Recently in Rome, I was one of only 10 Americans present when Pope Leo XIV issued Magnifica Humanitas, the first encyclical of his pontificate. As the Holy Father unveiled what will likely become one of the defining moral texts on artificial intelligence, the convergence was hard to miss: on AI, the Catholic Church and much of the American populist Right share more common ground than most realize.

That conclusion would not surprise Vice President JD Vance. In May 2025, months before tensions between the Vatican and the Trump administration emerged, Vance told Ross Douthat that the U.S. government was “not equipped to provide moral leadership” on AI and that the Catholic Church was. With Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo has now offered that moral framework.