Character Does Not Scale
Quick answer: What is Pope Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas about?
Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, signed May 15 on the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, addresses AI. Beyond autonomous weapons and surveillance, John notes its central worry is that people will agree to become machines, measured and optimized, when human dignity depends not on ability, wealth, or position but on existing.
At a dinner, John's friend Dave Morgan, founder of Simulmedia and a builder of data- and AI-driven businesses, said Pope Leo XIV may be the most influential American alive. When Morgan, not Catholic and not especially religious, wrote that anyone wanting to understand where AI is taking us should read the Pope's first encyclical, John read it twice. Magnifica Humanitas was signed May 15, the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII's 1891 letter on industrial labor. Headlines focused on calls to disarm AI, autonomous weapons, and concentrated power. But John finds the heart elsewhere. Most people fear the machine will become human. Leo XIV worries the human will agree to become a machine: measured, optimized, and set aside when not optimal. Dignity, he writes, doesn't depend on ability, wealth, or position. John ties it to Heroes' Path's work. The people worth studying were formed by what no machine can supply. Build smarter systems, he says, but stay the kind of people worth handing the controls to.
Why it matters for leaders: The real leadership test of the AI era is keeping the judgment that decides what the machines are for.
Q: Why was the May 15 date significant?
A: It marked the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII's 1891 letter on industrial labor, signaling a comparable moment of transformation.
Q: What does John say AI cannot supply?
A: Patience, discernment, restraint, and courage tested under real weight, which are built slowly, through difficulty and failure.
Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/character-does-not-scale
By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation