In his first speech made before all the cardinals of the world, the brand new Pope Leo XIV left no doubt about his alignment with his predecessor, Francisco, to the point that he praised his first document considering a program of his pontificate, and assured that he will pay special attention to the development of artificial intelligence because he raises “New challenges in the defense of human dignity, justice and work.”
Leo XIV read his message in Italian in the Synod room before starting a dialogue at closed doors with the cardinals on request, he said, of many of them, which would allow him to “be able to listen to the advice, the suggestions, the concrete proposals, of which which has already been spoken in the days before the conclave.”
It was the second time he met them after the mass of the previous day in the Sistine Chapel in which he said that the Church “You must illuminate the dark nights of this world”. And he denounced the onslaught suffered by Christianity to experience his faith and warned about the risks of dispensing with Christian values.
When referring to Francisco, Leo XIV began by saying that “the Pope, from San Pedro to me, his unworthy successor, is a humble servant of God and the brothers, and nothing more than this. They have demonstrated well the examples of many of my predecessors, like that of Pope Francis himself.”
He pointed out that the Argentine pontiff showed it “with his style of Total dedication to service and sober essentiality of life of abandonment in God during the time of the mission and of serene trust at the time of return to the Father’s house. ”
“Let’s pick up this valuable inheritance and return to the way, animated by the same hope that comes from faith,” he said.
Moreover, he said that “in the past days we have been able to see beauty and feel the strength of this immense community that, with so much affection and devotion, has fired and cried to its pastor accompanying him with faith and prayer until his final encounter with the Lord. ”
He then affirmed his desire that “we would renew together, today, our full accession to that path, to the route that the universal church has been touring after the footprints of the Vatican Council II.”
“Pope Francis has masterfully remembered and updated its content in the apostolic exhortation Gospel joyof which I would like to highlight some fundamental notes, ”he said.
He pointed out in this regard “the return to the primacy of Christ in the announcement; the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community; growth in schoolmaker and synodality; attention to feeling of faithespecially in its most own and inclusive forms, such as popular piety; the love care of the weak and discarded; the brave dialogue and confident with the contemporary world in its different components and realities. ”
“Precisely, when I felt called to continue this path, I thought to take the name of Leo XIV. There are several reasons, but the main one is because Pope Leo XIII, with the encyclical historical Of the revolutionaryhe faced The social issue in the context of the first major industrial revolution”He said.
And he added: “Today the Church offers everyone, its equity of social doctrine to respond to another industrial revolution and the developments of the Artificial Intelligence, which entails new challenges in the defense of human dignityof justice and work ”.
Francisco had referred several times to the challenges involved in artificial intelligence, pointing out that such a powerful technology runs the risk of converting human relationships into mere algorithms, and even requested an international treaty to regulate it.
He had also exposed that concern last year to the group of the seven industrialized countries-was the first pontiff to speak against G-7-gathered in Italy.
On that occasion, he said that the I must be subject to the discernment of the human being so that decisions on when to use weapons or even less lethal tools are always taken by humans and not by machines.
In the traditional peace message corresponding to 2024 he had also requested an international treaty that guarantees that artificial intelligence develops and uses ethically.
He considered that a technology that lacks the human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness is too dangerous to develop without control.