- A papal text seeking secular support
- Magnifica Humanitas: a Rerum Novarum for the digital age
- The same anthropological logic, a century and a half later
- "Epistemic asymmetry": a theological and political concept
- A first since 1891: when the magisterium becomes legislation
- The historical trace of Rerum Novarum as a precedent
- Canada: A Unique Theological Context
- Leo XIV's papal strategy: to disseminate the encyclical through direct diplomacy
- ✝ Biblical references
There are moments when politics and prophecy gaze into each other's eyes. One such moment occurred on May 28, 2026, just three days after Leo XIV published his first encyclical on artificial intelligence. On that day, Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, publicly announced that he had spoken with the Successor of Peter about "the prospects and challenges related to artificial intelligence and its importance in serving all humanity, with the protection of the person being paramount in the process of adopting and deploying this technology." These words—the protection of the person—are not those of an ordinary diplomatic communiqué. They are, almost word for word, the very title of the papal encyclical: Magnifica Humanitas, subtitled "On the protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence".
This is not a mere stylistic borrowing. It is a political signal of considerable significance, deserving of close examination. Sources close to the Canadian government indicate that the Prime Minister has instructed his Treasury Board to review the compatibility of Canada's AI guidelines with the principles set forth in the encyclical. If this process is successful, Canada would become the first sovereign state to formally incorporate a text of papal magisterium into a technology policy review process. A historic first since the principles of Rerum Novarum Leo XIII's laws of 1891 fueled the first labor laws in several countries.
To understand the depth of this moment, we must be willing to move beyond the usual register of foreign policy and enter into the more demanding realm of the theology of history.
A papal text seeking secular support
The encyclical as a deliberate diplomatic act
Magnifica Humanitas It was not published in a political vacuum. Its publication on May 25, 2026, Whit Monday—a date laden with ecclesiastical significance—was precisely calculated. Leo XIV signed it on May 15, exactly 135 years after Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII, sending an explicit signal of doctrinal continuity. The encyclical, comprising 45,000 words and 245 paragraphs — a length comparable to Laudato Si'’, three times Rerum Novarum — is of a rare programmatic scope. It does not merely state general ethical principles on artificial intelligence: it demands that AI be "disarmed and made accessible" (§ 110), denounces the "governance confiscated by a handful of people" (§ 107), names the "monopolies" and the "epistemic asymmetry" they create (§ 108), and argues for state regulation of digital tools including respect for social criteria in innovation.
This vocabulary is not that of a pastoral document of encouragement. It is a well-articulated political diagnosis, one that demands political leaders. The Pope himself writes in the introduction to the encyclical: «It is necessary to adopt appropriate regulatory instruments, capable of preserving justice and limiting the disruptive effects of technological power.» Leo XIV is not preaching in a vacuum. By engaging in dialogue with Mark Carney as early as May 28, he deliberately involves a leading government figure in the concrete implementation of his text. It is precisely this desire to link the Magisterium and public policy that makes this episode historically unprecedented.
The figure of the prophet Ezekiel offers a illuminating key to understanding this. The Lord said to him: «Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel; you shall hear the word that comes from my mouth, and you shall warn them from me.» (Ezekiel 3:17). The watchman is not a passive observer. He sees the danger before others, and his word engages his responsibility before God as well as before men. Leo XIV assumes this role of digital watchman—not to govern in place of states, but to name what political reason alone cannot see.
Mark Carney, a theologically unique interlocutor
It is important to be precise about what makes Mark Carney unique in this landscape. He is a practicing Catholic—named in 2015 the most influential Catholic in the United Kingdom by a leading Catholic weekly—and his intellectual background is rooted in Catholic institutions before his studies at Harvard and Oxford. But it is above all his trajectory as governor of the Bank of Canada, and then of the Bank of England, that matters here. For two decades, Carney developed cutting-edge thinking on systemic risks: those dangers invisible on an individual balance sheet, but which emerge from the interactions within a complex system. His famous 2015 address to the members of Lloyd's of London denounced "the tragedy of horizons"—the financial system's failure to anticipate catastrophes that unfold beyond the usual economic and political cycles.
This sensitivity to systemic risks makes him one of the few Western heads of government capable of receiving the message from Magnifica Humanitas in all its complexity. For the encyclical does not simply say that AI is dangerous: it diagnoses that its concentration in the hands of a few actors "tends to become opaque and escape public control, increasing the risk of distorted development that generates new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations, and inequalities." This diagnosis is strikingly similar to the one Carney made about the financial system before 2008. Artificial intelligence is the too big to fail of the 21st century — except that this time, nobody yet knows who is playing the role of the central bank.
Nor is this the first time Carney has ventured into this territory. In 2014, he participated in a conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in Rome, alongside Pope Francis. He subsequently co-signed a declaration with 70 financial experts asserting that the Gospel cannot be understood "without an awareness of real poverty" and that it is necessary to "put the human being back at the heart of the economy and politics." The man Leo XIV speaks to on the phone on May 28, 2026, is not a politician discovering Catholic social thought. He is someone who has been practicing it intellectually for years.
Magnifica Humanitas : a Rerum Novarum for the digital age
The same anthropological logic, a century and a half later
To measure the scope of the potential integration of Magnifica Humanitas In Canadian public policy, it is necessary to understand the internal logic that links this text to its predecessors. In 1891, Leo XIII watched industrial capitalism crush the bodies of workers in mines and factories, and he took a doctrinal step of considerable boldness: the Church has not only the right, but the duty to intervene in the name of the inalienable dignity of every human person created in the image of God. Rerum Novarum It was not a trade union manifesto; it was an anthropological assertion. And its principles did indeed inform the first social laws in several countries, notably in Portugal where the corporatist legislation of the 1930s was explicitly inspired by it.
In 2026, Leo XIV watches as artificial intelligence deskills workers, automates surveillance, and creates—in his own words—"new forms of slavery" in the digital economy, and he says exactly the same thing he did in 1891. The form changes, but the substance remains: the dignity of the person is non-negotiable, neither in the 19th century in the coal mines, nor in the 21st century with automated recruitment algorithms. What gives the papal pronouncements an authority that expert reports or AI ethics charters lack is precisely this grounding in a centuries-old tradition. The Church did not discover human dignity with ChatGPT.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, emphasized during the presentation of the text on May 25 that the encyclical should be read as a «community discernment» of the Church in the face of new challenges—not as a condemnation of technology, but as an anthropological compass. This nuance is crucial: Magnifica Humanitas It does not say that AI is inherently evil. It says that AI, subjected to the logic of profit and the oligopolistic governance of large platforms, can become an instrument of structural oppression — just as industrial capitalism was in 1891.
"Epistemic asymmetry": a theological and political concept
One of the most original contributions of the encyclical is the concept of ’epistemic asymmetry« (§ 108), by which Leo XIV designates the growing divide between those who understand AI systems—and can therefore use them to their advantage—and those who are passive recipients of these systems, unable to question or challenge them. This asymmetry is not merely a technical problem. It is a problem of social justice in the truest sense, for it calls into question the principle of subsidiarity, one of the pillars of the Church’s social doctrine: the conviction that decisions should be made at the level closest to the people affected.
But who today decides on the architecture of the major language models, the moderation criteria, and the algorithmic biases that shape access to information for billions of people? A few engineers on a few American campuses, working for companies whose market capitalizations exceed the GDP of most countries. Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, who was also present at the encyclical's presentation, has for years defended what he calls an "outgoing" Catholicism: a Church that goes out into the world not to dominate it, but to bring a prophetic message to where dignity is at stake. The epistemic asymmetry of AI is precisely one of these areas.
It is in this light that the potential Canadian approach takes on its full meaning. The only effective response to an asymmetry of power is an organized political counter-power. By mandating its Treasury Board to examine the compatibility of Canadian AI guidelines with the principles of Magnifica Humanitas, Carney is not performing an act of personal piety. He is making a governmental choice: to integrate into his government's deliberative process an analytical framework that explicitly places human dignity at the center, not as a rhetorical value, but as an operational criterion for evaluating policies. This is, in institutional terms, what the encyclical calls for "shared responsibility.".
A first since 1891: when the magisterium becomes legislation
The historical trace of Rerum Novarum as before
The history of Catholic social encyclicals and their legislative impact is both richer and more nuanced than is generally believed. Rerum Novarum It did not directly produce laws—Leo XIII did not presume to dictate to parliaments. But its principles provided a conceptual framework that Christian Democratic legislators, Catholic trade unions, and labor lawyers used for decades to argue, design, and defend concrete legal measures. In France, figures like Albert de Mun translated the encyclical's principles into legislative proposals. In the United States, the encyclical nourished the social Catholicism of the New Deal. In Portugal, certain elements of the corporatist labor code of the 1930s explicitly bear the mark of the principles of subsidiarity and dignity of work stemming from Rerum Novarum.
In all these cases, however, the link between the Magisterium and legislation was indirect: it was mediated by Catholic political actors who invoked it, without the governments themselves undertaking a formal assessment of the compatibility between a papal text and an existing body of law. This is precisely what makes the Canadian approach potentially unprecedented in the modern history of Church-State relations: it is not a Catholic politician who is invoking in private his faith to guide a decision, but a government that commits institutionally a formal process of comparing a text from the magisterium with one's own public policies.
The apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: «Do not despise prophetic words. But examine everything; hold fast to what is good.» (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). Prophetic speech does not bypass political reason. It illuminates it, challenges it, and asks it the right questions. What Carney seems to want to do is precisely examine all things — including a papal text — and retain what is good for its AI policy. This discernment is in itself a rare and courageous political stance in a Western world where religious references in the public sphere are often perceived as anachronistic.
Canada: A Unique Theological Context
This process is not taking place in a church vacuum. Canada has approximately 381,300 Catholics, or some fourteen million people—a large, culturally diverse local church, marked by significant tensions surrounding issues of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Carney himself thanked the Pope, in their exchange on May 28, for his efforts in favor of the restitution of Indigenous artifacts from the Vatican Museums—a dimension of historical justice that resonates directly with the calls of Magnifica Humanitas to "the option for the poor" and to the defense of the most vulnerable.
It should be added that the Canadian context is that of a country actively reflecting on its international positioning in the field of AI governance. The Prime Minister stated that his country wants to "take a leading role internationally in promoting responsible AI practices for the benefit of the global community." By anchoring this leadership ambition to the principles of Magnifica Humanitas, Canada is not only seeking to distinguish itself on the international stage. It is offering the Holy See something precious: proof that its word can have concrete effects in civil institutions.
The wisdom of the Book of Wisdom admirably expresses the virtue of this type of governance: «"You are the one who governs the power; you judge with equity and you govern us by managing your strength."» (Wisdom 12:18). The wisdom of government is not the brutality of power: it is the capacity to exercise authority with discernment and respect for human frailty. This is precisely what Leo XIV asks of states in his encyclical—and what Carney, in his political and spiritual tradition, seems to want to embody.
Leo XIV's papal strategy: to disseminate the encyclical through direct diplomacy
This dynamic is part of a diplomatic sequence that Leo XIV has clearly been deliberately constructing since his election. After addressing the major geopolitical challenges of the day, after receiving several European leaders at the Vatican, the Pope is now directly engaging the Canadian government in a conversation about the practical application of his encyclical. This sequence reveals a clear strategic vision: the text of Magnifica Humanitas It must not remain a document of theological archives. It must become a tool for international political negotiation, a shared reference point from which sovereign states can build coalitions around the governance of AI.
The Holy See occupies a unique position in this landscape. It is perhaps the only global institution that simultaneously engages in dialogue with AI engineers—Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah was present at the encyclical's presentation on May 25—and with Catholic heads of government, and with populations most vulnerable to disinformation and digital exclusion. This ability to articulate all levels of the problem, from the technical to the spiritual, from the global to the local, is precisely what Catholic tradition calls the full view of the person. And that is what the encyclical puts into practice: a reading of the AI revolution that does not choose between anthropology and regulation, between prophecy and politics, but weaves them together.
There is something in this convergence that goes far beyond the person of Carney or the Canadian context. What is at stake in this spring of 2026 is the question of whether the Catholic Church can once again become—in a secularized, fragmented world, distrustful of all institutions—a voice of reference for major civilizational decisions. Rerum Novarum had done it for the workers' question. Magnifica Humanitas is attempting to do so with regard to digital issues. And the fact that a sovereign government formally agrees to examine its principles within the framework of its public policy suggests that this ambition is not in vain. The conversation of May 28th between Leo XIV and Mark Carney is not over. It has only just begun.
✝ Biblical references
3 passages · 3 books
Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18)
First letter of Paul: encouragement to holiness and teaching on the resurrection.
→ Explore Codex 1 Thessalonians- When Ritual Resists: Liturgy, Intellectual Effort, and Digital Vigilance According to Leo XIV
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- Catholic Africa takes its educational destiny into its own hands
- When the twilight of war becomes prayer: Leo XIV, Philip, James and the face of God
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. (Ezekiel 36:26)
Apocalyptic visions, oracles of judgment, and the promise of the restoration of Israel.
→ Explore the Ezekiel Codex- The Seal and the State: When Leo XIV defied European parliaments on the secrecy of confession
- Look up: the prophetic geography of a pope on the move
- A new voice for a silent Church: Alvarado's appointment and the future of Catholics in China
- When Caesar came to the Pope's school: Leo XIV, Mark Carney, and the political baptism of Magnifica Humanitas
Wisdom is more agile than any movement. (Wisdom 7:24)
Reflections on divine wisdom, the immortality of the soul, and the history of salvation.
→ Explore the Codex of Wisdom🌍 2 countries involved
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