Vatican City (AP) – Pope Leo XIV presentation the vision of its papacy on Saturday, identifier artificial intelligence As one of the most critical questions that humanity is confronted and promising to pursue some of the fundamental priorities of Pope Francis.
But in a sign that he was making the papacy very clean, Leo made his first outing since his election, going to a sanctuary south of Rome which is dedicated to Madonna and is of particular importance to his Augustinian order and his namesake, Pope Leo XIII.
The city dwellers of Genazzano gathered on the square outside the main church housing the sanctuary of Madre del Buon (mother of a good lawyer) sanctuary while Leo arrived and greeted them. The sanctuary, managed by the Augustinian brothers, has been a place of pilgrimage since the 15th century and the previous Pope raised it to a minor basilica and widened the adjacent convent in the early 1900s.
Pope Leo XIV, on the left, is flanked by Mgr Leonardo Sapienza, second on the left, after his meeting with the College of Cardinals in the new Synod Hall at the Vatican, Saturday May 10, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)
After praying in the church, Leo praised the city dwellers and told them that they had both a gift and a responsibility to have Madonna in the middle of them. He offered a blessing and then returned to the car passenger seat, a black Volkswagen. On the way to the Vatican, he stopped to pray to the tomb of Francis at the Basilica St. Mary Major.
The after-Lunch release intervened after Leo chaired his first official public, with the cardinals who elected him Pope. Leo has quoted several times Francis And the Argentinian pope is clean 2013 mission statementClearly clarifying a commitment to make the Catholic Church more inclusive and attentive to the faithful and a church which ensures “less and rejected”.
Leo, the first American pope, told Cardinals that he was fully engaged in the reforms of the Council of the Second Vatican, the meetings of the 1960s that modernized the Church. He identified AI as one of the main problems with which humanity is confronted, affirming that it poses challenges to the defense of human dignity, justice and work.
Some signs on the future emerge
The Vatican, meanwhile, provided his own clues to the Pontificate of Leo: he revealed on Saturday that Leo would keep the motto and the coat of arms he had as a bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, which emphasized unity in the church.
The motto, “in illelo unum”, was pronounced by Saint-Augustin in a sermon to explain that “although we Christians are numerous, in one of the Christ, we are one”. The emblem is that of the Augustinian order: a fiery heart pierced and a book, representing the scriptures.
The Vatican also provided details on the pectoral cross that Leo is wearing: it was a gift from the Augustine order when he was named Cardinal in 2023. He contains relics of Saint-Augustin and his mother, Saint-Monica, who was crucial in his conversion to Christianity.
Saint-Augustin de Hippo is one of the theological and devotional giants of the beginning of Christianity. The Augustinian order, trained in the 13th century as a community of “beggars” brothers, is dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization.
Identification with Pope Francis
Leo referred to AI by explaining the choice of his name: his namesake, Pope Leo XIIIwas the pope from 1878 to 1903 and laid the foundations for modern Catholic social thinking. He did it the most famous with his rerum Novarum encyclical in 1891, which approached workers’ rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial era. The late Pope criticized both the capitalism of a faire and socialism centered on the state, giving the form of a clearly Catholic vein of economic education.
In his remarks on Saturday, Leo said he had identified his predecessor.
“In our time, the Church offers all the treasure of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and developments in the field of artificial intelligence which poses new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and work,” he said.
Towards the end of his pontificate, Francis has expressed more and more on the threats to humanity posed by AI and called on an international treaty to regulate it.
Francis saw in many ways the original Augustinian missionary of Chicago, Robert Prevost, like an apparent heir: he pushed him to take over a small Peruvian diocese in 2014, where Prévost later became bishop and chief of the Conference of Bishops of the Vatican, then called it to Rome for 2023.
In the speech, pronounced in Italian in the Vatican Synod room – not the apostolic palace – Leo made repeated references to Francis and mourning His death. He resisted Francis’ mission statement in 2013, “the joy of the Gospel”, as something of his own walking orders.
He cited Francis’ insistence on the missionary nature of the Church and the need to make his leadership more collegial. He cited the need to pay attention to the fact that the faithful say “in particular in its most authentic and inclusive forms, especially popular piety”.
Once again, referring to Francis’ mission statement in 2013, Leo quoted the need for the Church to express the “affectionate care to say the least and the least rejected” and to initiate a courageous dialogue with the contemporary world.
A quick conclave
Welcomed by a standing ovation, Leo read his prepared text, looking up only from time to time. Even when he appeared for the first time in the world on Thursday evening, Leo read a prepared and manuscript text in Italian that he had to recover a little before his historic elections or the time approximately. He seemed most comfortable to talk out of the fact in the few words he said in Spanish.
Prévost was elected 267th pontiff Thursday during the fourth voting of the Conclave, an exceptionally rapid result since it was the largest and most geographically diverse conclave in history and all the cardinals did not know each other before arriving in Rome.
Cardinal Madagascar, Désiré Tsarahazana, told journalists on Saturday that during the final election, Prevost had received “more” than 100 of the 133 votes. This suggests an extraordinary margin, far beyond two thirds, or 89 votes, necessary to be elected.
A comment from a competitor
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of the Vatican who had been considered one of the best candidates for his pope, congratulated on Saturday in a letter published in his newspaper of the hometown, he Giornale di Vicenza.
Parolin praised Leo’s understanding of today’s problems, recalling his first words of Loggia when he talked about the need for a peace which is “disarmed and disarmed”. Parolin said that he had appreciated the leadership of Prevost in Chiclayo, saying that he had helped manage a particularly thorny problem – without details – and grew up to appreciate his governance more closely in the Vatican who takes care of the bishop’s office.
More specifically, the Paroline praised the understanding of Leo of people and situations, its “calm in argumentation, balance in the proposal of solutions, respect, care and love for everyone”.
A seller sticks photos of the newly elected Pope Leo XIV on the rosaries in a religious souvenir shop in Rome, Saturday May 10, 2025.
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