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Magnifica Humanitas

June 2, 2026

(Sabrina Bracher / Shutterstock.com)

From the Office for Social Ministry

The Vatican’s video on Magnifica Humanitas contains very compelling text. Here are 9 brief excerpts:

  • Magnifica Humanitas is the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV --an encyclical dedicated to you…dedicated to your magnificent humanity. This humanity that is created by God; a humanity that we must care for and protect.

  • A humanity that in this era of artificial intelligence, of historic transformations, faces a crucial decision: to build a new tower of Babel or to build a Holy City to dwell in with God. A decision that confronts our human conscience.

  • A humanity that chooses Babel decides to remove its own limits and rejects God, sacrifices the weak, erases differences, becomes uniform. It claims to create a single language that in fact reduces people to data, it dehumanizes us.

  • A humanity that chooses the Holy City recognizes that artificial intelligence needs clear guidelines that place the good of the human person at the center, recognizing humanity’s limits, limits that open it up to recognize God and neighbor.

  • Pope Leo invites us to have the courage to get our hands dirty in the construction site of our time. He asks us to unmask and disarm artificial intelligence; unmask the new monopolies that concentrate this technological power in private hands, making it more difficult to direct it toward the common good; and disarm it, remove it from the logic of competition, question it, make it the subject of discussion.

  • This does not mean rejecting technology but preventing it from dominating the human. True progress always stems from a heart open to others: dialogue, diplomacy and forgiveness are more useful for building than any technological advancement.

  • We are all called to protect humanity, choosing every day the logic of peace over that of power, acting, with honesty, integrity, empathy, and care. Let us contemplate in the face of Jesus a magnificent humanity that also enlightens the age of artificial intelligence. Even when machines excel in efficiency, the center of history continues to be a human face that asks to be seen.

  • Let us take care of relationships. Let us protect them with kindness, attentiveness and generosity. Let us take care of our communities. Let us promote opportunities for encounter, for visiting those who are alone. Let us draw near to the poor.

  • Digital culture multiplies the possible points of connection. But the human heart retains an irreplaceable need for genuine closeness. Let us protect our magnificent humanity.

To view this Vatican video on Magnifica Humanitas, please visit: www.humandevelopment.va