President Donald Trump signed an executive order asking artificial intelligence companies to voluntarily collaborate with national security agencies on June 2. The Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States that day addressed a letter to congressional leaders on the implications of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” for A.I. policy.

The letter signals the beginning of the conference’s efforts to practically embody the American pope’s recent insights on A.I. The conference plans to follow up with meetings with members of Congress and their staff to share its expertise on Catholic social teaching and A.I.

The letter includes sections on economic inequality, defense, protecting children and workers’ rights, among others. Citing concepts from “Magnifica Humanitas,” the conference translates the pope’s insights into suggestions for congressional policy as the question of how to regulate A.I. grows more pressing with each technological advance.

The Office of Justice and Ecology manages federal advocacy efforts on behalf of the Jesuit Conference, building relations on Capitol Hill to promote U.S. policies and priorities in line with Catholic social teaching. Chris Kellerman, S.J., the secretary of the office, wrote the letter and spoke to America.

“We wanted to make a thorough but digestible guide for the policy measures that the pope was suggesting [in “Magnifica Humanitas”] to give Congress a slightly easier way to access them than reading the whole thing,” Father Kellerman said.

Father Kellerman believes that there is a “real hunger” from lawmakers for the moral guidance that the church can provide on this issue. “A.I. develops at such a breakneck pace that things are constantly changing. These members of Congress, they’re not experts on artificial intelligence.” In short, he thinks, they are open to advice. 

Unfortunately, much of that advice they hear now comes from A.I. entrepreneurs or heads of powerful corporations, Father Kellerman said. Tech companies are spending more than ever lobbying Congress in a frantic race to shape federal A.I. policy. In this environment, the church’s unique, unbiased voice is especially crucial.

“This encyclical comes at a great time, and we really believe at the conference that it could do a lot of good,” Father Kellerman said.

Even some tech leaders agree with that assessment. On June 4, a blog post from Anthropic, a leading A.I. company and creator of the chatbot Claude, suggested that it would “likely be a good thing” to slow A.I. development because of concerns about the technology approaching the level where it can improve itself without human input.

At the same time, efforts to regulate A.I. have struggled to gain steam in Congress, and the Trump administration has yet to promote a legislative agenda to regulate the emerging technology. His recent executive order focuses primarily on national cybersecurity concerns and is generally bullish on what A.I. will do for the economy. 

Current A.I. regulation has been created piecemeal and at the state level, something the Trump administration sought to prohibit in an executive order last December. It is not clear when or if a federal A.I. regulatory framework may be forthcoming, though some members of Congress are advocating for one. Most recently, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont announced that he plans to propose a bill in the Senate to grant the U.S. public a 50 percent stake in A.I. companies.

In the coming debate, the church will have to thread a needle, Father Kellerman said. It cannot be prescriptive on technical matters beyond its expertise, nor can it offer up principles so vague they leave lawmakers nothing to work with. He believes that Leo managed that challenge well in “Magnifica Humanitas.”

For example, while the pope does not wade into a U.S.-specific debate around whether a national legislative A.I. framework should pre-empt state law, “the pope says things like, ‘protect children,’” and offers more practical recommendations like “set age limits on platforms.”

Another reason Father Kellerman is hopeful about the role the church can play in shaping the A.I. debate is that so far, the issue has not succumbed to partisan politics. On the Hill, he said, A.I. is not an issue where there is a clear Democratic or Republican stance. That suggests the possibility of reaching a common policy through dialogue with “all members of Congress, no matter how liberal they are or how conservative they are.”

His message to Congress includes calls for A.I. to “support the human person,” “protect our common home,” “protect children” and “help solve social inequality as opposed to exacerbating it.” Father Kellerman said that “there are champions of these topics on both the right and the left, and we’re trying to unite them and hopefully help change the legislative landscape such that some of these things are a no-brainer.”

“I think that members of Congress and their staff are going to be really open to it.”

Father Kellerman noted that the conference will be looking to involve the Jesuit network in its advocacy efforts by setting up constituent-level meetings with Jesuit apostolates and sending out action alerts on relevant legislative efforts aligned with the pope’s principles. “We really hope to get everyone involved.”

“After all, Pope Leo wants this to be a collective building project—us rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem together.”

Edward Desciak is an O'Hare Fellow at America Media.