The pope told the political leaders that "natural law, which is universally valid apart from and above other more debatable beliefs, constitutes the compass by which to take our bearings in legislating and acting." / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Jun 21, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).Pope Leo urged political leaders from around the world to promote the common good, warning especially of the threat to human dignity from artificial intelligence (AI). AI "will certainly be of great help to society, provided that its employment does not undermine the identity and dignity of the human person and his or her fundamental freedoms," the pope said on June 21 to legislators from 68 countries gathered at the Vatican for the Jubilee of Governments. "It must not be forgotten that artificial intelligence functions as a tool for the good of human beings, not to diminish them, not to replace them," Leo said, speaking in English to the international audience. &...
The pope told the political leaders that "natural law, which is universally valid apart from and above other more debatable beliefs, constitutes the compass by which to take our bearings in legislating and acting." / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jun 21, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).
Pope Leo urged political leaders from around the world to promote the common good, warning especially of the threat to human dignity from artificial intelligence (AI).
AI "will certainly be of great help to society, provided that its employment does not undermine the identity and dignity of the human person and his or her fundamental freedoms," the pope said on June 21 to legislators from 68 countries gathered at the Vatican for the Jubilee of Governments.
"It must not be forgotten that artificial intelligence functions as a tool for the good of human beings, not to diminish them, not to replace them," Leo said, speaking in English to the international audience.
The pope has quickly made the challenge of artificial intelligence a signature issue of his pontificate, highlighting it at a meeting with the College of Cardinals two days after his election last month.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, pictured here greeting Pope Leo XIV, was among the leaders from 68 countries gathered at the Vatican for the Jubilee of Governments. Credit: Vatican Media
In his speech to political leaders on Saturday, Leo also urged them to promote the common good in other ways, including by "working to overcome the unacceptable disproportion between the immense wealth concentrated in the hands of a few and the world's poor." The pope decried such inequality as a leading cause of war.
Pope Leo stressed the importance of religious freedom and encouraged political leaders to follow the example of the 16th-century St. Thomas More as a "martyr for freedom and for the primacy of conscience." More was executed for refusing to recognize King Henry VIII as head of the Church in England instead of the pope.
Leo also recommended the ethical tradition of natural law, whose roots in classical antiquity predate Christianity, as "a shared point of reference in political activity" and "an element that unites everyone" regardless of religious belief.
Natural law arguments have played a prominent role in several recent legal and political debates, over issues including abortion, euthanasia, religious freedom, same-sex marriage and transgender policies.
The pope told the political leaders that "natural law, which is universally valid apart from and above other more debatable beliefs, constitutes the compass by which to take our bearings in legislating and acting, particularly on the delicate and pressing ethical issues that, today more than in the past, regard personal life and privacy."
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. / Credit: François-Régis Salefran CC BY-SA 4.0 DEEDVatican City, Jul 1, 2025 / 14:47 pm (CNA).The leader of Africa's Catholic bishops pushed back Tuesday on the narrative that it was only Africans who objected to a 2023 Vatican declaration permitting blessings for same-sex couples."The position taken by Africa [on the declaration] was also the position of so many bishops here in Europe. It's not just an African exception," Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, OFM Cap, told EWTN News on July 1.The 65-year-old cardinal added that homosexuality is fundamentally a "doctrinal, theological problem," and Church moral teaching on the subject has not changed.Ambongo is archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and heads the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).After the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) published Fid...
Credit: anonymous/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 30, 2025 / 15:47 pm (CNA).A coalition of 20 American Catholic bishops and religious leaders from other faiths has signed on to a letter urging lawmakers to vote against a proposed budget bill because of provisions to increase funding for immigration enforcement."From our various faith perspectives, the moral test of a nation is how it treats those most in need of support," the letter read. "In our view, this legislation will harm the poor and vulnerable in our nation, to the detriment of the common good."The letter's signatories included Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. Phoenix Bishop John Dolan, Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne, St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski, and Sacramento, California, Bishop Jaime Soto were also among those who signed.In addition to the bishops, other signatories to the letter included the lea...
Bethany and Daniel Meola, a married couple with a special heart for adult children of divorce, created the Life-Giving Wounds apostolate, currently celebrating its five-year anniversary in 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Life-Giving WoundsMiami, Fla., Jun 30, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Kendra Beigel was 14 years old when her family life took a turn for the worse. In her small-town Minnesota home, she was used to her parents arguing, but her family situation further disintegrated when her mother intervened in her father's alcohol issues and her parents went to court."It was like the whole town decided to take a side and get involved in our family business," recalled Beigel, who was raised Catholic. "I had to grow up quickly… Each stage of the initial separation and how it comes out of the blue, then the divorce and everything that it brings, and then the subsequent annulment; each brought its own hurts and difficulties and it never was easier."Now an adult, Beigel remembers thinkin...
The pope told the political leaders that "natural law, which is universally valid apart from and above other more debatable beliefs, constitutes the compass by which to take our bearings in legislating and acting." / Credit: Vatican Media
