only Response Is Repentance and Return
The Catholic response to the development of artificial intelligence is not to partner with Anthropic. It is not to call for a “pause” negotiated between corporations and religious leaders. It is to proclaim — with the full, uncompromising authority of the Catholic faith — that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, that all human activity, including technological development, must be subject to His law, and that the salvation of souls is the supreme law to which all other considerations are subordinate.
The faithful must reject the conciliar structures entirely — their “encyclicals,” their “moral theologians,” their partnerships with corporations, their vision of the Church as a global ethical consultant. They must return to the unchanging Tradition of the Catholic Church: the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as offered before the liturgical revolution, the sacraments as administered by validly ordained priests in communion with the true Church, the social Kingship of Christ as proclaimed by Pius XI, the condemnation of modernism as taught by St. Pius X, and the immutable truth that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation.
The Tower of Babel is being rebuilt. The conciliar sect is not warning the faithful — it is helping to lay the bricks. The faithful must flee from it and cling to the Rock of Peter — not the usurper in the Vatican, but the faith once delivered to the saints, which endures in the true Church of Christ until the end of time.
[The full article content as presented above]
Source:
Anthropic Urges ‘Pause’ or ‘Slowdown’ of AI Development After Leo’s Encyclical (ncregister.com)
Date: 06.06.2026