The Grandeur of Humanity

Priests and Religious (laity too) normally recite or sing the ‘Magnificat’ (the canticle of Mary) while praying the Divine Office in the evening. The ‘Magnificat’ is a many dimensional prayer: of praise, promise, petition and protest. It is widely regarded as the prayer of the ‘Anawim’ (battered, broken, brutalised people) who were expecting a ‘Messiah’ who would liberate them from their physical bondage. Mary, represented the ‘Anawim’ and was their voice, as she sang this song while embracing Elizabeth.

The canticle reflects the hope of the ‘Anawim’—the belief that God will actively upend unjust human hierarchies. Mary explicitly prophesies a radical socio-spiritual reversal: ‘the proud and mighty: scattered, put down from their thrones, and sent away empty’; on the other hand, ‘the lowly and hungry: exalted and filled with good things’.

So, it is not without reason that Pope Leo XIV ends his powerful and incisive Encyclical ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ (Magnificent Humanity) with three defining paras (#243-245) under the sub-heading ‘The song of hope: The Magnificat.’ These paras (while in no way attempting to summarise the document) provide in some small measure, the spirituality encapsulated in the encyclical. The spirituality is one of faith, love, hope and prayer. It is directional. Mary’s ‘Magnificat’ is a roadmap; ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ which highlights the many challenges one is gripped with today also provides one with the wherewithal to respond to these challenges effectively and with urgency.

Pope Leo focuses on the way Mary takes sides because she knows that God accompanies her and will never let her down. “Mary suddenly sees all of history through the lens of this revelation. Nothing has changed around her; the socio-political situation of her time remains the same. The Romans continue to control her land, and her people are still subjugated and humiliated. Yet, everything has changed within her, and this allows her to see what is invisible. God has already shown the strength of his arm; he has already scattered the proud, cast down the mighty, lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed. He has already helped Israel, his servant. God ‘takes the part of the lowly. His plan is one that is often hidden beneath the opaque context of human events that see the proud, the mighty and the rich triumph. Yet his secret strength is destined to be revealed.’”  Mary’s unflinching faith is what matters.

Our spirituality has to be contextual, rooted in the realities of the present, and from the perspective of the subalterns. In the ‘Magnificat’, “The Blessed Virgin Mary not only teaches us to recognize God’s invisible work, but also directs our gaze to ‘the points at which humanity is broken and the world becomes distorted: the contrast between the humble and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the satiated and the hungry,’ teaching us ‘to look at the world from a lower position: through the eyes of those who suffer rather than the mighty; to view history through the eyes of the little ones, rather than through the perspective of the powerful; to interpret the events of history from the viewpoint of the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the wounded child, the exile and the fugitive.’ The Blessed Virgin thus becomes ‘poet and prophetess of Redemption,’ because on her lips is proclaimed ‘the strongest and most innovative hymn ever articulated, the Magnificat; it is she who reveals the transformative vision of the Christian economy, the historical and social result that still draws its origin and strength from Christianity.’”

Finally, like Mary, we are called to become “weavers of hope” in our world today “sharing who we are and what we have, so that the presence of Jesus may grow among us and his Kingdom take shape. In the humble fidelity of daily life, even the era of AI can become a time in which the Holy Spirit brings about the civilization of love in our lives. Indeed, the Lord continues to make all things new and offers every era the possibility of becoming part of salvation history in the light of the Incarnation.”

Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, ‘Magnificat Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence’, on 25 May 2026. This path-breaking document is set in the context of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution gripping the world today. Throughout his blockbuster, he makes an unequivocal and passionate plea to safeguard humanity, promote truth, freedom, and the dignity of work, and advocate that the fundamentals of the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity, human rights, social justice, and peace be mainstreamed.

The Encyclical was signed by Pope Leo XIV on 15 May, which was the 135th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s powerful 1891 encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum (Of New Things): On the Condition of Labour’. Pope Leo then addressed the severe social and economic upheavals brought about by the Industrial Revolution. ‘Rerum Novarum’ is considered the foundational blueprint for modern social doctrine of the Catholic Church, as it marked the first time the Vatican systematically and purposefully intervened in contemporary socio-economic debates to defend the dignity and the rights of workers.

In 1985, the Washington-based Jesuit ‘Center of Concern’ published a landmark book, ‘Catholic Social Teaching: Our Best Kept Secret’. Written by Michael J. Schultheis, Edward P. DeBerri, and Peter J. Henriot, it soon became an acclaimed and widely cited foundational textbook. This influential resource served as an accessible introduction to the Catholic Church's comprehensive body of modern social, economic, and political doctrines. Vatican II made no bones of the fact that the Church had to respond to the cries of the people -- the witnessing dimension of authentic Christian living. Sadly, over the years, despite some excellent teaching by successive Popes, Catholic Social doctrine remained on the back burner. That is till Pope Francis appeared on the horizon with his contextual spirituality which included powerful documents like ‘Evangelii Gaudium’, ‘Laudato Si’, ‘Fratelli Tutti’ and ‘Dilexit Nos.’

Pope Leo XIV continues this trend with unwavering commitment; first with ‘Dilexi Te’ and now with ‘Magnifica Humanitas’.  He asserts that far from being “a handbook of principles and norms to be applied,” the Church’s social teaching is rather a “theology of communion in history” which guides our reading of events in light of the Gospel. He recalls the writings of his predecessors: from Pope Leo XIII to Pope Francis. He identifies five principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church: common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity, and social justice.  The Pope emphasises that “Christians are called to respond to the culture of power by building ‘civilisation of love’ and by choosing whether to feed the logic of force or safeguard peace.”

The ‘Introduction’ in ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ provides the ‘raison d'être’ and the immediacy of the content. The first chapter, ‘A Dynamic Approach Faithful to the Gospel’, traces the Social Doctrine of the Church in recent magisterium and the Second Vatican Council, highlighting its dynamic character. In the second chapter, Pope Leo XIV explores the ‘Foundations and Principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church’. The third chapter, ‘Technology and Dominance: The Grandeur of Humanity in Light of the Promises of AI’, stresses the need to approach artificial intelligence with vigilance.

In the fourth chapter, ‘Safeguarding Humanity at a Time of Transformation. Truth, Work, Freedom’, the Pope calls for an ecology of communication based on truth. In the fifth chapter, ‘The Culture of Power and the Civilization of Love’, the Pope turns his gaze to war, saying “the digital revolution is changing the nature of conflict.” He calls for an ethical approach, without which decisions about the life and death of persons will become increasingly impersonal due to the use of force regarded as an “immediate and viable option”.  The ‘Conclusion’ clearly points to the ‘road ahead’, giving one a spirituality for our time.

The 245-paragraph tome is comprehensive. It needs to be read, studied, discussed, and prayed over, and a clear plan for implementing its directives needs to be put in place at the community, parish, institutional, congregational, and diocesan levels. There will be token talks and seminars. Those certainly have a place. The nature of this Encyclical, however, demands that hierarchy, priests, and religious get their acts together and ensure that its content is internalised individually and collectively. There is, as Pope Leo makes it amply clear, no other way.

He sets the tone and direction of his Encyclical with his opening words, “Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted, and fraternity is made possible. Yet every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world.”

Pope Leo explores the contrast between the two biblical stories of the Tower of Babel and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. For authentic discipleship, we need to realise that we should place God and human dignity at the centre, collaborate, listen to one another’s concerns and take shared responsibility. True progress means choosing to work together in the presence of God, rather than trying to dominate.

Pope Leo views ‘Artificial Intelligence’ as one of the key challenges of our times, but the Encyclical is not all about technology. It is about how technology can have a dehumanising effect! It is about how we respond to the challenges this technology brings to our world and how we live our lives in the light of our faith, the Gospel and the history of Catholic teaching. It is a warning about allowing ourselves to build further inequality into our structures and systems, with economic and technological resources being concentrated in a few hands. This could lead to a widening of the gap between the included and excluded, those who can participate and those who do not have access. He asserts, “Technology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice.”

Everything that Pope Leo speaks about applies to us in India: both Church and Country. We have reached an abysmally low level of dehumanization in the country; democracy is in the doldrums. We have a long way to go in critical issues of truth, rights of workers, migrants and refugees, of taking a stand against violence and war and of the need for peace and freedom.

He wants the Church to do a serious examination of conscience. He says that the five principles of the social doctrine should be applied not only to society, but also to the Church; living out this justice calls for “purifying ecclesial relationships and structures from distortions that give rise to inequality, lack of transparency and abuse of power.” This means to listen to the “victims of spiritual, economic, institutional, sexual and power-based abuse, as well as abuses of conscience.” This examen “is an integral part of a journey toward justice, which includes acknowledging the harm done, just reparation and taking steps to prevent it from happening again”.

May we “bear witness to the grandeur of humanity, in which God has made his dwelling!”

(Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist & writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com )

Blurbs

In the context of Artificial Intelligence, Pope Leo XIV makes an unequivocal and passionate plea to safeguard humanity, promote truth, freedom, and the dignity of work.

Vatican II made no bones of the fact that the Church had to respond to the cries of the people. Sadly, despite some excellent teachings by successive Popes, Catholic social doctrine remained on the back burner.

The nature of the Encyclical demands that the Church hierarchy, priests, and religious get their acts together and ensure that its content is internalised individually and collectively.

“Technology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice.”