This reply discusses the papal encyclical Magnifica Humanitas of 25 May 2026 in the horizon of the essay Existential Alignment: When Steering Appears as Meaning (DOI https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20273834). It acknowledges the encyclical as an important contribution of Catholic social teaching to the question of artificial intelligence, while arguing that the dynamics of the AI age cannot be understood solely as a technological, political, or social problem. At the centre of the reply stands the thesis that AI has become part of a metastructure that connects to human logics of relief and reward, thereby generating new forms of pre-structured self-interpretation. The reply further develops the concepts of metastructure, Gentle Totality, Existential Alignment, Reward Model, and Existential Non-Absorption already formulated in the aforementioned essay in relation to Magnifica Humanitas. In its theological section, the text contrasts the encyclical’s use of the images of Babel and Jerusalem with the motif of the Garden of Eden and interprets the AI age not only as a problem of hubris, but also as a longing for a relieved pre-freedom. Finally, the reply points to the far-reaching reassessment of the doctrine of just war by Pope Leo XIV under the conditions of modern logics of violence and power.
Stephan U. Breu (Mon,) studied this question.