Germany's Chancellor Is Reading the Pope's AI Encyclical on Holiday
Friedrich Merz packed a papal document on artificial intelligence for his summer break. Here is what that document says, and why a struggling world leader might find comfort in it.
Key points
- Friedrich Merz, Germany's chancellor since early 2025, chose Pope Leo's encyclical on artificial intelligence as his summer holiday reading.
- An encyclical is a formal letter from the Pope setting out official Catholic teaching on a topic.
- Merz has faced repeated political difficulties since taking office 14 months ago, with his approval ratings at historic lows.
- Pope Leo's encyclical addresses the moral questions raised by AI, including its effects on work and human dignity.
Friedrich Merz is not having the easiest summer. Germany's chancellor has navigated one political rough patch after another since taking office 14 months ago, and he's on holiday. His beach read is not a thriller.
Merz brought Pope Leo's encyclical on artificial intelligence. Encyclicals, formal letters in which the Pope sets out official Catholic teaching, aren't typical holiday fare. This one's drawn attention far beyond church circles because of its subject: the promises and dangers of AI. On 21 July we reported that an Australian company certified the Pope's speeches as genuinely human-authored, weeks after he called AI humanity's biggest threat, which gives some context to why this encyclical lands with particular weight.
What does the Pope's AI document actually say?
Pope Leo's encyclical frames AI as a moral question, not a technical one. It asks who benefits when machines make decisions, what happens to workers whose jobs are replaced, and how societies guard against AI spreading falsehoods. The document doesn't call for a ban. It calls for AI to serve human beings. That framing fits debates now underway in the European Union, where regulators are finalising rules on AI use in high-stakes settings like hiring and criminal justice.
Why would a chancellor read this?
Merz's approval ratings sit at historic lows, according to The Guardian, which first reported his holiday reading. A document asking hard questions about technology and what leaders owe ordinary people offers something a policy briefing can't.
Germany's manufacturing and engineering sectors stand to gain from automation. Millions of German workers worry about what that same automation costs them. A pope writing about exactly that tension is, at minimum, timely. It's also worth noting that our 27 July story on ethicist Eleanor Drage's argument that stripping away AI hype is the first step to giving people real power covers ground the encyclical touches too.
What does this mean for ordinary people?
The encyclical is publicly available, written for anyone, Catholic or not. If AI's effect on jobs or fairness matters to you, it's worth an hour of your time.
What strikes me most here isn't the document itself but what reaching for it signals. When a chancellor under pressure picks a papal letter on AI instead of a spy novel, these questions aren't abstract anymore. They're urgent at the very top, and the rest of us should be watching how that urgency gets translated into actual policy.
Common questions
Is this encyclical official Catholic law?
An encyclical carries significant moral authority within the Catholic Church, but it's not civil law. No government is bound by it.
Where can I read the encyclical?
Pope Leo's encyclical on AI is on the Vatican's official website, free and available in multiple languages. Search for its title there to find the full text.
Does the document name specific AI companies or products?
Encyclicals speak in broad moral terms. This one addresses AI as a category of technology and the social structures surrounding it, not individual companies or products.
