In his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV, in talking about artificial intelligence and technology, cited J. R. R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings:
213. The twentieth-century Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien, in the words of a protagonist in one of his novels, described our responsibility in this way: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.” The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization. For this reason, it is worthwhile pausing to reflect on some aspects of how we, each in our own way, can cooperate in building the civilization of love. Without presuming to exhaust this theme, I would like to propose five paths toward daily and public responsibility: the need to disarm words, building peace through justice, adopting the perspective of victims, cultivating a healthy realism and reviving dialogue and multilateralism.The quotation is from The Return of the King.
I've seen some comments that he supposedly also cites Chesterton, but in a quick scan of the encyclical I could not find any direct quotations from Gilbert. Perhaps the Holy Father used some of his Chesterton's ideas but internalized them and put it in his own words. I have to read the whole document to be sure.
So we'll stick with a quotation from Chesterton in one of the Pope's addresses.
In a February 28, 2026 address to four Spanish seminaries he said:
There is a quote from the author Chesterton that can serve as a key to understanding everything I would like to share with you: “Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural” (cf. Heretics, VI). Man is not made to live closed in on himself, but in a living relationship with God. When that relationship is obscured or weakened, life begins to fall into disorder from within. The unnatural is not only the scandalous; it is enough to live without God in daily life, leaving him out of the criteria and decisions with which we face existence.
There is a quote from the author Chesterton that can serve as a key to understanding everything I would like to share with you: “Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural” (cf. Heretics, VI). Man is not made to live closed in on himself, but in a living relationship with God. When that relationship is obscured or weakened, life begins to fall into disorder from within. The unnatural is not only the scandalous; it is enough to live without God in daily life, leaving him out of the criteria and decisions with which we face existence.
The Pope apparently know two of our favorites. Good sign!
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