Lead story
Editor's note:
Pope Leo XIV considers artificial intelligence the biggest challenge facing humanity today. This week, the top Catholic leader issued his first-ever encyclical, calling for robust regulation of AI and urging developers to work for the common good – not profit – in order to safeguard humankind.
Nicole Winfield, the AP’s Vatican correspondent, dove into his sweeping manifesto called “Magnifica Humanitas,” which translates to Magnificent Humanity. AI technology affects everything from work to war. In the text, Leo denounced the “culture of power” driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of remote warfare.
Experts in the tech industry, academia and Catholic morality said the pope’s document will likely become a benchmark in the debate over AI, a point of reference for policymakers, researchers and ordinary folk alike.
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Commentary and Analysis
Growing up amid Sri Lanka’s civil war, I saw pluralism in action – but didn’t have a name for it. Today, I study the virtues that help people sustain relationships across faiths and cultures. By Eranda Jayawickreme for The Conversation
‘Magnifica Humanitas’ gives us the tools to extend the church’s social teaching into the places the encyclical itself did not go. Three areas in particular call out for exactly this kind of constructive extension. By Charles C. Camosy/Religion News Service
As millions gather for Hajj, they will circle the Kaaba, which is draped in the black cloth known as the kiswah – a sacred object shaped by centuries of faith, politics and power. By Iqbal Akhtar for The Conversation
Leo XIV released his first encyclical on the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, the 1891 papal document on the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution. By Nathan Schneider for The Conversation
Muslim pilgrims pray at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during the annual hajj pilgrimage, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
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