This week on “Inside the Vatican,” Colleen Dulle and Gerard O’Connell look ahead to Pope Leo’s forthcoming encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” which is rumored to be a long document dealing with themes of artificial intelligence and humanity. Ahead of the document’s expected release on May 25, Gerry and Colleen recap what is already known about the document, the Vatican’s previous work on A.I. and how encyclicals are written.

0:00 Intro
1:21 Pope Leo breaks tradition to introduce encyclical
6:51 Journalists expect a very long encyclical
11:06 Why an Anthropic co-founder will present the encyclical
16:30 The teaching authority of an encyclical
18:00 How is an encyclical written? Who writes it?
22:30 Who was involved in this encyclical?
27:00 The Vatican’s decade-plus of work on A.I.
30:06 New commission to coordinate Vatican A.I. work
34:10 The encyclical is about much more than A.I.
35:39 Credits

Links:
Pope Leo will publish first encyclical, ‘Magnifica Humanitas,’ on preserving humanity in the A.I. age on May 25
https://www.americamagazine.org/vatican-dispatch/2026/05/18/pope-leo-encyclical-artifical-intelligence-anthropic/
Bishop Flores: Pope Leo’s AI encyclical is coming. Don’t let ChatGPT read it for you.
https://www.americamagazine.org/last-take/2026/05/19/pope-leo-encyclical-artificial-intelligence-flores/
Explainer: Papal documents and their (different) levels of authority
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2024/05/15/explainer-papal-bulls-247946/
Interview: Bishop Paul Tighe on the Vatican’s response to AI
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2025/02/13/bishop-paul-tighe-vatican-ai-podcast-249922/
What does the Vatican know about A.I.? A lot, actually.
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2025/01/31/vatican-artificial-intelligence-benanti-249821/
Pope Leo’s encyclical comes just in time: AI is raising questions only religion can answer.
https://www.americamagazine.org/short-take/2026/05/19/pope-leo-ai-anthropic/

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