Pope Francis is skeptical of artificial intelligence’s effects on humanity, and on Thursday he released an encyclical explaining why. In the 141-page document, called “Dilexit Nos” (He loved us), the pontiff grapples with many of the issues of modern culture — war, economics and rapidly advancing technology.

The encyclical — the pontiff’s fourth — counters what he calls a “liquid society” addicted to consumerism and forcefully guided by algorithms. The pope insists the answer for humanity lies in a return to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a symbol of divine and human love.

The timing of the release is no accident. “Dilexit Nos” was released during the 350th anniversary of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s apparition and presentation of Christ’s Sacred Heart, which launched a tradition of devotion — one the pontiff argues is urgently needed today.

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Pope Francis calls Christ’s heart a source of unity in a fractured world and a cure for societies that feel “dominated by the hectic pace and bombarded by technology.”

Jon Askonas, a board member of Alliance for the Future and assistant professor of politics at the Catholic University of America, sees “Dilexit Nos” as an organic progression in the Vatican’s philosophical trajectory on tech matters. “There’s a natural kind of experimentation there, a natural kind of curiosity,” he told The Washington Times.

In the encyclical’s opening, Pope Francis critiques a culture he says has become “insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market.”

This isn’t the first time the pope has participated in what critics call the Vatican’s “tech doomerism.” Indeed, back in 2015, the pontiff publicly advised families to ditch their screens and talk to one another. And in 2016, he warned young people in Krakow, Poland, against the dangers of video games and screen time. Since then, the same cautionary theme has appeared in a number of his homilies and writings.

But Pope Francis — who is often seen by some traditional Catholics as a champion of progressive Catholic causes —has angered a few of his more liberal critics with his frequent warnings on tech advancement.

“Progressives rightly treat the Catholic Church’s conservative attitudes toward medical innovations — such as IVF, contraception and abortion — as regressive and puritanical,” wrote Louis Anslow in the Daily Beast this year. “Yet, when it comes to other technologies, the Vatican gets a pass, if not praise for applying similar logic — even when there is less theological justification.”

In this newest encyclical, the pope warns that technology’s influence has made human behavior predictable and manipulative, leaving a void that no algorithm can fill. “We cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity,” he writes, urging the Catholic faithful to engage the world with authentic devotion.

“No algorithm will ever be able to capture, for example, the nostalgia that all of us feel, whatever our age, and wherever we live,” the pontiff insisted.

“What the pope is responding to here is the reorganization and depersonalization of the individual. That’s why he’s looking directly at the heart — and not just the person.” Mr. Askonas said.

The context of Dilexit Nos is rooted within the Church’s long history of grappling with modernity, a trend that’s newly intensified alongside the Vatican’s weeks-long Synod on Synodality — a magisterial conference that aims to address those same contemporary tensions.

“This encyclical, which…[won’t be] the last word on the subject, is about the changes to industrial society brought about by new technology,” Mr. Askonas said.

Mr. Askonas, who writes and speaks extensively on matters of tech and faith, added that externalization can have dehumanizing effects. “We externalize everything about ourselves through our engagement, not only with social media but also with recommendation algorithms and other ways of nudging the individual — which really just treats the human person as a probabilistic function.”

According to Mr. Askonas, this encyclical continues a pattern that dates back to the Industrial Revolution, when the church first tackled the disruption of work and family life. “His purpose in talking about distinguishing between intellect, will, appetites, soul and heart is to try to speak to the thing that is being lost,” he explained to The Times.

As the pontiff navigates his health challenges, including knee problems and surgeries, he’s showing no signs of backing down from addressing big issues. “Dilexit Nos” follows his previous encyclicals “Laudato Si’” and “Fratelli Tutti,” bolstering his call for a “civilization of love.”

Even so, the Catholic magisterium hasn’t strayed from AI use and promotion. “I think there’s a wide range of opinions within the church from the layman to, you know, up to the Vatican about where this technology is going,” Mr. Askonas said.

This summer, Philip Larrey, a priest the Vatican once appointed as chair of logic and epistemology at the Pontifical Lateran University before he joined the faculty of Boston College, said the church ought not “put our heads in the sand” when it comes to AI technology. “We should be conscientious of it, and we should be ambitious to use it for the mission of the church,” he told the Indian Catholic Matters news outlet.

The new encyclical also sees the pontiff broadly addressing economic inequality and war, two issues he sees as plaguing the hearts of the world. In “Dilexit Nos,” he steers clear of naming specific global conflicts. Yet the pontiff has not been silent elsewhere, regularly urging prayers for Ukraine’s “martyred” people and condemning the “inhumane attacks” in Gaza.