Just days after becoming head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV immediately addressed artificial intelligence (AI). In his inaugural press speech, he acknowledged AI’s “immense potential” but stressed the need to ensure it benefits everyone. During his first address to the cardinals, he explained his choice of the name Leo XIV, inspired by Pope Leo XIII of the late 19th century. Leo XIII confronted challenges posed by the Industrial Revolution, advocating for workers’ rights amid rising capitalism and new technologies. Similarly, Leo XIV suggested the Church must again protect human dignity, justice, and labor amid today’s AI-driven revolution. At first glance, AI and Catholicism may seem an unlikely pairing—Silicon Valley is not known for taking directives from the Vatican. Yet historical perspective reveals the Church has long actively engaged with technology, supporting innovation while critiquing harmful advances. AI raises profound questions about human life’s meaning, making spiritual insights essential alongside technical expertise. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was a center of technological progress, fostering ideas that technology could restore humanity’s original perfection. Monasteries promoted the motto “ora et labora” (prayer and work), producing inventions like tidal water wheels and pioneering metallurgy, mills, clocks, and the printing press. Even now, Catholicism honors four patron saints of engineers.

As Brian Green, a Catholic ethicist, notes, the Church has historically embraced technology positively but has rejected innovations seen as threatening human life, such as birth control or nuclear weapons. Pope Francis helped modernize the Church’s approach to technology. Recognizing the risk of alienation, he engaged tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook, hosted hackathons at the Vatican, and praised responsible technological progress in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si. However, Francis cautioned against unregulated AI development that enriches a few while neglecting humanity’s needs. He opposed treating AI as a perfect, godlike authority, advocating instead for renewed respect for human agency. Francis also called for a “new Christian humanism, ” balancing human reason and religious guidance. The Church’s involvement in AI debate is crucial because AI’s rise presents urgent moral and spiritual issues: preventing power concentration, ensuring economic fairness, deciding which labor to delegate to AI versus retain for human dignity, and even questioning AI’s role in artistic creation. These questions align with religion’s focus on fundamental human concerns. Religious insights can serve as a moral compass during this transformative era, though religion does not claim all answers. Historically, Pope Leo XIII illustrated this approach in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, defending workers’ rights during the Industrial Revolution and establishing the religious basis for rest days to prevent humans from becoming mere commodities. Pope Leo XIV now has a unique opportunity to update and apply these principles to the challenges posed by AI in the 21st century.