Artificial intelligence as the Church prepares to release his first major encyclical. The initiative reflects growing concern within the Vatican about how rapidly advancing AI technologies could affect human dignity, labor, relationships, and global peace. Church officials say the group was formed because of AI’s accelerating influence on society and its potential long-term consequences for humanity.
The upcoming encyclical is expected to frame AI as one of the defining moral and social challenges of the modern era, much like the Industrial Revolution was for the Church in the 19th century. Vatican observers note that the timing is symbolic: Pope Leo signed the document exactly 135 years after Pope Leo XIII issued Rerum Novarum, the landmark encyclical that addressed workers’ rights and industrial capitalism. The new document is expected to connect AI ethics with Catholic teachings on justice, labor, peace, and human responsibility.
According to reports, the Vatican’s AI study group will include representatives from multiple Church departments dealing with education, doctrine, communications, social development, and science. The Church has increasingly positioned itself as an active voice in debates surrounding AI governance, autonomous weapons, misinformation, surveillance, and digital ethics. Vatican leaders have repeatedly argued that technological development must remain centered on human well-being rather than profit or unchecked automation.
Pope Leo XIV has already spoken publicly about the dangers of overdependence on AI, warning that technology could weaken authentic human relationships and reduce people to “passive consumers” of machine-generated content. At the same time, the Vatican is not rejecting AI entirely; instead, it is calling for ethical safeguards and responsible innovation. Analysts believe the forthcoming encyclical could become one of the most influential religious statements yet on artificial intelligence and may shape global discussions about AI ethics far beyond the Catholic Church.
