Pope Leo XIV – Religion & Liberty Online

May 29, 2026

Magnifica Humanitas: Between Babel and Jerusalem in the Age of AI

In his first social encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV offers a compelling reflection on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human dignity. The much-anticipated document was signed on May 25 by a pope who pledged to immediately confront the AI revolution morally and pastorally during his papacy. Continue Reading...

May 28, 2026

Humanity, Magnificent, at a Crossroads

By the time you finish this article, Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, will bear the tire marks of a thousand different journalists, columnists, and influencers, each driving his or her own interpretive agenda across its 245 paragraphs. Continue Reading...

May 26, 2026

Freedom and Responsibility: Seven Takeaways from Magnifica Humanitas

The Second Vatican Council grappled with how to approach the “signs of the times” in Gaudium et Spes, giving the following warning: The modern world shows itself at once powerful and weak, capable of the noblest deeds or the foulest; before it lies the path to freedom or to slavery, to progress or retreat, to brotherhood or hatred. Continue Reading...

March 17, 2026

What Exactly Are the ‘Common Goods’?

At some point in their economics curriculum, every undergraduate will learn the “guns and butter” model of trade. The idea is simple: Countries have limited resources and can devote them either to military production or to consumer goods. Continue Reading...

October 31, 2025

Dilexi Te and Loving the Poor

Pope Leo XIV’s first major proclamation, Dilexi Te (I Have Loved You), is an apostolic exhortation addressed “to all Christians” on caring for the poor. Pope Francis was preparing this exhortation when he died. Continue Reading...

July 09, 2025

Pope Leo’s Crusade Against AI

For an organisation that is so often accused of being behind the times, the Catholic Church is proving itself to be remarkably relevant. Pope Leo XIV—the first American to ever sit on the Throne of St. Continue Reading...

May 22, 2025

Pope AI: Leo XIV and the ‘New Things’ of Artificial Intelligence

For those who research and teach Catholic Social Thought, it should have been immediately apparent why the first-ever American pope, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, chose what appears to be an antiquated name in Leo XIV. Continue Reading...

May 16, 2025

Pope Leo XIV and Orthodox Social Thought

The new pontiff of Rome has already set a tone for his papacy with the choice of his name: I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. Continue Reading...