This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.
Pope Leo XIV has issued his first papal encyclical since his elevation to the papacy a year ago this month, and fantasy fans may find a quote in the document surprisingly familiar. J.R.R. Tolkien is referenced in the encyclical; the quote does not come from his religious writings, but is in fact a passage from The Lord of the Rings.
The papal encyclical is a letter written to the Catholic Church’s bishops; it is typically an address on a particular topic, and is intended for worldwide distribution and consumption. The new encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas, or “Magnificent Humanity,” devotes much of its space to the question of artificial intelligence, which the Pope criticizes for its role in warfare and dehumanization; it also apologizes for the Catholic Church’s historical role in the slave trade. It also quotes a passage from Gandalf, as spoken in the third book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King:
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 quote is apropos, as Tolkien was a devout lifelong Catholic, and described The Lord of the Rings as a “fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login