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When the Catholic Church publishes a papal encyclical about ‘Magnificent Humanity’, a document warning against the Tower of Babel and calling for the patient, collective rebuilding of a just world, as humanists we might pause mid-scroll and think: that’s our argument. 

When I, a former Catholic church historian, computer scientist, and leadership professor turned humanist chaplaincy candidate, read about the core value of human dignity in the context of AI, I suspect a common message. 

Abstract (stay tuned for publication of full article)

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (May 2026), addresses artificial intelligence with unusual directness: it names algorithmic discrimination, surveillance capitalism, autonomous weapons, and technological unemployment as genuine moral crises, and insists that the response must be collective and democratic, it has to be centred on human dignity and the most vulnerable. Its social analysis is largely sound. Its ethical principles — dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, the common good, the priority of the vulnerable — map closely onto the core commitments of the humanist tradition.

This article takes that convergence seriously. It argues that the encyclical’s strongest claims do not depend on theological foundations to stand — they depend on reason, evidence, and the accumulated moral experience of our species. A humanist rewriting of the document, retaining every substantive argument while replacing every load-bearing theological claim, produces not a curiosity but a genuinely useful and more universally accessible moral framework for AI governance.

The article then turns the exercise into a challenge. If humanists and the Catholic Church arrive at the same practical conclusions about AI — that technology must serve persons, that power must be accountable, that democratic governance is non-negotiable — humanists need to ask honestly whether they are making that case with sufficient urgency and clarity. Drawing on the encyclical’s central parable of Nehemiah’s wall — rebuilt not by a single authority but by all the people together, each tending their own section — the article proposes five concrete priorities for a humanist AI ethics and argues for a more collaborative, coalition-minded approach to the governance challenge ahead.

The conclusion is neither ecumenical capitulation nor sectarian point-scoring. It is an invitation: to take a good argument seriously wherever it appears, to make it better, and to make it louder.

* About this article

This article, and its supporting document, has been created with research and editorial assistance of Claude.AI. It draws on the full humanist rewrite of Magnifica Humanitas (Pope Leo XIV, 15 May 2026), in which all five chapters and the conclusion were reworked to ground the encyclical’s social-ethical analysis in shared human reason and solidarity rather than theological authority. The rewrite retained the document’s analytical framework and core ethical principles while replacing every load-bearing theological claim. The rewrite is available as a tracked-changes Word document (Follow this link for an executive summary of the rewrite).

** About the author

Dr. Thomas Mengel is a trained theologian with a focus on modern religious history and the sociology of religion. He also has graduate degrees in education, history, and computer science. More recently, he retired from his position as professor of interdisciplinary leadership studies (University of New Brunswick, Canada) and volunteers his time as cooperative community developer, and humanist chaplain candidate based in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. More about him and his writings can be found at thomasmengel.com.

My latest autobiographical essay has just been accepted for publication in the fall issue of the Communities Magazine (#212 September 2026). Here is a quick preview…

There is a particular kind of exhilaration that comes not from soaring, but from choosing to jump. —Søren Kierkegaard

Photo 1: “Dizziness”, Signal Hill, St. John’s, NL (Photo: author)

I have jumped many times. I stumbled often. I hope to jump again.

I have not always jumped with exhilaration or from solid ground. Some of my most important leaps began with a slow, private recognition that something essential had stopped working—a marriage that no longer provided the closeness I was yearning for, a faith whose beliefs no longer matched my understanding, a professional identity which has run its course. The jumping came later. First came the long, uncomfortable season of sensing or knowing that something is off.

You can read the full abstract here.

We had a blast driving across the rocky Island of Newfoundland, off the Atlantic Coast of Canada, to the 2025 Convention and AGM of the ‘NL Federation of Co-operatives (NLFC)’, September 26-27, 2025, in Corner Brook. Jimmy, Ken, and I, enjoyed each other’s company and we shared a deep love for the cooperatives we are part of. We were confident in contributing meaningfully to the cooperative movement, and we were hopeful for overcoming the setbacks we had just experienced in our own cooperatives….

…Love will not avoid conflict, but it will offer ways of peaceful and compassionate resolution of those conflicts, and it will allow cooperative communities to develop a strong and sustainable identity, based on enduring personal relationships, and building a sense of belonging and of being at home.  

Read more here… An abbreviated version of this paper is in print for Communities, Issue 210, Spring 2026.

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Blueberry bushes

Autumn sun makes them glow red

I breathe compassion

As a member of various compassionate and co-operative communities, I am grateful for…

• the community connections we built,
• the friendships we created, and
• the fun, joy, and sorrows we were able to share with each other.

Following the nine day grief period a new pope will be elected from eligible cardinals in Rome. The upcoming conclave reminded me of a video I produced for the previous conclave in 2013 as part of my consulting company Reiss Profile Canada.

The video introduced an innovative approach to the papal election process that…well, see for yourself…unfortunately my slight hope that for the next conclave we might have an eligible female candidate did not materialize…again, see for yourself…

In the inaugural issue of Creativity Matters, I had proposed a Model of Post-Contemporary Leadership, where leaders and followers demonstrate people and relationship focused attitudes, skills, and behaviours (Mengel 2020, p. 76). At the time, I did mean to leave the application of this model to other researchers who might follow in my footsteps after my retirement. Little did I know that during my final half-sabbatical (September 2022 – February 2023) and following my retirement (March 1, 2023) I did in fact follow my own recommendations. Much had changed resulting in two implementations of community design for the future. I have described the evolution and its results in: Mengel, T. (2025). From Concept to Implementation – Co-operative Community Design for the Future. In: Creativity Matters, Issue 3, April 2025, Atlantic Centre for Creativity Online Journal, p. 78-89.

>Click here to read more<

“I explored what the future could be like if we let everything fall apart. I wanted to take things a little farther, to see how people put things back together again”Janet McNaughton, St. John’s, NL

Newfoundland author Janet McNaughton’s speculative fiction “challenges readers to think about the kind of future they want to create for those who come after us”^[1]. Her award-winning novel The Raintree Rebellion, set in 2370, follows 18-year-old Blake Raintree, who has been adopted into a new family after surviving a devastating event known as the technocaust. Blake accompanies her adoptive mother, Erica, to Toronto, where Erica serves on the Justice Council tasked with addressing the aftermath of the technocaust. While in Toronto, Blake embarks on a journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and the quest for belonging.

Published in 2006, this more hopeful sequel of her dystopian novel from 2000—The Secret Under My Skin—emphasizes the importance of collective action and solidarity. Cooperation between diverse groups enables communal learning, environmental stewardship, and social justice. In The Raintree Rebellion McNaughton imagines and demonstrates how meaningful changes towards a hopeful, equitable, just and sustainable future are possible, even if only far into the future and after hard work.

Current trends of groupthink, populism, and nationalism threaten the collaborative progress made in recent decades towards a more inclusive, socially just, equitable, diverse and sustainable future. Rather than uniting us based on what we share as human beings these trends tear us apart based on (perceived) differences. They ignore common challenges like climate change, economic inequality, and cost-of-living crises that require collaborative and creative approaches to problem-solving.

On the other hand, communal values, reciprocal community building, and the need for “leadership on the commons”^[2]have contributed to the recent revival of the cooperative movement in many regions of the world, including Newfoundland and Labrador^[3]. For example, cooperative values and principles have guided us in co-creating and co-developing Killick Coast North Seniors Co-operative and other co-ops in rural Newfoundland^[4]. The fact that cooperatives and communal values are also featured by several authors in award-winning novels about the future suggests that many readers and writers imagine and hope for a more collaborative and collective future.

Hope for the future indeed transpires at the end of McNaughton’s The Raintree Rebellion. The novel ends with protagonist Blake Raintree’s final statement as victim of the technocaust in front of the Justice Council: “The past is over. I have more important things to say, about what I’ve learned since I came here, about letting go of hate.” Blake takes “a deep breath and free-fall into the future”.

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^[1] Janet McNaughton in https://www.janetmcnaughton.ca/janet-mcnaughton-books/raintree-rebellion.

^[2] Singh, D. P.; Thompson, R. J.; Curran, K. A. (2021). Reimagining Leadership on the Commons. Shifting the Paradigm for a More Ethical, Equitable, and Just World. Leeds, UK: Emerald Publishing. See also the influential book by the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2009: Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

^[3] In 2024 seven new co-operatives have been added to the eightyfive co-operatives registered provincially (equalling a growth of more than 8%); see https://nlfc.coop/about/history/ and https://cado.eservices.gov.nl.ca/Company/CoopMain.aspx.

^[4] see https://kcnseniors.coop, https://killickecovillage.ca, and https://sunrisefuneral.coop for the co-operatives I have been involved in co-creating. I have described the development and implementation of KCN Seniors Co-op and Killick Ecovillage Co-op in more detail in: Mengel, T. (in print). From Concept to Implementation—Co-operative Community Designs for the future. In: Creativity Matters, Issue 3 (in print). Atlantic Centre For Creativity.

Existing cooperative communities suggest that a better cooperative future is indeed possible one step at a time. However, we will have to collaborate more—across national, organizational, and institutional boundaries—to overcome additional challenges, catastrophes, and the resulting chaos in the near future. Together we can and must do our best to help the cooperative future grow and to make it sustainable…. To read more click on the link below:

Mengel, T. (2025). Cooperative Futures Imagined – From Earth to Mars and back in: Communities, Issue 206, Spring 2025. Global Ecovillage Network United States. pp. 35-37.