Pope Leo XIV called for artificial intelligence to be “disarmed” in a new encyclical released from Vatican City [1].
The directive signals a significant escalation in the Catholic Church's stance on emerging technology. By framing AI as a potential instrument of warfare and corporate domination, the Pope is positioning the papacy as a moral arbiter in the global debate over tech regulation.
The encyclical, titled “Magnifica Humanitas,” was released May 20, 2026 [1, 2]. In the document, Pope Leo XIV argues that the deployment of AI in autonomous weapons and its concentration within large tech firms could create new forms of exclusion and death [3, 4].
“We must disarm AI before it becomes an instrument of domination, exclusion, and death,” the Pope said [3].
To emphasize the urgency of the situation, the pontiff utilized a literary reference to the character Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings [5]. He said that just as Gandalf warned the Fellowship, the world must “disarm” AI for the common good [5].
The Pope said AI is the biggest challenge facing humanity today [6]. He said that without regulation, the technology could lead to an existential risk to the human race [4].
While some reports identify Pope Leo XIV as the first U.S. pontiff in history [1], the Vatican's official release focused on the moral imperatives of the technology rather than the leader's nationality [2].
““We must disarm AI before it becomes an instrument of domination, exclusion, and death.””
The call to 'disarm' AI moves the conversation from technical safety to a framework of global disarmament, similar to nuclear treaties. By linking corporate control of AI to 'domination,' the Vatican is arguing that the risks of the technology are not just algorithmic errors, but systemic power imbalances that threaten human dignity and global security.
