This page is a quote reference, not a summary. For the document's full argument, see the section-by-section summary. For how the encyclical relates to the 2025 doctrinal note, see Magnifica Humanitas vs. Antiqua et Nova.
This page updates within hours of the May 25 release with the actual paragraph numbers and quoted passages from the encyclical text. Until then, this page collects the most important passages from Pope Leo XIV's prior addresses and writings on AI that Magnifica Humanitas is expected to develop. After May 25, those will be replaced with direct quotes from the encyclical, organized into the same themes.
On the dignity of the human person
The encyclical's central anchor. Every other argument in Magnifica Humanitas is expected to derive from a particular Catholic claim about what human beings are. These are the passages where Pope Leo XIV states the foundation.
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to articulate the central thesis: that human dignity is the anchor of any encounter with AI, and that AI must serve the human person rather than replace, simulate, or diminish the person.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
From Pope Leo XIV's 2026 World Communications Day message, which the encyclical is expected to develop:
"Faces and voices are sacred. God, who created us in his image and likeness, gave them to us when he called us to life through the Word he addressed to us."
Pope Leo XIV, 2026 World Communications Day Message (May 17, 2026)
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to develop the imago Dei argument as the foundation for AI ethics. Likely echoes Genesis 1 and Gaudium et Spes.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
On faces, voices, and synthetic substitutes
The theme Pope Leo XIV has emphasized most consistently across his first year. Expected to receive substantial treatment in Magnifica Humanitas, building on his personal experience as the target of dozens of deepfake videos and on the Vatican's September 2025 formal warning on synthetic media.
"By simulating human voices, faces, emotions, and relationships, the systems known as artificial intelligence not only interfere with information ecosystems, but also encroach upon the deepest level of communication, that of human relationships. The challenge, therefore, is not technological, but anthropological. Safeguarding faces and voices ultimately means safeguarding ourselves."
Pope Leo XIV, 2026 World Communications Day Message (May 17, 2026)
"We need faces and voices to speak for people again."
Pope Leo XIV, address to journalists, 2026
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to address deepfakes directly and to call for governance frameworks that protect the integrity of human representation.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
On human relationships and AI companionship
Antiqua et Nova called the use of AI to simulate human relationships a "grave ethical violation." Magnifica Humanitas is expected to repeat this judgment with the magisterial weight of an encyclical, and to address AI companion apps, romantic chatbots, and AI-mediated therapy directly.
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to define the difference between authentic human relationship and AI simulation, and to ground that distinction in the Catholic understanding of communion.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to address parents, educators, and pastors directly on the formation of young people in an AI-saturated culture.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
From Antiqua et Nova, which the encyclical is expected to cite:
"The use of AI to deceive in other contexts, such as in education or in relationships, including human sexuality, is similarly considered immoral and requires careful vigilance."
Antiqua et Nova, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (January 14, 2025), n. 70
On labor, work, and economic justice
The most explicit point of contact with Rerum Novarum. Pope Leo XIV chose his name to signal a parallel with Leo XIII's 1891 response to industrial labor. Magnifica Humanitas is expected to be the AI-era counterpart.
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to articulate the dignity of human labor as participation in God's creative activity, and to address AI's tendency to deskill, surveil, and displace workers.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to call for just structures around AI-driven labor markets, including regulations, protections, retraining, and social support.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
From Pope Leo XIII's foundational 1891 encyclical, the document Magnifica Humanitas consciously inherits:
"To labor is to exert oneself for the sake of procuring what is necessary for the various purposes of life, and chief of all for self-preservation."
Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum (May 15, 1891), n. 44
On lethal autonomous weapons
Antiqua et Nova called for the prohibition of lethal autonomous weapons. Pope Leo XIV has repeated this call in multiple addresses. Magnifica Humanitas is expected to make the prohibition a central magisterial demand.
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to articulate that the decision to take a human life is a moral act that cannot be delegated to a machine, and to call for an international prohibition of lethal autonomous weapons.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
From Pope Francis at the G7 summit in 2024, the precedent the encyclical is expected to extend:
"No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being."
Pope Francis, Address at the G7 Summit, Borgo Egnazia (June 14, 2024)
On education, formation, and the interior life
The encyclical is expected to address AI's effects on the institutions that form persons across the life course: schools, universities, families, and the spiritual life.
"Don't let the algorithm write your story."
Pope Leo XIV, address to young people, 2026
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to address the temptation to find ultimate meaning in technology rather than in God, and to call for renewed attention to prayer, silence, and the contemplative tradition.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to address the formation of attention and the capacity for sustained thought in an AI-saturated culture.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
On hope and the way forward
Encyclicals typically close with an exhortation that names what the reader is being asked to do. Magnifica Humanitas is expected to close in this register, with a call to Catholic readers, the wider Church, public authorities, AI developers, and all people of good will.
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to articulate the central call of the encyclical's closing exhortation. Likely addresses public authorities, AI developers, and the wider human community.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
[Quote to be inserted on May 25, expected to close with a Marian invocation, consistent with the modern social encyclical tradition and with Pope Leo XIV's Marian devotion.]
Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph]
How to cite Magnifica Humanitas
The standard citation form for a papal encyclical is the document title in italics, the document type, the date of signing, and the paragraph number. For Magnifica Humanitas:
Full first citation: Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, Encyclical Letter on the Protection of Human Dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (15 May 2026), n. [paragraph number].
Subsequent citations: Magnifica Humanitas, n. [paragraph number].
For online citation: link to the official Vatican text at vatican.va.