Encyclical Reading Group on Magnifica Humanitas
Introduction
This fall, The Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) invites you to join a small-group reading experience of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity). This encyclical explores a vital question for our time: What does it mean to safeguard the human person in the age of Artificial Intelligence? As AI technologies become increasingly embedded in our daily lives, Pope Leo XIV offers this reflection as a gift to the world, calling us to deepen our understanding and respond with wisdom.
To foster meaningful dialogue, the CCC is convening reading groups of 8–10 people across Canada. These groups will gather bi-weekly throughout the fall to discuss the encyclical’s themes, share insights, and explore how its teachings resonate with their lives and faith traditions. Whether you’re connecting with familiar faces from your parish, neighborhood, or workplace, or meeting new people through our national network, this is an opportunity to reflect and learn together.
How It Works
The CCC will provide the structure and resources to help you adapt this experience to your context. Our national organizing team will:
- Connect you with others in your area who are interested in joining a reading group.
- Provide a reading guide with tips for hosting meetings, suggested reading schedules, chapter summaries, and discussion questions.
- Host opening and closing webinars to bring all participants together for shared learning.
- Send monthly newsletters with additional reflections and updates related to the encyclical.
The reading groups themselves will be self-organizing, meaning participants will take the lead in facilitating discussions. Think of it like a book club—informal, collaborative, and driven by the collective curiosity of the group.
Timeline
- September 4: Promotional push to spread the word.
- September 14: Preferred deadline to register.
- By September 21: Groups will be formed and finalized.
- September 28–October 4: Group introductions and an introduction to Magnifica Humanitas.
- October 5–18: Chapter 1
- October 19–November 1: Chapter 2
- November 2–15: Chapter 3
- November 16–29: Chapter 4
- November 30–December 7: Chapter 5 (featuring reflections from different authors and faith traditions)
- December 9: Closing webinar to debrief and celebrate the journey together.
Why participate?
his is an opportunity to explore the intersection of faith, technology, and humanity in a supportive community. Whether you’re new to encyclicals or deeply familiar with Catholic social teaching, Magnifica Humanitas offers fresh perspectives on how we can nurture human dignity in an age of rapid technological change.
Join us in this collective act of reflection and discernment. Together, we can deepen our understanding of AI’s ethical implications and discover how our faith traditions call us to respond.
To sign up for a reading circle, click here.
FAQs
- What is the encyclical reading group?
The Encyclical Reading Group is a small group of 8-10 people who will gather bi-weekly over the fall to read through Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on artificial intelligence – Magnifica humanitas (lit. ‘magnificent humanity’). These groups, for the most part, will be local, in-person gatherings. Sometimes people will know each other – coming from the same parish, neighbourhood, workplace, or college. Other times people will be meeting each other for the first time, convened by our national organizing team through the Canadian Council of Churches. - What is Magnifica humanitas?
This year Pope Leo XIV released his newest encyclical – Magnifica humanitas (lit. ‘magnificent humanity’). This new encyclical explores what it means to “safeguard the human person in the age of Artificial Intelligence.” Given the near ubiquity of these technologies in our daily lives and the long-term threats they pose, the Pope’s newest encyclical is a gift to the world – inviting us to reflect deeply & to act on these new realities we all face.
- What is the role of The Canadian Council of Churches in organizing these reading groups?
The Canadian Council of Churches is helping to convene & support various reading groups across the country, but we are not organizing or facilitating these groups directly.
We believe the greatest need is for people to connect with each other – to find other people who also want to read through the encyclical together. Once we bring people together, with a few resources such as a simple reading guide, we believe people can self-organize a reading group together. They do not need outside support or staff to be the facilitators.*
That being said, our national organizing team will offer the following:
- Initial Convening. We will help to connect to others in your parish, neighbourhood, or city who want to read through the encyclical this fall.
- Reading Guide. To support the self-organizing groups, we will provide a reading guide that (a) gives tip of hosting meetings, (b) suggest a reading order (i.e. how much to read each week), and (c) summaries for each chapter, with main points and questions.
- Opening & Closing Webinars. We also plan to host a launch & closing webinars for the reading groups, as a way of bringing everyone together.
- Newsletters. Monthly throughout the fall we’ll send newsletters out to all reading group participants, with extra notes & thought pieces related to the encyclical and its topic.
- Tell me more about what it means that our reading groups will be self-organizing?
Many of us have experience in book clubs where friends will get together to read together and socialize. In these groups, there isn’t a paid official or expert facilitator needed to help lead the group. In contrast, in workshop or classroom settings the learning is facilitated by a leader or a teacher. Our reading groups will be more like the former, than the latter. Our national team will help convene people, and provide a basic reading guide, but the rest is up to you. Never fear! Self-organizing groups may be bumpy from time-to-time, but the skills of self-organizing are easy to pick up and many of us have them already.
* In a sense, this embodies the principle of subsidiarity from Catholic Social Teaching. Subsidiarity suggests – in very colloquial terms – that communities have lots of “DIY” capacity, and that larger organization levels (be it church or society) should support this capacity but not substitute for it.