
Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo's document on AI
From The Home Front by Leila and Phil Lawler
May 29, 2026 · 59 min
About this episode
The episode discusses Pope Leo XIV's encyclical 'Magnifica humanitas' on AI, emphasizing the authors' commitment to not using AI in their work.
Note Bene : We read the entire encyclical and we didn’t use AI. And we don’t use AI to draft, write, or edit our own writing! Show Notes: Full text of the encyclical Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah’s remarks on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical “Magnifica humanitas” The importance of Pope Leo’s first encyclical (Phil’s preview of the encyclical— posted before it appeared) Pope Leo breaks new ground with encyclical on AI (News/Analysis by Phil, posted on the day it appeared) No, the just-war tradition is not ‘outdated’ (Phil’s comment on the encyclical’s treatment of just-war theory, which we didn’t even have a chance to discuss in our podcast) Promise and problems in Magnifica Humanitas (Phil’s reflections a few days after publication) Other interesting analyses of the encyclical: Idols of the Valley (Yuhal Levin in New Atlantis) Pope Leo Isn’t Standing Athwart the Singularity (Ross Douthat in the New York Times) (archived here ) Between Thomas Aquinas and Silicon Valley: The first encyclical of Leo XIV (David Berger) AI Chatbots are Evil by Marc Barnes More on what we recommend on Catholic Social Teaching and Natural Law in general: Whether the intellect is a power of the soul? Thomas…
People in this episode
Hosts: Phil Lawler, Leila Lawler
Topics covered
- Pope Leo XIV
- AI
- Catholic Social Teaching
- just-war theory
- encyclical analysis
Keywords
- Pope Leo XIV
- AI encyclical
- Catholic teaching
- just-war theory
- Phil Lawler
- Leila Lawler
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: New Atlantis, New York Times, Catholic Social Teaching
Books & works: Magnifica humanitas, The Summa Theologiae, Divini Illius Magistri, Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching, Knowledge and Decisions
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