Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Maginfica humanitas, exploring how we preserve the human person in an age of articial intelligence, will be released on Monday 25 May.
Shortly after, on 4 June, the Centre for Catholic Social Thought and Practice will bring together an expert panel to reflect on the themes of the encyclical, with an initial response to the challenges and the hope it offers.
Panel includes:
Dr Samuel Tranter, research fellow in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford.
Professor Nicholas Hayes-Mota, Assistant Professor, Social & Theological Ethics, Department of Religious Studies, Santa Clara University.
Professor Meghan J Clark, Professor of Moral Theology at St John’s University (NY).
Chaired by Professor Anna Rowlands, Saint Hilda Chair in Catholic Social Thought and Practice, Durham University, with time for questions and comments.
The webinar runs from 5pm-6.15pm (BST) on Thursday 4 June. It is free to attend but registration is essential. Register here.
The CCSTP is also hosting an in-person study and networking day - Being Human in a Digital Age - which explores the encyclical and the issues it raises in more detail. Join us on 16 June in London. Find out more.
More about the panel speakers
Dr Samuel Tranter is a research fellow in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, based within the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life. Before this he served in theological education, most recently as Academic Dean at St John’s College, Durham. He is currently researching a book on the them of The Labour of Love: AI and the Ethics of Expedience.
Dr Nicholas Hayes-Mota is Assistant Professor of Social & Theological Ethics at Santa Clara University, and a Fellow at Georgetown University’s Initiative for Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. Working within the Catholic social tradition, his primary research explores the role of religion in democratic public life, the ethics of democratic citizenship, and the possibility of a "politics of the common good" in today's pluralistic and contentious societies; more recently, he has begun to examine the impact of AI on democratic systems. His scholarly work draws on 16 years of experience as a practitioner of community organizing.
Professor Meghan J. Clark is a professor of moral theology at St John’s University (NY). She is author of The Vision of Catholic Social Thought: The Virtue of Solidarity and the Praxis of Human Rights (Fortress Press, 2014). Active in public theology, she is a columnist for US Catholic magazine and occasional contributor to America Magazine and National Catholic Reporter. In 2026, she was appointed a member of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.