Pope Leo XIV will release his first encyclical on May 25, 2026, a document titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity) addressing human dignity in the era of artificial intelligence. The Vatican announced the launch will take place in the main Vatican auditorium, with Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah among the featured speakers.
The formal event will feature two senior Vatican cardinals as main presenters: Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the Vatican’s doctrine chief, and Cardinal Michael Czerny, its development chief. Theologians Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo will also speak. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, will offer concluding remarks, followed by a speech and blessing from the pope himself.
Leo signed the document on May 15 — 135 years to the day after his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, signed Rerum Novarum, the encyclical that addressed workers’ rights and the limits of capitalism during the Industrial Revolution. That document became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought. The current pope has already cited it in relation to the AI era, which he views as posing comparable existential questions.
Olah’s presence at the Vatican carries political weight. In February 2026, the Trump administration ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s AI technology after the company refused to allow the U.S. military unrestricted use of it. Anthropic is currently suing the administration, alleging illegal retaliation. Pope Leo has expressed concern about AI in warfare and has called for oversight of how the technology is deployed, suggesting his position on AI could become a point of tension with the Trump administration.
Anthropic, co-founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei and others who left OpenAI over disagreements about AI safety, reported a valuation of $380 billion earlier this year. Its chatbot, Claude, competes with products from OpenAI and xAI.
Source: Tech-Economic Times