Notre Dame answers Pope Leo XIV’s call on AI

The original articles were published by Notre Dame News.

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, offers timely moral guidance on safeguarding human dignity in an age increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.

Released May 25, the encyclical calls on scholars, researchers, policymakers, clergy, the faithful, and all people of goodwill to ensure that AI and other emerging technologies serve the human person and advance the common good.

Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, called the encyclical “a profound gift,” noting that it reminds the world that every human life possesses an inviolable dignity that must remain central to decisions about the development and use of artificial intelligence.

A Catholic response to a technological age

Signed on the 135^th anniversary of Rerum novarum, Pope Leo XIII’s landmark encyclical on the rights of workers during the industrial revolution, Magnifica humanitas invites a similar moment of moral clarity amid today’s rapid technological change.

Fr. Dowd said Notre Dame’s mission as a global Catholic research university compels the University to advance Pope Leo XIV’s contribution to Catholic social tradition through research, teaching, and service to the common good.

Notre Dame experts reflect on human dignity and AI

Notre Dame faculty experts from theology, philosophy, law, engineering, global affairs, and other disciplines reflected on the encyclical’s significance and its implications for the future of AI.

Their responses emphasized that Magnifica humanitas is not a rejection of technology, but a call to ensure that innovation remains accountable to human dignity, justice, solidarity, and the common good.

Faculty members highlighted the need for AI that is transparent, accountable, inclusive, safe, and directed toward integral human development—principles that align closely with Notre Dame’s work at the intersection of technology, ethics, faith, and human flourishing.

A mission rooted in human dignity

For Notre Dame, Magnifica humanitas affirms a central conviction of the University’s Catholic character: that every person is made in the image of God and possesses a dignity no technology can replace, measure, or override.

As society confronts the promise and peril of artificial intelligence, Notre Dame is helping answer Pope Leo XIV’s call by forming students, supporting faculty, and advancing research that keeps the human person at the center of innovation.

Read Fr. Dowd’s statement and the response from Notre Dame experts on Notre Dame News.

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