Artificial intelligence It fascinates, worries, inspires. It transforms our societies at a dizzying speed, revolutionizing the ways we work, communicate, and think. In the midst of this technological whirlwind, a voice rises from Rome—that of the pope Leo XIV — to remind everyone that the future of AI is not primarily a question of innovation… but of vocation.
During the Builders AI Forum 2025 At the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Holy Father addressed a dense and illuminating message to researchers, entrepreneurs and pastors: artificial intelligence must serve human dignity and the mission of the Church. In other words, it will only have true intelligence if it learns to love.
A technology shaped by a vision of man
Leo XIV He opens his message with a strong conviction: artificial intelligence It springs from the same creative impulse that has characterized humanity since its origins. By inventing, programming, and designing systems capable of learning, we participate in a certain way in the creative act of God himself.
But the Pope He immediately adds: every creation entails a responsibility. "Every design choice expresses a vision of humanity," he writes in Antiqua and Nova, his reference text on AI published in January 2025. An AI programmed without a moral horizon can become a distorting mirror of our fears, our biases, our selfishness.
The question is therefore not only what AI does, but what she says about the man. THE Pope It invites developers to cultivate moral discernment at the heart of their work—not as an added bonus, but as a fundamental skill. A line of code, an algorithm, a database form a language of values; it is up to human beings to guide it towards justice, solidarity, and respect for life.
Human dignity as a compass
Behind disruptive innovations, Leo XIV distinguishes a simple question: does AI make man more human?
He points out that human dignity AI is neither an abstract idea nor a negotiable datum. It is the "unalterable foundation" against which all innovation must be judged. An AI that reinforces surveillance, dehumanizes working relationships, or treats the individual as a variable in a statistical model betrays its purpose.
But an AI that helps educate, heal, listen, and create—an AI that expands human capabilities without replacing them—participates in this spiritual mission of "making life grow." From this perspective, programming becomes an ethical act, a space for discernment, a ministry in service of the common good.
The Church facing the digital challenge: an ecclesial mission
Leo XIV nuance: ethical reflection on artificial intelligence cannot remain confined to laboratories or startups. For him, it constitutes a business deeply ecclesial.
The Church does not observe the digital remotely; she sees it as a mission field, a place for evangelization and service.
The Holy Father cites a few examples that speak volumes:
- of the educational algorithms capable of supporting learning in the Catholic schools, while respecting the dignity of each student;
- of the healthcare tools designed with compassion, which help without dehumanizing; ;
- of the artistic platforms and cultural elements that tell the story of the Christian faith with truth and beauty.
Each of these innovations, he emphasizes, embodies the same dream: that technology either at the service of evangelization and the integral development of the person.
This is a bold call to Catholic stakeholders: universities, entrepreneurs, communicators, artists, pastors. Far from fearing AI, the Church wants to be one of the places where ethical innovation, inspired by charity.
Faith and reason in the digital age
From Saint Augustine until John Paul II, The Church is constantly engaged in dialogue between faith and reason. Leo XIV proposes to update this dialogue in the age of algorithms.
«Such collaboration,” he writes, “embodies the dialogue between faith and reason renewed at the’digital ageFor him, intelligence—whether human or artificial—finds its full meaning in love and freedom.
In other words, no matter how sophisticated an AI, it remains incomplete if it ignores the relational and transcendent dimension of the human mind. Major programming languages can optimize processes, but they cannot encode the mystery of the heart.
THE Pope does not reject technology; he invites her to open herself up to a anthropology of communion. It is this alliance between faith and reason, Between prayer and science, between tenderness and intellectual rigor, who will define the truly human future of digital.
Coordinated and responsible governance
In Geneva, during the AI for Good Summit 2025, Leo XIV — through the voice of the Cardinal Secretary of State — pleaded for a coordinated governance of artificial intelligence.
THE Pope He sees ethical regulation as a shared responsibility: states, businesses, universities, and citizens must engage in dialogue to prevent the choices of a few from being imposed on everyone. He urges the establishment of international frameworks guaranteeing the transparency of algorithms, the protection of the most vulnerable, and the promotion of the fair use of data.
The goal is not to slow progress, but to harmonize technological growth with moral growth. An AI without ethics is like a musical instrument without a tune: it produces noise, but no harmony.
Mary, Seat of Wisdom: A Spiritual Pedagogy of Technology
In a tone full of tenderness, Leo XIV confides the Builders AI Forum through the intercession of the Virgin Married, Seat of Wisdom. This Marian gesture is not a simple pious devotion: it reflects a profound theological intuition.
Married embodies the wisdom of listening—that open heart that meditates, discerns, and welcomes. Praying to her to inspire researchers and engineers, the Pope offers a spiritual model for the proper use of technology.
For wisdom does not consist in knowing everything the machine can do, but in discerning what it must do to serve life.
It's an invitation to develop a integral ecology intelligence: a science linked to contemplation, a code linked to compassion, an innovation related to prayer.
AI in service of the mission: concrete paths for the future
What could a "Christian in spirit" AI actually mean?
Here are some key points that the message of Leo XIV implicitly suggests:
- Training in ethics digitalCatholic universities can become places where computer science meets moral theology, where programming is learned with spiritual discernment.
- Create open and supportive models: to encourage machine learning tools accessible to countries of the Global South, so that AI does not exacerbate inequalities.
- Developing pastoral applications: compassionate chatbots, intelligent liturgical databases, interactive catechesis platforms.
- Humanizing careHospital AI guided by patient dignity, ethical diagnostic tools that serve the doctor-patient relationship rather than replace it.
- Promoting an aesthetic of truthGenerative AI put at the service of sacred art, of the biblical narrative, of the Christian heritage, always with respect for the truth.
These paths do not preclude caution. Catholic innovation is not intended to conquer the digital world, but to sow a spirit of kindness there.
The moral discernment of the designers
Leo XIV He often emphasizes a crucial point: every technological choice is a moral act. Discernment is not the sole domain of theologians; it is becoming the spiritual skill of the engineer, the data scientist, the startup founder.
This requires introspection: who are we programming for? What is the purpose of this project? What effects does it want to produce?
The Pope calls for the development of a asceticism digital — not an escape from the world, but an attention to how we shape our tools. Artificial intelligence can only be ethical if those who conceive it themselves experience goodness.
It's less about "coding without errors" than about coding in peace interior.
AI as a spiritual mirror of humanity
The gaze of Pope goes even further. Behind the question of artificial intelligence, He sees it as a mirror of the human mystery. Why do we create machines capable of learning? Perhaps because we seek to understand our own minds.
By giving it the ability to calculate and make decisions, we rediscover what makes us unique: freedom, consciousness, relationship.
AI thus paradoxically becomes an instrument of’humilityThe more the machine imitates our intelligence, the more it reveals to us the depth of what it can never reach — the capacity to love.
At the house of Leo XIV, This tension is fruitful: it pushes science to become contemplation. Humanity advances each time it connects the programmer's hand to the prayer of the heart.
A call to hope
At the end of his message, Leo XIV confides the actors of digital to divine blessing. His tone is neither alarmist nor naive; it is that of a pastor who believes that grace also works in innovation laboratories.
For him, artificial intelligence can become a sign of hope for the human family — provided it is humble, transparent, and at the service of life.
AI is not an idol to be worshipped nor a monster to be feared; it is a tool to be evangelized. And evangelized technology, It's about giving him back his heart.
A technology for loving…
Leo XIV He is not advocating for a Catholic AI closed in on itself. He dreams of a spiritual ecology of digital, open to all, where human dignity becomes the measure of all progress.
His message, essentially, can be summed up in one sentence: artificial intelligence must learn to love.
Learning to love means listening before responding, understanding before judging, serving before using. That's where technology joins theology: when the machine, shaped by man, becomes in turn a meeting place between science and charity.
To every programmer, to every researcher, to every believer, the Holy Father then entrusts a simple mission: to make AI not an imitation of life, but a praise of Life.
