By Cedric Prakash
This is the second of a three-part series on Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo’s first encyclical.
Ahmedabad, May 31, 2026: Pope Leo XIV recalls the writings of his predecessors: from Pope Leo XIII to Pope Francis. identifies five principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church: common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity, social justice.
Christians, says Pope Leo, are called to respond to the culture of power by building “the civilization of love” and by choosing whether to feed the logic of force or safeguard peace.
He recalls the memory of the saints, “righteous people and the oft-forgotten peacemakers, show us that grace does not magically eliminate conflict, but instead it inspires active resistance to evil and an astonishing creativity in doing good.”
Today AI permeates every sphere of life. The way the fundamental values of humanity are being eroded. The violation of human rights: the right to life, the rights of women and minorities.
Pope Leo XIV identifies migrants, refugees, displaced persons as a “litmus test” for social justice.
The way society treats migrants, he says, “reveals whether its sense of justice is driven by fear or by the spirit of fraternity.”
He therefore appeals for societies to protect “the rightful hopes” of those forced to leave, by ensuring them safe and legal routes, dignified welcome, and genuine paths to integration, while promoting “the right to remain” in one’s homeland in peace and security, by addressing “the root causes” of migration.
Compassion for the ‘other’ is what matters. He is also expresses concern about what is happening to the environment- and why one should care for our common home!
Pope Leo says that too much AI power is concentrated in too few hands. He warned that a small group of firms now control vast amounts of data, computing power and digital infrastructure.
He writes, “When such power is concentrated in the hands of a few it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, increasing the risk of distorted forms of development that give rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities.”
He warned that powerful groups could use AI to shape public opinion, influence democratic systems and steer economies for their own interests.
He also criticised the global race for “ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets”, arguing that technology should serve humanity rather than corporate or geopolitical dominance. Another major concern in the document is employment.
While he acknowledged that AI can improve productivity and make some work safer, he argued that workers must not become disposable in the process.
He warns about AI weapons Pope Leo criticised the development of autonomous weapons and said it should never be acceptable for machines to make irreversible life-and-death decisions without human responsibility.
He stated that, “Artificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death.”
‘Magnifica Humanitas’ challenges certain dimensions of today’s human behaviour. Pope Leo devotes ample space to a critique of transhumanism and posthumanism, which interpret progress as the overcoming of human limits.
Instead, limitations are not defects to be eliminated, but a constitutive dimension of the human person, because it is in fragility and finitude that relationship and openness to God and to others, mature.
He says we must remember that “humanity flourishes not despite limitations, but often through them” Pursuing technological innovation at the expense of eliminating human limitations, he says, would cause an anthropological regression.
“Humanity—in all its grandeur and woundedness—must never be replaced or surpassed.” The encyclical challenges all people of good will to stay actively engaged in the ethical development of AI, ensuring it bridges societal divides, rather than centralising power.
‘Being human’ is a commitment to a better world, pregnant with hope and built on the civilization of love. Pope Leo calls for an “ecology of communication” based on truth.
He urges transparency in how content is selected, protection of personal data, serious journalism founded on argumentation and verification, a new awareness in the “proper and critical” use of digital tools, and the integration of different forms of knowledge.
The Church must also embody transparent and honest communication, especially in cases of injustice and abuse.
The Pope also appeals for a renewed educational alliance, so that the “desire to ask questions” may not be extinguished in young people by perfect machines that make human thought seem useless.
Pope Leo therefore calls for renewed attention to schools as places where people learn to “seek and love the truth”.
He emphasizes the importance of protecting the dignity of work by designing systems centered on the person and not only on performance.
For him, peace and development is to move beyond GDP as the measure of a country’s level of development, focusing instead on the dignity of work, shared prosperity, the reduction of inequalities, and environmental protection; “prosperity contributes to peace “only if it is widespread, inclusive, and sustainable.”
Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash is a human rights, reconciliation & peace activist and writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com.
(To be continued)