Zac Johnson · June 5, 2026
A week and a half ago, Pope Leo XIV released Magnifica Humanitas, his first encyclical, and the Church's most substantial statement yet on artificial intelligence.
I've been sitting with it since.
The line I keep coming back to is a simple one. Pope Leo calls AI "a valuable tool that requires vigilance."
That's the whole posture.
He doesn't flinch from the dangers. He doesn't retreat from the good. He sees it all clearly, holds it together, and speaks with the confidence of a shepherd who knows exactly what his flock is up against.
He's also clear about what's at stake. The question, he writes, isn't really about technology at all. It's about vision:
The key issue is not the use of technology as such, but the vision that underlies it.
Every tool embeds assumptions about what matters, what's good for us, what a human person is for. The Church has a vision for that. Most of the companies building these tools don't, or they do, and it isn't the Church's.
Pope Leo called this moment a construction site. He called for builders. That's what Jake and I are trying to be, and Truthly is where that work is happening, right now. There's nothing else quite like it in the world.
If you want to read our full thoughts, on the Church's teaching, what the encyclical means for us, and where Catholic AI fits, I wrote them up in Why Catholic AI.