Pope Leo Put Gandalf in His First Encyclical: A Tolkien Quote in Magnifica Humanitas
Pope Leo Put Gandalf in His First Encyclical: A Tolkien Quote in Magnifica Humanitas
The Editors<br>May 25, 2026 — 2 minutes read
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Paragraph 213 of Magnifica Humanitas just made Middle-earth part of Catholic Social Teaching. In Chapter Five, we found this footnote, number 187:<br>J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. The Return of the King, Part III, Book Five, Chapter IX, New York 1965, 190.<br>Right there. In a papal encyclical.<br>In paragraph 213, pushing back against the despair that says the forces of AI and technology are simply too large for ordinary people to resist, Leo XIV quotes one of Gandalf's famous speeches:<br>"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."<br>Then the Pope adds his own line immediately after:<br>"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."<br>The full quote<br>This is the full paragraph of Magnifica Humanitas that quotes Tolkien:<br>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.” [187] 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.<br>Tolkien was a daily-Mass-attending, fiercely devout Catholic who called The Lord of the Rings "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work." Pope Francis quoted him at Christmas Midnight Mass, at a Eucharistic vigil, and in a pastoral letter.<br>But Leo XIV did something new. He put Tolkien in an encyclical — the highest form of ordinary magisterial teaching the Church produces. Which means Gandalf's speech is now, officially, part of Catholic Social Teaching. It will be cited in seminary classrooms and theology papers for decades.<br>Millions of Tolkien fans will love this.
You can download the full encyclical here: https://www.ewtnnews.com/vatican/full-text-of-magnifica-humanitas-read-pope-leo-xiv-s-first-encyclical
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