The Trump Encyclical

Pope Leo XIV’s 42,300-word “Magnifica Humanitas,” the first encyclical of his papacy, is to a large extent devoted to artificial intelligence. The Bishop of Rome wants it heavily regulated lest the powerful technology lead humanity to “construct a new Tower of Babel.” Instead, the pontiff exhorts his flock and beyond to “build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.” What struck us, though, was an apology tucked into the argument on AI.The encyclical asks for “pardon” for the Vatican’s role in legitimizing slavery and for having failed to condemn it. Pope Leo writes that “already in the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to the requests of sovereigns, intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, including the enslavement of ‘infidels.’” These interventions took the form of papal bulls.Take, as the Associated Press does, the papal bull “Dum Diverdas,” which was issued in 1452 by Pope Nicholas V. That document gave to the kings of Portugal the right “to invade, conquer, fight and subjugate” and take all possessions — including land — of “Saracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ” and “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.” Spanish kings received similar dispensations.In 2023 the Church repudiated the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery,” which gave theological ballast to the conquest of the New World. The Vatican reckons the doctrine “did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples.” Even this string of apologies, though, might not be enough. One academic, Shannen Dee Williams, tells the PAP that Rome has been a key player in “the history of white supremacy.”Far be it for us to tell the Church how to navigate its own doctrinal byways. The path toward apology and reparations, though, is rarely a productive one. What Pope Leo calls “a wound in Christian memory” is not one for which Rome bears sole responsibility. It could be that Leo, whose own background includes both slaves and slaveowners, feels a personal connection to what Pope John Paul II called the “tragedy of a civilization that called itself Christian.”Pope Leo writes that the “fight against new forms of slavery is a decisive test for the ethical discernment of AI and digital transformation.” When it comes to AI, though, the pontiff seems to think that the answers are “adequate regulatory tools capable of upholding justice and curbing the distorting effects of technological power” — meaning more government. Yet it is free enterprise that has unleashed AI’s dynamic possibilities in the first place.The question is animating West Wing corridors as well as the Vatican’s throne rooms. This week President Trump delayed a new AI executive order at the 11th hour. He was apparently concerned about hindering American competitiveness. Mr. Trump declares that “We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s gonna get in the way of that lead.” Call it a codicil to “Magnifica Humanitas,” — or the “Trump Encyclical.”

The Trump Encyclical

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