Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
Pope Leo has Given Us a Massively Important Teaching

Pope Leo has Given Us a Massively Important Teaching

Last updated on: May 26, 2026 at 11:02 am by Rebecca Hamilton

Pope Leo has Given Us a Massively Important Teaching 2026-05-26T11:02:24-06:00 Rebecca Hamilton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A symbolic representation of AI, generated using DALL-E 3, with the prompt: “draw an icon, white background, of a human brain made out of printed circuit board”. Source: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Pope Leo has given us a massively important teaching that will inform Catholic thought and morality vis a vis technological development for hundreds of years to come.

Magnifica Humanitas teaches that human beings are the purpose and reason for technological development. Technology that enslaves people and reduces them to less-than-human servants of the technology our society produces is technology that is being put to immoral uses. We — you and I — people everywhere; our advancement and betterment, is the only moral purpose for technology.

We are living souls, made in the Image and Likeness of the God Who created all of creation. It is not our purpose in the universe to serve the things we make. It is the purpose of the things we make to serve us.

However, we live in a fallen world. Our enemy the devil is always prowling about, looking for ways to reduce us to the level of objects to be used and exploited. I think that this Image of God that resides in us is the reason why he does this. Satan hates God. Satan also hates the Image of God in each of us.

Jesus did not leave us orphans. He gave us the Holy Spirit, and He gave us the Church.

The Church is a stumbling, bumbling human institution wending its way through a fallen world. During its long history, more than a few of its bishops and priests have demonstrated quite clearly that they are more in league with the devil than with Christ. Despite that, the Church itself, speaking through the popes, has never departed from teaching the essentials of the faith.

The Church has preserved the creeds, the sacraments and Gospels and the entire Scriptures through the rise and fall of empires, schisms, wars, plagues, the Dark Ages, the Enlightenment, exploration of the entire globe and beginnings of space exploration, the rise of the Industrial Age, two world wars, the fall of feudalism and monarchy and rise of democracy, and totalitarian governments of breathtaking cruelty and oppressiveness, globalization, and ever-accelerating change in how people live and think. Through it all, the Roman Catholic Church has continued to provide the sacraments and the consistent teachings which are the bedrock of all Christian thought of every Christian denomination.

The Church has consistently affirmed the basic morality found in the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes through every change history could throw at it. It has taught that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and through Him all human beings are saved for 2,000 years.

Now, today, Pope Leo is affirming these things once again by applying the consistent Church teaching that every human being is made in the Image and Likeness of God to a technological dreadnaught that is bearing down on us in the form of AI.

Pope Leo is not saying that we need to stop technological innovation. He is saying that any technology that people create — including AI — must be used to serve people, not the other way around.

He is calling on government to exercise the power which is the only moral justification for government and act on behalf of the common good of the people entrusted to its care. Governments need to regulate AI so that it does not enslave ordinary people and destroy their freedoms.

This teaching is particularly pertinent to the government of the United States of America, which, under Trump, has devolved into a lawless, immoral gangster state.

Before we begin unpacking Magnifica Humanitas in detail, I want to give you the opportunity to view the speeches at the Vatican yesterday when Pope Leo unveiled it.

One of the most interesting speeches came from Christopher Olah, one of the founders of the AI company Anthropic.

Anthropic was in the news a few weeks ago because the company refused to allow Anthropic’s AI technology to be used to launch missiles on their own, without any human being involved, and — get ready for this — because they refused to allow the Trump administration to use their technology to put the American people under AI surveillance.

Trump reacted as Trump always does, by mis-using the power of government to punish Anthropic for not bending to his will. He cancelled their contracts with the government and labeled the company a danger to America’s security. Then, he went out and found another AI company to serve him.

The thing that interested me is not that Trump wanted to use AI to fire off missiles without human input. I was not surprised at all that he wanted to use AI to put you and me and granny down the street under government surveillance. After all, lots of administration people have made it clear that is their intent.

I certainly wasn’t surprised that Trump mis-used the power of the presidency to punish Anthropic. It didn’t surprise me one bit that he found himself a billionaire to replace Anthropic.

What surprised me was that a tech company actually demonstrated patriotism, morality and basic human decency. There are actually billionaires who care about something besides bellying up to the government bar and grabbing everything that’s not tied down?

I felt like I’d seen a unicorn.

So, it didn’t exactly surprise me when Pope Leo asked Christopher Olah to participate in the release of Magnifica Humanitas. I wasn’t surprised. But I liked it. I like seeing the good guys work together for good. It gives me hope.

There are always good people. Brave people. People who have morals and decency and who care about other people. We need to remember that.

Tomorrow, I’m going to create a post that simply links to a lot of videos from the Vatican. Yesterday was a historic day and I want to give you the opportunity to witness it first hand.

The next day, we’ll start taking this Encyclical apart to see if we can learn what it says and decide how to utilize it to make moral, Jesus-following decisions in the demands we make as citizens of the United States of America on the politicians we put in power in our government.

Jesus Christ loves ordinary people like you and me. His Church is not failing. The Church is standing up.

Note: “Jesus did not leave us orphans” Is a paraphrase of something Jesus said to His disciples before he ascended to His father. I am applying what He told them to all of us. You can find it in John 14:18.

Previous Post

May 25, 2026

Will We Rule AI or Will AI Rule Us? Pope Leo Weighs In.

Next Post

May 27, 2026 Watch the Introduction of Magnifica Humanitas in 5 Videos

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Commandments 2012 Election 2016 Election 2020 Election 2022 Election 2024 Election Abortion Addiction Adult Day Care Advent Africa AI Alcoholism Alex Pretti Renee Good America American Citizenship American Fascism Announcement Anti Semitism Anti-Semitism Apologetics Archbishop Coakley Argentina Armenian Genocide Ash Wednesday Ballot Box Salvation Biden Big Beautiful Bill Bishop Black Mass Blasphemy Boko Haram Book Review Brainwashing Breast Cancer Bribery Calling Evil Good calling good evil Cancer Canonize Caregiving Catholic Catholic Vote Cause for Sainthood Chaos child abuse Child Labor Child Rearing Child Sacrifice Christian Bashers Christian Leadership Christian Persecution Christian Solidarity Christianity Christmas clergy Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal Climate Coakley Common Good Communion Communism Computers concentration camps Conclave Confession Consecration to Our Lady Conversion Coptic Christians Coronavirus Corporatism Corruption COVID Crisis Pregnancy Centers Culture D Day Death Death Penalty Dementia Democracy Designer Baby Destruction of the Family Dictator Dignity of Work Divine Mercy Novena Divine Mercy Sunday Divorce Doubt Drug Addiction easter Ebola Economics Education Egg Harvesting El Salvador Elderly Epiphany Epstein Eternal Life eternal life Eucharist Eugenics Euthanizing Children Euthansia evangelization Excommunicate Biden Extraterrestrial Life Failed Clergy Faith False Gods Family Fascism Fatherhood Feast of the Assumption First Amendment Flood the Zone Following Christ forced conversion Forgiveness Fortnight4Freedom fourth amendment Fr James Altman Fr Stanley Rother free press Freedom Freedom of Conscience freedom of religion Freedom of Speech Freedom of Worship vs Religious Freedom Geek Stuff Gender Theory Genocide God the Father Good Friday Gossip GQP Greenland Grief Gun Control Gun Violence Hate Blogs Health Health Care Heart Attack Heaven Hell Herod HHS Mandate History of the Crusades Holy Father Holy Father' Holy Father's Tweets Holy Matrimony Holy Saturday Holy Spirit Holy Thursday Holy Week Home Homeschooling homosexual Hospice Human Dignity Human Rights human trafficking Humor ICE Idolatry Immaculate Conception Immigration Incest Infertility Inspiration Iran War ISIS Islam Islamic Brotherhood Israel JD Vance Jesus Jobs Jordan Judas Judicial and Legislative Murder Judicial Murder July 4 Just War Justice Kavanaugh Ketanji Jackson Brown Laity Latin Mass Leadership Lent Less of Me Lying Lying for Trump Mad King MAGA Magnifica humanitas Mama Marriage Marriage Protection Amendment Martyr Media Bias Medicaid Men and Abortion Mercy Military Dictatorship Misogyny Motherhood Movie Review Murder Music National Catholic Register Nazi Clergy Neo Nazis New Category New Evangelism New Evangelization News Headlines Nigeria No Kings Novena for the Persecuted Church Nuns Obama Oklahoma Oscar Romero Our Lady Our National Embarrassment Pakistan Palm Sunday Papal Conclave Papal G8 Pedophile piano political priests Political Whore Clergy Politics Polygamy Pope Francis Pope Francis Visit United States Pope Leo XIV Pope's Prayer Intentions Pornography Post Christian West Poverty Prayer Prayers for the Persecuted Church Pro Life Prophecy Prostitution Purgatory Putin Quack Medicine Racism Rape Religious Freedom Renee Good Republican Republican priests Rerum Novarum Retirement Risen Lord Roe v Wade Rosary Sacrament Sacred Heart Sacrilege Saints Salvation Same Sex Marriage Sanctity of Human Life Satan Save Our Democracy scandal Scripture Shroud of Turin Sisters Slavery Social Justice Social Security Solidarity Cross St Michael the Archangel stations of the cross Stop Late Term Abortion Stroke Suicide Supreme Court Surrogacy Surveillance State Synod Syria Taliban Tariffs Taxes Technology Thanksgiving The Ascension The Cross The Locust Class The Political Heresy The Resurrection The Tomb The Transfiguration The Trinity The War on Girls Tornado Trauma Trump Trump Coup Trump Destroying America Trump's Coup Trump's War on the Rule of Law Trumpism Ukraine Uncategorized USAID USCCB Vatican Vatican Reform Violence Against Women Violence in America Vocation Voting Rights Wages Walk for Life War Weight Loss White House Why Aren't You a Feminist Too? Woke Women Leaders Women's Rights Worker's Rights World Hunger World War I World War III World Youth Day Worship Writing Year of Faith

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 March 2024 February 2024 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 August 2016 May 2016 April 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the king of Israel known for his wisdom?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Solomon David Saul Hezekiah