Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas, has sparked more than religious debate. According to a Business Insider report, the document was cited in an HR context to help a software developer gain a religious exemption from using AI in her coding work.
The employee, Erin Maus, is a software developer based in North Carolina. She is not Catholic but a Unitarian Universalist, yet she argued that using AI for coding conflicts with her religious beliefs about vigilance and responsibility in how technology is deployed. To support her case, she consulted both an employment lawyer and the minister from her local Unitarian Universalist chapter. Her request was reportedly approved last month, and she said she is now writing and reviewing code by hand.
Why the Pope’s Encyclical Matters Here
In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV called for careful, ethical use of AI in society. Maus used that message to argue that AI-assisted coding does not align with her faith’s emphasis on human oversight and moral responsibility. The fact that a non‑Catholic worker could use a papal encyclical in an HR decision underscores how religious and ethical arguments are increasingly shaping workplace policies around AI.
Is This a New Trend?
Maus is not the only tech professional reconsidering AI. A journalist at PC World also reported that they began questioning their AI usage after reading the encyclical. Whether this leads to a wave of similar exemption requests from Catholic or other religious workers remains unclear. Business Insider’s story could be an outlier, or it could mark the start of more formal religious objections to AI in the workplace.
It is also possible that HR teams and legal departments will need to develop clearer guidelines on how to handle religious exemptions tied to AI, especially as AI becomes more embedded in software development and other tech roles.
