Between 2024 and 2026 the Holy See and Vatican City State produced a binding internal regulation on artificial intelligence and two doctrinal texts addressed to the wider world. This post sets out what each instrument is and the legal weight it carries.
The Vatican's work on AI falls into two categories that should be kept distinct. The first is binding law within Vatican City State. The second is moral and doctrinal teaching, which carries no legal force but is addressed to governments, companies, and individuals internationally.
Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence
As to binding law, the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, the legislative organ of the state, adopted the Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence by Decree No. DCCII on 16 December 2024, in force from 1 January 2025 . The Guidelines apply to the governate of Vatican City as well as "operational bodies, scientific bodies, judicial bodies of the Vatican City State and to economic operators, suppliers, offerers and temporary professional appointees" (Diritto e Religioni).
The Guidelines (summary available here in English) adopt a human-centric approach grounded in human dignity and the common good, (Art. 3). Of note, is Article 10 which specifies the requirement that AI assist rather than replace human decision-making: "The use of artificial intelligence in the field of administrative procedures shall respect the autonomy and decision-making authority of the individual, who remains solely responsible for the decisions and procedures in which artificial intelligence has been used." (Art. 10(3), free text translation)
Further, Article 12 states that AI systems may be used "exclusively for the organisation and simplification of judicial work, as well as for legal and doctrinal research" (Art. 12(1), but not for the interpretation of the law or the assessment of facts and evidence, nor for decision making whose function rests within "the exclusive responsibility of the judge." (Art. 12(2)) (free text translation).
Oversight is exercised by a five-member Commission on Artificial Intelligence, composed of officials from the Governorate's legal, telecommunications, and security directorates. In accordance with the 2025 Guidelines (above) its mandate includes monitoring AI use, drafting implementing laws and regulations, giving opinions on proposals to test or deploy AI systems within the Vatican, reporting potential risks to the Governorate.
A separate, Holy See-level body has since been established. On 16 May 2026, Pope Leo XIV approved the creation of an Interdicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence (ICAI), bringing together the Dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith, for Culture and Education, for Communication, and for Promoting Integral Human Development, along with the Pontifical Academies for Life, of Sciences, and of Social Sciences. Coordination rests for its first year with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The ICAI held its first meeting on 27 June 2026. Vatican News reports that next steps include "mapping of existing initiatives, the collection of themes identified by the various entities, and work on guidelines concerning the use of artificial intelligence within the Holy See." Unlike the Vatican City State Commission, the ICAI has no regulatory mandate; its role is coordination and internal reflection rather than oversight of binding rules.
Doctrinal teaching
The Holy See has issued two doctrinal texts. The first, Antiqua et Nova (english translation in second half of page linked), was published on 28 January 2025 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education. A Note of 117 paragraphs signed by the prefects of the two dicasteries, Cardinals Víctor Fernández and José Tolentino de Mendonça.
Antiqua et Nova
The central argument of Antiqua et Nova, meaning old and new, is a distinction between artificial and human intelligence (see paras. 26-35). It treats human intelligence as a faculty rooted in the person and AI as a behaviour (paras. 10-11), emphasising that performing a task intelligently is not the same as being intelligent (para. 12). It warns against anthropomorphising AI (eg paras. 59-60) and against reducing intelligence to computation, situating human intelligence within a theological account of the person created in the image of God (referred to throughout the Note but see paras.1 and 15) and concludes that AI is properly understood as a tool (paras. 59, 112) for defined tasks rather than an entity capable of genuine reasoning or self-awareness. Human intelligence, on this account, is relational, embodied, and oriented towards meaning (paras. 26 - 29).
The Note draws ethical consequences from this distinction. It holds that the means of technological activity carry moral weight alongside the ends, that AI systems reflect the worldview of those who design, own, regulate, and use them (para. 41). It expresses concern that the technology's benefits have so far accrued mainly to a small number of powerful companies (para. 53). Its second half sets out cautions across specific domains, including economy and labour (paras. 65-70), healthcare (paras. 71-76), education (paras. 77-84), where it warns that over-reliance on AI may impair independent thought (para. 81), warfare (paras. 98-103), and the threat AI poses to truth through misinformation (paras. 85-89). The drafters presented it as a contribution to debate rather than a final position.
Magnifica Humanitas
The second text carries greater authority. On 25 May 2026, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, signed on 15 May 2026, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum. An encyclical ranks among the highest forms of papal teaching, above a dicasterial Note. Running to more than 40,000 words across five chapters, it locates AI within the Church's social doctrine and frames the present moment as a new industrial revolution, consciously paralleling the upheaval Leo XIII addressed in 1891. Its governing premise, set out at the outset, is that "technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it" (para. 9).
The encyclical, its title translated from latin meaning "magificant humanity", is wide-ranging, and its structure gives a sense of that breadth. Following an introduction that presents AI as the res novae, the "new things", of the present age, Chapter One sets out the Church's method and traces the development of its Social Doctrine from Leo XIII onwards. Chapter Two establishes the foundations and principles that underpin the argument: the dignity of the human person, human rights, and the principles of the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity, and social justice. Chapter Three, on technology and dominance, contains the material most directly concerned with AI, addressing the technocratic paradigm and digital power, the governance, responsibility, and transparency of AI, what must not be lost, and the narratives of transhumanism and posthumanism. Chapter Four turns to safeguarding humanity through the transformation, treating truth as a common good, truth and democracy, education, the dignity of work and the problem of unemployment, and freedom against dependency and commercialisation. Chapter Five, on the culture of power and the civilisation of love, addresses the normalisation of war, autonomous weapons, the crisis of multilateralism, and the case for diplomacy, disarmament, and dialogue.
This post considers only a couple of these themes. Readers are encouraged to engage with the full text.
We have selected three parts that will be of particular interest to legal practitioners. The encyclical brings patents, algorithms, digital platforms, technological infrastructure, and data within the principle of the universal destination of goods, arguing that where such assets remain concentrated in a few hands without adequate sharing or access, a new imbalance emerges between those who can participate in the digital revolution and those left at its margins (para. 67). It then applies the principle of subsidiarity to the digital sphere, observing that the highest level of power is no longer the State but the major economic and technological actors that set conditions of access, rules of visibility, and forms of interaction, and calling for these processes to be directed to the common good through transparency regarding algorithms, independent checks, equitable access to data, and avenues for recourse (paras. 71 to 72). On social justice, it warns against communities exposed to invasive surveillance and social groups penalised by opaque algorithms that perpetuate prejudice and discrimination (para. 80).
The encyclical also examines transhumanism and posthumanism, which it identifies as the ideological background of some centres of technological power (para. 115). It distinguishes the two: transhumanism seeks to enhance human beings through biomedicine, body engineering, devices, and algorithms in order to increase performance and capability, while posthumanism in its more radical forms goes further, questioning anthropocentrism and envisaging a hybridisation of humans, machines, and environment, and even a new evolutionary stage in which humanity surpasses itself (para. 116). It notes that such ideas exert influence even where they remain speculative, because they shape the collective imagination and, through it, social, economic, and political choices. Its concern is directed not at the technologies themselves but at the vision beneath them. If the human being is regarded as something to be perfected or surpassed, it argues, it becomes easier to treat some lives as less useful or less worthy, and to justify "necessary sacrifices" that fall on the most vulnerable in the name of optimising the species (para. 117).
The encyclical's signature appeal is for AI to be "disarmed", a term it applies both to autonomous weapons, which it condemns, and to the assumption that technical power confers a right to govern. It assigns AI developers a particular ethical responsibility, on the basis that every design choice reflects a vision of the human person, and it turns the same scrutiny on the Church itself, calling for an examination of conscience regarding inequality, lack of transparency, and abuse of power within ecclesial structures (para. 89).
The two categories differ in legal effect. Within Vatican City State, the 2024 Guidelines are operative law. Antiqua et Nova and Magnifica Humanitas create no legal obligations and, by most assessments, are not expected to drive legislation directly. They function as soft normative instruments. Their relevance for practitioners lies in the Vatican's role as an early and prominent voice on autonomous weapons, labour displacement, surveillance, and the responsibilities of AI developers, and in the way such instruments inform the wider discourse from which binding rules may be eventually drawn.
Sources
The following were cited and consulted in the preparation of this post.
Coccìa, A., "Researching the Law of the Vatican City State", GlobaLex, NYU School of Law (published March/April 2024). Available at: https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/vatican1.html
Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence (Decree DCCII), Vatican City State. Available at: https://www.rivistadirittoereligioni.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/BALSAMO-regolamento-vaticano-IA-ENG.pdf
The Governorate of Vatican City State's Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence", Vatican City State (vaticanstate.va). Available at: https://www.vaticanstate.va/en/news/1301-the-governorate-of-vatican-city-state-s-guidelines-on-artificial-intelligence.html
Decreto della Pontificia Commissione per lo Stato della Città del Vaticano, N. DCCII, "Linee Guida in materia di intelligenza artificiale" (16 December 2024), official Italian text, Vatican City State (vaticanstate.va). Available at: https://www.vaticanstate.va/images/N.%20DCCII.pdf
Appointment of members of the Commission on Artificial Intelligence", Vatican City State (vaticanstate.va). Available at: https://www.vaticanstate.va/en/tag-manager/commission-on-artificial-intelligence.html
Mancini, M., "Vatican Sets Up Commission on Artificial Intelligence", EWTN Vatican (18 May 2026). Available at: https://ewtnvatican.com/articles/vatican-artificial-intelligence-commission
Vatican Commission on AI meets for first time", Vatican News (27 June 2026). Available at: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-06/interdicasterial-commission-artificial-intelligence-meets-first.html
Antiqua et Nova, Note on AI and human intelligence (28 January 2025). Available at: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2025/01/28/0083/01166.html
Magnifica Humanitas, Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIV (15 May 2026). Available at: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html