Pope Leo unveils his encyclical: AI has ‘even greater consequences’ than Industrial Revolution
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Monday personally attended the presentation of his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, in an uncustomary gesture. Upon his arrival at the event, held in the Vaticanʼs Synod Hall, he was greeted with sustained applause from an audience made up of members of the Roman Curia, representatives of academia, and the diplomatic corps.
Among the speakers was Canadian Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, one of the leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies. The firm has recently had tensions with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump after prohibiting the U.S. Department of Defense from using its software for military purposes.
Some observers had raised concerns about including a representative of a major tech company like Anthropic in an event of this kind. The Holy Father himself dispelled any hesitation by thanking Olah for his presence: “What a great sign of hope it is that with our differences we can listen to one another,” he said in his remarks.
“This interchange clearly bespeaks the gravity of the moment, as well as confidence that together we can discern the major questions of our time, and so the future of humanity,” he added.
In his remarks prior to the pope’s address, Olah echoed the same idea: "That is why, if we want this technology to go well, it is enormously important that there be people outside those incentives — people who care about things going well and insist on safety, who are paying close attention, who are willing to say hard things, who are willing to be our earnest, thoughtful, critics. It is through dialogue and mutual effort, through the push and pull, that humanity will achieve great things. That is what I see in Magnifica Humanitas, and it is why I am grateful to His Holiness and the Church for taking up this work of discernment.”
Olah, who is not a believer, also issued a call to various sectors — religious communities, civil society, academics, and governments — to follow the pope’s example with this document: “to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction. We need informed critics who will tell the labs when we are failing. We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.”
It is no coincidence that Leo XIV signed his first encyclical on May 15, the same date on which his predecessor Leo XIII promulgated Rerum Novarum (“On New Things”) in 1891 in response to the dehumanization brought about by the Industrial Revolution. As the pope explained, the world today faces a transformation of perhaps even greater scope.
“Today we find ourselves facing a transformation of similar magnitude, with perhaps even greater consequences. Artificial intelligence already touches many areas of our lives and affects decisions that shape human coexistence,” he said.
The pope expressed particular concern about the impact of new technologies on the conduct of war, which, he warned, is changing dramatically.
“Like the earlier Leo, I feel entrusted to look upon another huge transformation with eyes of faith, with lucidity of reason, with openness to mystery, and with cries of the poor and the earth resounding in my heart,” he said.
The Holy Father also described the method behind the drafting of this magisterial document, which began in July 2025 at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo. In it, he seeks to reaffirm what makes us human in a society shaped by technology.
He emphasized that Magnifica Humanitas was born from listening: “I have listened to scientists and engineers who work with sincere enthusiasm on technologies capable of alleviating immense suffering, to political leaders and public officials who have perseveringly sought just rules, to parents and teachers who are deeply concerned for the future of younger generations,” he said, without naming individuals.
At the same time, he acknowledged hearing “Other very troubling voices have also reached me about increasingly autonomous weapons systems practically beyond any human reach to govern them effectively.”
“I hear very troubling accounts of algorithms that can block access to healthcare, employment, and security on the basis of data tainted by prejudice and injustice. And Iʼve heard the silence of those who have no voice when decisions are made — decisions likely to generate new forms of exclusion and suffering,” he lamented.
In line with the document — which states that artificial intelligence is not morally neutral — the pope called for AI to be “disarmed.”
“The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity,” he warned.
“The Church has long been working for nuclear disarmament, aware that every great technical power can affect peopleʼs lives, and so must be accompanied by adequate moral discernment and public control. Nuclear disarmament remains a service to peace and the dignity of the human family,” he added.
Also speaking at the presentation were three cardinals of the Roman Curia: Secretary of State Pietro Parolin; Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Two theologians also took the floor: Anna Rowlands, a specialist in Catholic social teaching and migration ethics at Durham University, and Leocadie Lushombo, an expert in political theology and Catholic social thought at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in California.
This story was originally published by ACI Prensa, EWTN News' Spanish-language news service. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Tolkien, Beethoven, MLK Jr., and Hannah Arendt: The voices that resonate in Magnifica Humanitas
As the first encyclical of his pontificate, Magnifica Humanitas, published Monday, can be regarded as an indication of Pope Leo XIVʼs doctrinal approach.
One of the most significant aspects of magisterial documents like encyclicals is the sources of inspiration the pope draws upon beyond the strictly ecclesial sphere — that is, not only citations from great theologians, Church Fathers, or pontiffs but also references from traditions and disciplines outside the Church.
For example, Leo XIV cites Viktor Frankl, the physician and survivor of four Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, between 1942 and 1945. From that extreme experience — marked by the total destruction of his surroundings and the extermination of his loved ones — emerged his universal work “Man’s Search for Meaning,” in which Frankl argues that, despite suffering, life remains worth living.
The pope also points to the “almost prophetic significance” of various cultural expressions: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which he describes as a “desire for unity”; Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica,” “as a denunciation of dehumanization”; and Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List,” “as a call not to consign the past to oblivion.”
In the encyclical, the pontiff warns of the risks facing democratic life in a context in which “the question of what is true loses interest,” giving way to a pragmatism satisfied with “what seems useful or effective.”
To illustrate the consequences of this indifference to truth — which, according to the pope, “leads slowly but inexorably toward totalitarianism” — he turns to the German-American philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt.
In “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” published in 1951, Arendt maintains that the ideal subjects of such regimes are not necessarily those who are ideologically convinced but rather “people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e, the standards of thought) no longer exist,” as quoted in Magnifica Humanitas.
The pontiff also cites 20th-century Catholic writer J.R.R. Tolkien, specifically “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” the epic conclusion of his famous trilogy. Through the wizard Gandalf, the pope recalls the moral responsibility of each generation: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”
Alongside these references, the pontiff evokes the civil rights movement in the United States, associated with the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the end of apartheid in South Africa following Nelson Mandela’s release and his decision not to “surrender the future to hatred.”
The magisterial text also recognizes the witness of “courageous and generous” women such as St. Laura Montoya, St. Teresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, and Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015), an influential American Christian missionary, writer, and speaker.
Alongside them, Leo mentions prominent figures from various fields of knowledge and social action who are not necessarily Catholic. Among them are Marie Curie (1867–1934), a pioneer in the study of radioactivity and the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes in different fields (physics and chemistry); Maria Montessori, the Italian physician, educator, and philosopher who revolutionized education by placing the child at the center of learning; and Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), the Kenyan activist, founder of the Green Belt Movement, and the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.
He also refers to Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007), a prominent Pakistani political leader and the first woman elected to govern a Muslim-majority country, serving as prime minister on two occasions, from 1988–1990 and 1993–1996.
All of them, together with many other women from different continents, Leo XIV notes, have contributed through their efforts to “making history more humane.”
In addition, in the section addressing education, the pontiff cites Plato — specifically his Seventh Letter, dating to 353 B.C. — in which, while recounting his stay in Syracuse under the tyrants Dionysius the Elder and Dionysius the Younger, the Greek philosopher sets forth part of his political and ethical doctrine.
The encyclical also highlights religious communities that choose to live in poor and dangerous places. The pope calls them “martyrs of fraternity and justice,” such as St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, St. Óscar Romero, and Blessed Enrique Angelelli; as well as other witnesses who, under harsh and often inhuman conditions, have embodied the hope of the Gospel and the dignity of the human person, such as the Venerable François-Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Full text of Magnifica Humanitas: Read Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical
Pope Leo XIV signed Magnifica Humanitas, the first encyclical of his pontificate, on May 15. The document was released by the Holy See on May 25.
The encyclical develops the Churchʼs social teaching in light of artificial intelligence, situating new questions of human dignity, labor, and the common good within the tradition that runs from Rerum Novarum through Centesimus Annus and Laudato Si'.
Download and read the full encyclical as a PDF below.
Hundreds of churches open doors to all as Europe marks ‘night of churches’
Hundreds of Christian churches and religious sites across central Europe will open their doors on the evening of May 29 for the Night of Churches, an annual ecumenical initiative that draws nearly 1 million visitors in the Czech Republic and Austria combined.
The event, now in its 18th year in the Czech Republic, invites believers and nonbelievers alike to explore churches, chapels, and synagogues through concerts, exhibitions, talks, guided tours, and prayer — often until late at night. Some participating sites grant access to towers, crypts, and spaces that are otherwise closed to the public. This yearʼs theme in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia is “Courage.”
Last year, more than 460,000 visitors and 25,000 volunteers took part across the Czech Republic, an increase of 40,000 visitors and 5,000 volunteers compared with the year before. In Austria, organizers counted around 300,000 visitors in each of the last two years. In Slovakia, where precise figures were not available for 2025, several cities reported record attendance, according to the press agency of the Slovak Bishops' Conference.
‘Sometimes it takes courage’
Archbishop Stanislav Přibyl of Prague, writing in the periodical Kostelní Noviny published for the occasion, acknowledged that “sometimes it takes courage to even cross the threshold of a church.” The prelate invited readers to enter and “get to know each other,” noting that “churches and chapels were created as spaces for people to meet each other and with God.”
Archbishop Josef Grünwidl of Vienna said he appreciated the growing popularity of the Night of Churches in neighboring Czechia, calling it “a challenge for all people to further explore their own religious and spiritual tradition, enter new spaces, and not be afraid to open up to the unknown.”
In Vienna, Grünwidl and Bishop Cornelia Richter of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church invited guests from church, society, business, and politics for dinner and discussion at the archbishopʼs palace. A limited number of seats were available through a public lottery.
Organizers in the Austrian capital alone expect more than 100,000 visitors, who will be able to choose from more than 170 participating churches — including a police chapel — and performances ranging from Gregorian chant to a Korean choral concert.
In Slovakia, Archbishop Bernard Bober of Košice, president of the Slovak Bishops' Conference, called on people to come, saying that “open temples will become a place of prayer, meeting, and courage to seek God in silence and in community.” He described the event as an “opportunity to rediscover the beauty of faith and the openness of our churches to everyone.”
Several Czech regional governors encouraged residents to enjoy the Night of Churches for its “unique atmosphere” and “openness and sharing,” or simply to pause inside centuries-old buildings and reflect “on how we live and what we can do for us and for others.”
A buried villageʼs night of memory
The initiative has also provided unexpected settings for faith and reconciliation. In 2023, former parishioners of the village of Radovesice in the Czech Republic gathered above the site of their buried village — including its Church of All Saints — on the 40th anniversary of the villageʼs demolition.
The village was one of several in northwestern Czechoslovakia destroyed during the communist era to make way for mining.
“We brought archive documents, paintings, and statues which had belonged to the temple [church],” Robert Kotyšan, caretaker of the Diocese of Litoměřice, explained in Kostelní Noviny.
“We commemorated the deceased parishioners and debated our relationship and responsibility to the place in which we live,” Kotyšan told EWTN News.
The former parishioners also unlocked a padlock from the church that had been preserved, which Kotyšan described as “a symbolic opening of a better future for this once beautiful country and an effort to return at least part of its memory and dignity to it.”
A considerable part of the artifacts brought to the 2023 gathering are now kept in a still-standing church in Kostomlaty pod Milešovkou, which is itself considered a “dead parish” because no parishioners attend.
The next gathering is planned for 2028, the 45th anniversary of the demolition.
From Frankfurt to 8 countries
The concept of opening churches at night originated in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 1995. It spread to Austria in 2005 and to the Czech Republic in 2009 and has since expanded to Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, South Tyrol in Italy, and Switzerland. The initiative usually takes place at the end of May.
Magnifica Humanitas: Pope invokes justice to combat ‘antihuman vision’ in AI
In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, published Monday, Pope Leo XIV calls on society and AI developers to implement “shared standards of social justice” in order for artificial intelligence to respect human dignity and serve the common good.
AI is not a morally neutral tool; it matters not only how it is used but how it is designed, Leo writes in “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” published May 25. Magnifica humanitas means “magnificent humanity” in Latin.
He also warns that “a more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few … In fact, as with every major technological shift, AI tends to amplify the power of those who already possess economic resources, expertise, and access to data.”
The first encyclical letter of Leo XIV covers a wide range of social issues, focusing heavily on the impacts of AI in the areas of education, the economy, unemployment, work, the development of young people, human trafficking, and war.
He proposes the principles of Catholic social doctrine — the dignity of the person, the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity, and justice — as guidelines for decision-making and the “criteria for judging whether technologies truly serve humanity or are subjugating it.”
While rejecting dichotomous thinking that pits the opportunities of AI against its risks, or enthusiasm against fear, Leo offers a stark assessment of the technological paradigm the world finds itself in today and describes a path of progress that serves people “or a progress that subjects them to the mentality of power.”
“The risk extends beyond the misuse of certain technologies. More gravely, the pervasive technocratic paradigm in which we are immersed, and that is amplified by the digital revolution and AI, threatens to normalize an antihuman vision,” he writes.
Leo borrows the term “technocratic paradigm” from Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si', in which, Leo writes, Francis critiqued a paradigm “that seeks to reduce everything to an object to be dominated.”
In that antihuman vision, he continues, “the fullness of life is equated with having more, reducing weakness, eliminating uncertainty, and exerting total control. When efficiency becomes the ultimate measure of value, human beings are tempted to see themselves as a project to be optimized rather than as persons called to relationship and communion.”
According to Pope Leo, the central question — safeguarding our humanity — is something everyone should have a role in answering.
He invokes one of his spiritual guides, St. Augustine of Hippo, quoting from “De Civitate Dei” (“The City of God”): “‘Two loves have built two cities: the earthly city, the love of self even to the contempt of God; the heavenly city, the love of God even to the contempt of self.’ As throughout history, these two loves continue to contend for dominance in our hearts today.”
From Catholic social doctrine to the fight for power
The encyclical’s 245 paragraphs are broken down into an introduction and five chapters, with the first two dedicated to an explanation of the development of the Church’s social doctrine from Pope Leo XIII to today, the main principles of that doctrine, and how they can be applied to the current technological age.
Chapter 3 introduces “the technocratic paradigm” of artificial intelligence and the imbalance of digital power.
Chapter 4 turns to the importance of safeguarding truth, democracy, work, education, and human freedom in the age of AI, while the fifth chapter is dedicated to an analysis of the normalization of war, the fight for power, and how everyone has a responsibility to help build a civilization of love through the cultivation of peace and justice.
Throughout the encyclical, Leo draws on the image of construction to ask how humanity will respond to the new technological age. Humanity, he says, must choose between building the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) and building a city where God and humanity can dwell together, as Nehemiah gathered together people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile (Nehemiah 2-6).
“In light of these two images, the Holy Spirit challenges us today regarding our relationship with technology and the ongoing digital revolution,” he writes. “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.”
Pope Leo XIV draws on quotations from prominent 19th- and 20th-century thinkers, both Catholic and Jewish, including St. John Paul II, Victor Frankl, Hannah Arendt, J.R.R. Tolkien, Giorgio La Pira, and Father Romano Guardini, to argue that while technology is not a solution in itself to humanity’s problems, nor is it inherently evil.
“In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise it, finance it, regulate it, and use it,” he writes.
The choice, he continues, is not between a “yes” or “no” to technology but “between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence.”
Frequently cited sources for the encyclical letter include Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
Writing that he does not wish to give a comprehensive overview of AI, the pope points readers to previous writings by the Church on AI, in particular, the 2025 note Antiqua et Nova by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education and Quo Vadis, Humanitas?, published earlier this year by the International Theological Commission — both of which are cited often in the footnotes of Magnifica Humanitas.
Christian humanism and the technocratic paradigm
The pope writes about the mindsets of transhumanism and posthumanism and how they are the ideological vision underlying technology.
He proposes a Christian humanism, where human beings “are not confined by the boundaries of their own nature; rather, they are called to self-transcendence, not through an escape from reality or a contempt for their limitations but through their fulfillment in love.”
In Magnifica Humanitas, the Holy Father also expresses concern about the “new monopolies of AI.”
“To speak of the common good means exposing this new form of epistemic, economic, and political asymmetry,” he writes.
The key question, he says, is that posed by St. John Paul II: Does AI “make human life on earth ‘more human’ in every aspect of that life? Does it make it more worthy of man?’”
Leo writes that “a decisive test for the ethical discernment of AI and digital transformation” is in the fight against new forms of slavery, such as human trafficking. The pontiff goes on to “sincerely ask for pardon,” in the name of the Church, for the “immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many” before slavery was unequivocally condemned in the 19th century.
“This development offers a clear example of the Church’s growth in understanding the perennial truths of revelation that she safeguards. Although there was not always consistency in practice,” he writes, “there has been a continuous affirmation throughout history of the dignity of every human being, created in the image of God, even if it took 18 centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.”
The memory of past blindness and complicity regarding the injustice of slavery is “a call to vigilance,” the pope says. “What we have learned must be translated into discernment and responsibility in the present.”
‘A violent culture of power’
A large section of the pope’s letter is devoted to what he writes is “a troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics,” AI use in warfare, a crisis in multilateralism, and the erosion of ethical principles that used to limit war.
“Humanity is slipping into a violent culture of power,” he warns. “Today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated. Humanity possesses far more effective and capable tools for promoting human life and resolving conflicts, such as dialogue, diplomacy, and forgiveness.”
“The modern Babel can be seen not only in the globalized technocratic paradigm but also in the remote clash between opposing imperialisms, between powers that wish to preserve their supremacy and those that aspire to seize that supremacy, resulting in a multiplicity of local conflicts. Moreover, there seems to be no limit to the race — driven by a dehumanizing ambition — to develop evermore powerful technologies or to secure control over them,” Pope Leo writes.
But the pontiff does not conclude on a negative note. He adds that, “despite this downward spiral, we can also glimpse a great part of humanity that is striving to remain human and working to build the holy city of coexistence and peace.”
Concluding the document, he expresses the hope that, “[i]n 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.”
6 easy activities to help children understand Memorial Day
Memorial Day marks the cultural beginning of summer in the United States, and in the midst of all the fun of the three-day weekend, it’s easy for kids to think of this holiday as representing nothing more than the end of school and the beginning of barbecue and pool party season.
Here are some ideas that gently introduce children to the deeper meaning of Memorial Day.
1. Create a memorial flower boat.
This is an easy but beautiful craft that uses materials that you probably have lying around the house. Though it is based on the Navy’s tradition of floating flowers out into the ocean to recall sailors whose lives were lost at sea, it could be used to honor fallen soldiers from any branch of the military.
2. Write a letter to a soldier.
Talk to your children about what our men and women in uniform do for our country, then have them write a letter or draw a picture to send to someone who is currently in the military.
3. Take flowers to a veterans cemetery.
Check online to see if there’s a veterans cemetery near you. If there is, consider stopping by with a bouquet of flowers on your way to your Memorial Day plans.
4. Make a pin for a veteran you know.
If you have a friend or family member who is a veteran, have the kids make one of these pretty pins to honor the service he or she provided to our country. This is a good opportunity to talk about where this person served, why he or she was there, and to mention the fact that some of this person’s fellow soldiers were not so fortunate as to make it back home to their families.
5. Make an American flag cake.
You won’t have any problem convincing your kids to help make this Memorial Day cake that is as delicious as it is easy to put together. Working together in the kitchen is always a great opportunity for family bonding moments, and in the process of icing the cake and laying out the flag pattern, chat with your kids about what the American flag represents and all the people who have given their lives to defend it.
6. Say a prayer for the souls of departed soldiers.
The easiest suggestion of all: Simply take a few moments today and have your family pause to say a prayer for the repose of the souls of all the men and women who gave their lives in the service of our country.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, EWTN News’ sister partner, on May 30, 2011, and has been updated and adapted by EWTN News English.
National Eucharistic Pilgrimage kicks off in St. Augustine, Florida, on Pentecost
ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida — The 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage kicked off on Sunday in St. Augustine, Florida, as Catholics gathered for Pentecost Mass at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios, launching a six-week East Coast journey that will carry the Blessed Sacrament to Philadelphia during the United States’ 250th anniversary year.
The pilgrimage, whose 2026 theme is “One Nation Under God,” will travel the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Route from Florida up the Eastern Seaboard before concluding July 5 in Philadelphia.
Organizers have described the route as a way to connect Eucharistic faith with the country’s history, including stops through many of the original 13 colonies and several historic Catholic landmarks.
Bishop Erik Pohlmeier of the Diocese of St. Augustine welcomed pilgrims at the opening event, joined by National Eucharistic Pilgrimage staff, clergy, religious, lay faithful, families, and the perpetual pilgrims who will accompany the Eucharist along the route.
“We should be compelled to speak the message of the Gospel… to take up our part in the grand work of the Church,” Pohlmeier said during his Pentecost homily.
The day began with arrival and welcome at the shrine, followed by opening remarks, the Family Rosary Across America with Relevant Radio, and the Opening Pentecost Mass at the Field Altar. After Mass, the Eucharist was carried in procession on the shrine grounds to the historic chapel for exposition and adoration.
More than 1,000 pilgrims attended the opening events, gathering under the intense Florida sun as umbrellas stretched across the crowd throughout the outdoor Mass and procession. Families, clergy, religious sisters, and pilgrims of all ages filled the shrine grounds before following the Eucharist in procession to the historic chapel for adoration.
The launch site carries historical significance. The Diocese of St. Augustine said the pilgrimage begins in “the nation’s oldest Catholic city,” linking the earliest chapter of Catholic life in what is now the United States with a new generation of pilgrims carrying the Eucharist across the country. The shrine grounds are associated with the Mass of thanksgiving celebrated in 1565 at the founding of St. Augustine, the nation’s oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the continental United States.
In his homily, Pohlmeier connected the feast of Pentecost to both the history of Catholicism in St. Augustine and the Church’s missionary calling today. Reflecting on the arrival of Catholic missionaries to Florida’s shores in the 16th century, he said that “from that beginning, they centered their life around the Eucharist.”
He described Pentecost as producing both “the missionary impulse” and “the divine power of the Church’s work,” saying those same gifts remain essential for the Church today.
The 2026 pilgrimage is named for Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint. Known for her missionary work among immigrants, orphans, the poor, and the sick, Mother Cabrini is also the patron saint of immigrants.
Nine young adults were named perpetual pilgrims for the 2026 journey: Zachary Dotson, Marcel Ferrer, John Paul Flynn, Eduardo Gutierrez, Cheyenne Johnson, Angelina Marconi, Raymond Martinez II, Sharon Phillips, and Mary Carmen Zakrajsek. The pilgrims will travel full time with the Blessed Sacrament from St. Augustine to Philadelphia.
John Paul Flynn, a Catholic University of America student from Maryland serving as a media missionary for portions of the pilgrimage, said he first learned about the opportunity through an Instagram post his girlfriend sent him. Already involved in Catholic media work, Flynn said the opportunity gradually became something he felt called to pursue.
Describing the pilgrimage as “too good … to pass up,” Flynn said he realized his current stage of life as a student gave him a rare opportunity to spend weeks accompanying the Eucharist across the country. He said he hopes the experience will deepen his faith and make Christ’s presence more tangible through the journey.
The pilgrimage is scheduled to pass through 18 dioceses and two Eastern-rite eparchies, with public events including Mass, Eucharistic adoration, processions, service projects, and opportunities for prayer.
Later Sunday, pilgrims processed approximately 1.2 miles from the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, where reflections, speakers, sacred music, and overnight adoration were planned.
The launch comes two years after the first National Eucharistic Pilgrimage crossed the country in 2024 and one year after the 2025 pilgrimage continued the movement. Organizers have said the 2026 route is intended to invite prayer for unity, healing, and renewal as the country approaches its semiquincentennial.
The pilgrimage will continue Monday through the Diocese of St. Augustine before moving north. Its final events are scheduled for Independence Day weekend in Philadelphia.
Leo XIV at Pentecost: The Spirit overcomes war with the omnipotence of love
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV marked Pentecost Sunday with a plea for peace, praying that the Holy Spirit would save the world “from the evil of war” and renew the Church in its mission to transform confusion into communion.
Celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on May 24, the pope centered his homily on the risen Christ’s appearance to the disciples in the upper room, where Jesus showed them “his hands and his side” and breathed the Holy Spirit upon them.
“The Lord reveals his glorious body, specifically his wounds, the marks of the crucifixion,” Pope Leo said. “These signs of the Passion, more eloquent than words, are now transfigured; he who was dead lives forever.”
The pope said the same upper room that had been marked by fear and betrayal became, through Christ’s gift of the Spirit, “for the entire Church, the womb of the Resurrection.”
“Pentecost is therefore a paschal feast and a feast of the body of Christ, which by grace is all of us,” he said.
Leo framed his homily around three aspects of the Holy Spirit: peace, mission, and truth.
“First of all, the Spirit of the risen One is the Spirit of peace,” he said. “Indeed, through his paschal mystery, Christ restores peace between God and humanity, and the Holy Spirit pours this peace into our hearts and spreads it throughout the world.”
That peace, the pope said, “stems from forgiveness and leads us to forgiveness,” beginning with Christ’s forgiveness of humanity.
The pope then described the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of mission,” citing Christ’s words: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
“We are truly co-workers of the Gospel: The whole Church is its protagonist, not merely its guardian,” Leo said. “Through the power of the Spirit, our proclamation is filled with joy and hope, for we — yes, we ourselves — are the newness of the world, the light and the salt of the earth.”
The pope warned that some changes “do not bring new life to the world, but make it grow old through error and violence.” By contrast, he said, “the Holy Spirit enlightens minds and instils new vitality in our hearts.”
“This is how he transfigures history, opening it to salvation, which is the gift that the Lord offers to everyone,” he said. “The Church’s mission bears witness to this offer, thereby transforming the world’s confusion into communion with God and among ourselves.”
Finally, Leo said the Spirit is “the Spirit of truth,” who “always promotes unity in truth” and protects the Church from “partisanship, hypocrisy, and fads that obscure the light of the Gospel.”
“The truth that God gives us thus stands as a liberating word for all peoples, a message that transforms every culture from within,” he said.
Concluding his homily, the pope offered a prayer for a world wounded by war, poverty, and sin.
“Dear friends, with fervent hearts, let us pray today that the Spirit of the risen One may save us from the evil of war, which is overcome not by a superpower, but by the omnipotence of love,” he said. “Let us pray that he free humanity from misery, which is redeemed not by immeasurable wealth, but by an inexhaustible gift. Let us pray that he heal us from the scourge of sin through the salvation proclaimed to all peoples in the name of Jesus.”
After the Mass, Pope Leo appeared from his study in the Apostolic Palace to pray the Regina Coeli, returning again to the theme of the Holy Spirit as the one who opens what fear and sin have closed.
The pope said the Spirit was poured out abundantly on the newborn Church and is given anew to the faithful today as “light and strength” in every circumstance of life.
“The Spirit opens doors,” he said, pointing to the image of Christ opening the doors of the upper room and to the Acts of the Apostles, where the Spirit comes “like a violent wind.”
Leo asked: “What doors does the Holy Spirit open?”
The first, he said, is “the door of God himself,” opening access to the mystery of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, he said, helps believers encounter God personally in Jesus, recognize him within themselves, and discover the signs of his presence in daily life.
The second door is that of the upper room, “that is, of the Church.” Without the fire of the Spirit, the pope said, the Church “remains a prisoner of fear,” timid before the challenges of the world, closed in on itself, and unable to enter into dialogue with changing times.
The third door, Leo said, is “the door of our hearts.” The Spirit helps believers overcome resistance, selfishness, mistrust, and prejudice, making them capable of living as children of God and brothers and sisters to one another.
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, fraternity is born among persons, groups, and peoples of the earth,” he said, adding that all are called to speak “the one language of love, which unites and harmonizes differences.”
The pope also recalled the day of prayer for the Church in China, observed on the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, who is venerated at the Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan in Shanghai.
Leo invited the faithful to join in prayer with Chinese Catholics “as a sign of our affection for them and of their communion with the universal Church and with the successor of Peter.” He prayed that Mary’s intercession would obtain for the Church in China the grace of unity and the strength to witness to the Gospel in daily hardship, becoming a seed of hope and peace.
The pope also remembered victims of a recent mining accident in northern China and entrusted to Mary the Christian communities of the Holy Land, Lebanon, and the wider Middle East suffering because of war.
This story was first published in two parts by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
EWTN News explains: Why do popes issue papal documents and what are they?
This week the Vatican announced the upcoming release of Pope Leo XIVʼs long-awaited first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.
Amid anticipation of the encyclical there is renewed interest in what papal documents are. Understanding these documents has become important for Catholics as well, as they typically reveal the popeʼs pastoral and theological vision for the Church.
So, what are the different types of papal documents, and how should Catholics interpret them?
Papal bull
A papal bull is a formal papal letter authenticated by the popeʼs seal. The name “bull” derives from the Latin “bulla,” meaning seal.
Bulls have been used by popes since the early Middle Ages and have been a popular means of communicating their decisions outside Rome, including denouncing heresies, calling for crusades, establishing jubilee years, and issuing high-profile excommunications.
Since at least the 13th century, these documents have been authenticated by a lead seal with the popeʼs name on one side and the heads of Sts. Peter and Paul on the other. In some cases, they were also authenticated by the Ring of the Fisherman, the popeʼs ring.
In modern times, popes have used bulls to announce jubilee years, appoint bishops, and issue apostolic constitutions. They are typically written in Latin and are now authenticated with a red-ink stamp of the seal rather than the seal itself.
Bulls are the only formal document in which a pontiff will refer to himself as “servus servorum Dei” (“servant of the servants of God”).
Modern examples include the bull with which St. John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council in 1962 and the bull with which Pope Francis proclaimed the Jubilee Year of Hope in 2025.
Apostolic constitutions
Apostolic constitutions are among the most authoritative documents a pope can issue.
According to canon law, the pope is the Churchʼs supreme legislator, possessing “full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church.”
Apostolic constitutions are a means by which the pope establishes laws, defines doctrine (in rare cases), and makes institutional changes in the Church, such as erecting a diocese or reorganizing offices in the Roman Curia.
In rare instances, apostolic constitutions have been used to issue ex cathedra statements that define doctrine, which are regarded as infallible and obligatory for all Catholics to believe. Recent examples include the solemn declarations of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 and the Assumption in 1950.
Encyclicals
A papal encyclical is a letter written by the pope primarily to the bishops but also to Catholics and all people regarding certain social, moral, or theological questions.
According to the 1917 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia, encyclicals were “letters sent to all the bishops of Christendom, or at least to all those in one particular country, and intended to guide them in their relations with their flocks.”
Encyclicals, along with his homilies and apostolic exhortations, are part of the pope’s everyday teaching authority, known as his “ordinary magisterium.” They are commonly used by popes to indicate pastoral priorities for the Church and the world.
Encyclicals are not merely letters or expressions of the popeʼs opinion. They carry significant doctrinal weight and are frequently cited as important sources of Catholic teaching.
According to Lumen Gentium (No. 25), Catholics are required to give “a religious submission of the mind and will” to these letters as the “authentic magisterium of the Roman pontiff, even when he is not speaking ‘ex cathedra.’”
So, while Pope Leoʼs Magnifica Humanitas may not rise to the level of an “ex cathedra” statement, it would still be part of his teaching that Catholics should treat with respect.
Apostolic exhortations
Apostolic exhortations are documents issued by the pope to encourage the faithful in matters of faith, particularly to promote certain devotions or to guide Catholics in responding to societal challenges.
A recent example is Pope Leoʼs apostolic exhortation Dilexit Te, in which he reminded the faithful of the inseparable nature of faith and service to the poor.
While exhortations are not infallible, they also indicate the popeʼs priorities. For example, Pope Francis' Laudate Deum, in which he emphasized the urgency of addressing ecological challenges, has prompted many Catholics to implement measures and found institutes dedicated to preserving the popeʼs ecological vision.
Popes also have regularly released post-synodal apostolic exhortations, responses by a pontiff to the work of a Synod of Bishops. Two well-known such post-synodal exhortations are St. John Paul II’s Christifideles Laici (1988) and Pope Francis’ controversial Amoris Laetitia (2016).
Motu proprios
While apostolic constitutions and other papal documents are usually issued in response to the faithful, a motu proprio is issued at the popeʼs own initiative. Its name, in fact, means “on his own impulse.”
A motu proprio is a common way for a pontiff to change Church law and the bureaucratic dimensions of the Roman Curia. For example, in November 2025, Pope Leo issued a motu proprio restructuring the Governorate of Vatican City State, allowing non-cardinals to serve as its presidents.
In modern times, motu proprios have also been used by popes to regulate the liturgy. Recent examples include Pope Benedict XVIʼs Summorum Pontificum in 2007, which allowed greater freedom for priests to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass, and Pope Francis' Traditionis Custodes in 2021, which imposed restrictions on its celebration.
Motu proprios and apostolic constitutions normally take effect when they are published in the official acts of the Holy See, the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
Papal rescripts
Papal rescripts are the official responses of the pope or a dicastery to a petition. Under canon 59 of the Code of Canon Law, these documents can grant privileges and dispensations and clarify existing laws.
A recent example is the 2023 rescript from the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on the application of Traditionis Custodes, which clarifies the conditions under which permission would be granted for priests to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass.
Addresses
These are the most common kinds of papal documents, ranging from formal speeches (traditionally called allocutions), homilies, special messages, and weekly catecheses.
Papal addresses and speeches are also important indicators of the popeʼs pastoral priorities, and the catecheses during his general audiences each week are particularly notable expressions of his mind. For example, the catecheses delivered by Pope John Paul II from 1979 to 1984 during his general audiences on human sexuality and the human person formed the basis for what has been hailed as the theology of the body.
In the case of Leo XIV, many of his public addresses have been devoted to the theme of peace, the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, and artificial intelligence.
Leoʼs first encyclical is expected to clarify the Churchʼs response to artificial intelligence and other developing technologies. But many of his addresses, including his first address to the cardinals after his election, have already indicated artificial intelligence as a central focus of his pontificate.
Chirographs
A seldomly used papal document, a chirograph is used by the pope only to reorganize the Roman Curia. It is also circulated only within the Roman Curia.
A recent example is the chirograph that Pope Francis issued in 2014 to establish the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
St. Augustine: Pentecost reverses chaos of Babel, unites Church under the Holy Spirit
On May 24, Catholics around the world celebrate the solemnity of Pentecost — the day on which the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Christ who gathered in Jerusalem 50 days after his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
At Pentecost, there “appeared to them tongues as of fire … and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues.” The gift of tongues allowed them to speak and for every person gathered to hear them “in his own native language.”
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” St. Peter said in Acts 2:38-39. “For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.”
Pentecost is considered the birth of the Church, and the gift of tongues allowed Christians to embark on their mission to convert all nations by removing the impediment of language barriers united under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
St. Augustine of Hippo — the fourth- to fifth-century bishop, theologian, and philosopher — wrote about the solemnity in sermons in the late 300s and early 400s. He contrasted the gift of tongues with the chaos established in Genesis 11 when God punished humanity with separate languages for trying to construct the Tower of Babel to reach heaven.
In Sermon 271, Augustine explains that after the Flood, “the ungodly pride of men built a high tower against the Lord, and the human race was deservedly divided by languages, so that each nation would speak its own language and thus not be understood by the others.”
Augustine contrasts the pride of humanity in Genesis with “the devout humility of the faithful” who gathered together 50 days after the resurrection of Christ. At Pentecost, that humility prompted God to instill the gift of tongues to bring unity to the Church despite “the variety of their different languages,” he writes.
With this gift, the theologian explains, “the scattered members of the human race, as of one body, might be attached to their one head, Christ, and so reunited, and fused together into the unity of the holy body by the fire of love.”
“Whoever received the Holy Spirit, even as one person, started speaking all languages,” he writes. “So too now the unity itself is speaking all languages throughout all nations; and it is by being established in this unity that you have the Holy Spirit; you that do not break away in any schism from the Church of Christ which speaks all languages.”
In Sermon 267, Augustine writes that at the Pentecost, “the Church was then in one house.” He adds: “That small church spoke in the languages of all nations” and 400 years later, “this great Church now speaks in the languages of all nations from the rising of the sun to its setting.”
The growth of the Church over those four centuries, Augustine writes, is a fulfillment of God’s promise to reach across nations and languages: “You were promised to yourself: but promised in few, fulfilled in many. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the body of the Church.”
In Sermon 268, Augustine expands on how the Pentecost points to the necessity of unity in the Church under the Holy Spirit, writing that it showed “the unity of the Church in the tongues of all nations” in a small room following Christ’s resurrection. Now we see “the unity of the Catholic Church, spread throughout the whole world.”
“The duties of the members are distributed, but one spirit contains all,” he continues. “Many commands are given, many things are done: One commands, one is served. That is our spirit, that is, our soul, to our members; this is the Holy Spirit to the members of Christ, to the body of Christ, which is the Church.”
Augustine is one of the Church’s greatest theologians and philosophers. He strongly influenced the Catholic understanding of the Trinity and the Holy Spirit more specifically, with writings such as “On the Trinity.”
Pope Leo XIV, the first Augustinian pope, discussed Augustine’s writings about Pentecost in a homily on Sept. 1, 2025, telling his Augustinian brothers: “You are members of the body of Christ, who speaks all languages.”
“If not all those of the world, certainly all those that God knows to be necessary for the fulfillment of the good that, in his provident wisdom, he entrusts to you,” Leo said. “Live these days, therefore, in a sincere effort to communicate and to understand, and do so as a generous response to the great and unique gift of light and grace that the Father of heaven gives you by summoning you here, specifically you, for the good of all.”