(Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, issued this statement on May 26, 2026.)
In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV urgently summons the global community to a profound reflection on the relationship between our humanity and the emerging technologies that are engulfing us with ever greater advances, opportunities, temptations and threats.
The Pope builds upon Catholic doctrine to underscore that the dignity of the human person must always be paramount in assessing these new technologies, in alignment with the common good of all and the solidarity of the human family. Just as these principles guided the Church and the world through the Industrial Revolution, so they form the firmest foundation for facing our contemporary revolution.
Magnifica Humanitas is resplendent in its assertion that the uniqueness of our humanity cannot be replicated, and that efforts to breach that uniqueness must be rejected in the fundamental search for enduring and objective truth in our world.
The breathtaking wonder of these new technologies, encapsulated in the development of Artificial Intelligence, are already providing genuine gifts to the human family, particularly in the areas of medicine, access to knowledge and innovation in complex fields. In keeping with Catholic tradition, Pope Leo applauds these major benefits for the human family.
But the urgent conversation that the Pope is calling for concerns not only these benefits from new technologies, but also the very real threats they pose to fundamental elements of human freedom and security, economic justice, the preservation of peace, the dignity of labor and the very destiny of truth in the world.
The astounding rate of technological change that we are witnessing points to the urgency of the conversation to which Magnifica Humanitas is calling us. If ethical guardrails are not soon established to form artificial intelligence, we will be facing a world which is increasingly dehumanized in many of the most important dimensions of our existence and human flourishing.
Magnifica Humanitas does not seek to define the new world which is emerging in our midst. It seeks to do something more important – be a catalyst for a continuing societal conversation about the most consequential questions we are facing and how the contribution of Catholic Social Doctrine can enrich that conversation in the years to come.
