Sound legislation should encourage scientific and technological creativity while safeguarding fundamental human rights and freedoms. It should protect users from exploitation, preserve personal privacy, ensure transparency in the use of emerging technologies and guarantee that they strengthen democratic institutions.”
Pope Leo XIV expressed this conviction to the International Catholic Legislators Network in the Vatican on Friday.
Reflecting on legislation, the Pope reiterated that “robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required.”
He observed that such oversight can operate at multiple levels — local, national and international — facilitating open discussion of “the ethical frameworks involved and subjecting them to shared standards of social justice,” ensuring “that no single ideology or interest dictates the values embedded in artificial intelligence systems.”
At the same time, the Holy Father underscored, the rapid development of artificial intelligence risks creating new forms of technological dependence, with poorer nations increasingly reliant on wealthier ones.
Subtle forms of domination
“We must remain vigilant in this regard,” he said, “lest innovation become another vehicle for ideological or economic colonialism.”
Sadly, he lamented, “we are presented with a subtle form of domination when algorithms decide who is seen, and who remains invisible, when digital platforms shape public discourse without accountability, and when the dignity of workers is subordinated to the optimization of systems.”
Such developments, Pope Leo warned, “reveal a new face of the ancient temptation to domination and mastery without service.”
The family as the first school of humanity
Against this culture of power, the Holy Father suggested, the Church proposes “the civilization of love.”
“In such a society,” Pope Leo said, “the first school of humanity would be the family.”
“For it is within the family,” he insisted, “that we first learn trust before calculation, generosity before competition, dialogue before division, and love before power.”
With this in mind, he said that artificial intelligence “must never be allowed to erode this primary cell of society — whether by reducing persons and relationships to data and simulations, by flooding young minds with content that distorts desire, or by economic models that make family life economically precarious.”
Strengthen marriage and families
“For this reason,” the Holy Father stated, “I encourage you to promote policies that strengthen marriage and families, support parents in their educational mission and enable young people to look to the future with confidence.”
“Dear friends, the world does not need an artificial intelligence that diminishes humanity; rather,” Pope Leo insisted, “it needs human intelligence enlightened by wisdom, political authority guided by conscience and technological innovation directed by charity.”
Only then, he said, will artificial intelligence become not a rival to humanity but a servant of the common good.
Pope Leo XIV concluded by saying that with these thoughts, he prays that the Network’s deliberations will bear abundant fruit for your nations and for the entire human family.