The universal Church has received with hope and deep reflection Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), a document that places human dignity at the center in the face of the challenges posed by artificial intelligence, technological power, and new forms of global exclusion.
The encyclical, officially presented on May 25 at the Vatican, bears the subtitle “On the Care of the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”, and has been regarded by various analysts as a major new reference point for the Church’s Social Doctrine in the digital age, just as Rerum Novarum was for the industrial revolution.
From the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), this document resonates deeply with the cries of the Amazonian peoples, of our Common Home, and of those who defend life in the face of economic, technological, and political models that threaten the dignity of people and territories.
Humanity Threatened by Technopower
In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV warns of the danger that artificial intelligence may become concentrated in the hands of a few, generating new forms of domination, manipulation, and inequality. The Pope denounces that “whoever controls AI will impose their own moral vision,” warning of a technocratic system that can turn technology into an instrument of exclusion and control.
The encyclical also questions the economic model that commodifies life, undermines human labor, and transforms data, natural resources, and cultures into objects of exploitation. In this context, the Amazon emerges as a territory deeply vulnerable to digital extractivism, the plundering of strategic minerals, the indiscriminate exploitation of biodiversity, and new forms of technological colonialism.
The Amazon as a Prophetic Sign
Although the encyclical focuses on artificial intelligence and human dignity, Pope Leo XIV’s ecological and social thought maintains a strong continuity with the legacy of Laudato si’ and Querida Amazonía.
In various recent messages, Leo XIV has noted that “the Amazon is a living symbol of creation” and an urgent call for humanity to hear “the cry of the earth and of the poor.”
For CEAMA, this new encyclical strengthens the mission of a Church with an Amazonian, synodal, and prophetic face, committed to the integral defense of life. The papal text reminds us that there can be no true technological innovation if it destroys peoples, cultures, and ecosystems or deepens social inequalities.
The Amazon, with its indigenous peoples, riverine communities, rural farmers, and Afro-descendants, thus becomes a privileged space for ethically discerning the future of humanity. In the face of a culture of digital discarding, Leo XIV proposes a “civilization of love,” based on solidarity, ecological justice, and mutual care.
A Call for Ecological and Digital Conversion
The Pope insists that humanity needs a profound spiritual, ethical, and cultural conversion. Technology cannot replace conscience, responsibility, or fraternity.
Nor can it replace the wisdom of indigenous peoples, communal memory, and a harmonious relationship with creation.
In this sense, Magnifica Humanitas also represents an invitation for the Church in the Amazon to continue promoting processes of formation, discernment, and participation that help critically address the challenges of the digital world from the perspective of the Gospel and the local territories.
CEAMA welcomes this encyclical as a guiding light for the journey of the Amazonian Church and as an urgent call to build a future where technology is truly at the service of life, human dignity, and the care of our Common Home.