Pope Leo’s encyclical on AI a ‘powerful reminder’ of human dignity, says Archbishop Coakley

(OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, which addresses artificial intelligence, is “a powerful reminder that no technology can replace a child of God, and all technology should be placed at the service of helping humanity thrive,” said Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City.

The archbishop, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, shared his thoughts in a May 25 statement issued minutes after the official release of “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”

The highly anticipated document was signed by the pope on May 15 and officially released May 25 during a press conference at which Pope Leo joined senior Vatican officials, theologians and Christopher Olah, one of the founders of the AI research and safety firm Anthropic.

The encyclical invokes the wisdom of the Church’s social teaching — which articulates the means of building a just society and living out holiness in modern life — as a framework for shaping AI amid rapid technological advances, a fractured global order and accelerating threats to human dignity.

In the 42,000-word text, that social teaching is applied in detail to key issues raised by the acceleration of AI, including the technology’s impact on social relationships, labor and war.

Archbishop Coakley said the Church in the U.S. welcomes the document “with gratitude and praise.”

He said that just as Pope Leo XIII — who inspired the current pope’s choice of papal name — “addressed the challenges of the Industrial Revolution” in his 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum,” Pope Leo XIV now “shines the light of the Gospel and the tradition of the Church on the new opportunities and challenges posed” by the rise of AI.

“The Pope calls us to never lose sight of the inherent dignity of all human life and the moral imperative for technology to support peace and the common good rather than the limited interest of a few,” said the archbishop.

He announced that the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine has been tasked “to lead and coordinate” the bishops’ work regarding AI.

That mission “reflects the Catholic belief that the dignity of the human person is inviolable,” he stressed.

“My brother bishops and I look forward to prayerfully reading the encyclical more deeply over the next few days,” said Archbishop Coakley. “We encourage all people of good will to reflect on this rich papal teaching and to seek ways in which to apply it in their lives.”

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