Pope Leo XIV lays out imaginative and prescient for his papacy in first formal viewers

ROME, Italy — Pope Leo XIV made a shock go to Saturday to a sanctuary south of Rome that’s devoted to the Madonna.

Italy’s TV2000 confirmed pictures of residents within the city of Genazzano gathered outdoors the church housing the Madre del Buon Consiglio sanctuary, the place the pope arrived to hope some 20 minutes earlier. He had beforehand visited the sanctuary, which is managed by friars from his Augustinian non secular order, final 12 months, when he was a cardinal.

Leo was anticipated to bless the group after ending his prayers.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows beneath.

Pope Leo XIV laid out the imaginative and prescient of his papacy Saturday, figuring out synthetic intelligence as one of the important issues going through humanity and vowing to proceed in a number of the core priorities of Pope Francis.

In his first formal viewers, Leo repeatedly cited Francis and the Argentine pope’s personal 2013 mission assertion, making clear a dedication to creating the Catholic Church extra inclusive and attentive to the trustworthy and a church that appears out for the “least and rejected.”

Leo, the primary American pope, instructed the cardinals who elected him that he was totally dedicated to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the Sixties conferences that modernized the church. He recognized AI as one of many primary points going through humanity, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labor.

In one other trace of his priorities, the Vatican revealed that Leo, a member of the Augustinian non secular order, would retain the motto and coat of arms that he had as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru. The motto, “In Illo uno unum,” was pronounced by St. Augustine in a sermon to elucidate that “though we Christians are many, within the one Christ we’re one.”

Leo referred to AI in explaining the selection of his identify: His namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was pope from 1878 to 1903 and laid the inspiration for contemporary Catholic social thought. He did so most famously along with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed employees’ rights and capitalism on the daybreak of the commercial age. The late pope criticized each laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving form to a distinctly Catholic vein of financial instructing.

In his remarks Saturday, Leo stated he recognized along with his predecessor, who addressed the nice social query of the day posed by the commercial revolution within the encyclical.

“In our personal day, the church provides everybody the treasury of its social instructing in response to a different industrial revolution and to developments within the subject of synthetic intelligence that pose new challenges for the protection of human dignity, justice and labor,” he stated.

Towards the top of his hold forth, Francis turned more and more vocal in regards to the threats to humanity posed by AI and referred to as for a global treaty to manage it. He warned that such highly effective know-how dangers turning human relations into mere algorithms. Francis introduced his message to the Group of Seven industrialized nations when he addressed their summit final 12 months, insisting AI should stay human-centric in order that selections about when to make use of weapons and even much less deadly instruments all the time stay made by people and never machines.

The late Argentine pope additionally used his 2024 annual peace message to name for a global treaty to make sure AI is developed and used ethically, arguing {that a} know-how missing human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness is simply too perilous to develop unchecked.

Francis in some ways noticed the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost as one thing of an inheritor obvious: He moved him to take over a small Peruvian diocese in 2014, the place Prevost later turned bishop and head of the Peruvian bishops convention, after which referred to as him to Rome to take over one of the vital Vatican workplaces vetting bishop nominations in 2023.

Within the speech, delivered in Italian within the Vatican’s synod corridor – not the Apostolic Palace – Leo made repeated references to Francis and the mourning over his loss of life. He held up Francis’ 2013 mission assertion, “The Pleasure of the Gospel,” as one thing of his personal marching orders.

He cited Francis’ insistence on the missionary nature of the church and the necessity to make its management extra collegial. He cited the necessity to concentrate to what the trustworthy say “particularly in its most genuine and inclusive types, particularly standard piety.”

Once more, referring to Francis’ 2013 mission assertion, Leo cited the necessity for the church to precise “loving take care of the least and rejected” and have interaction in brave dialogue with the modern world.

Greeted by a standing ovation, Leo learn from his ready textual content, solely trying up sometimes. Even when he first appeared to the world on Thursday night time, Leo learn from a ready, handwritten textual content that he will need to have drafted someday earlier than his historic election or the hour or so after. He appeared most snug talking off-the-cuff within the few phrases he pronounced in Spanish.

Prevost was elected the 267th pontiff on Thursday on the fourth poll of the conclave, an exceptionally quick final result given this was the biggest and most geographically various conclave in historical past and never all cardinals knew each other earlier than arriving in Rome.

Cardinals have stated Prevost didn’t make any main speech through the pre-conclave discussions, and he carried into the conclave the standard taboo precluding a pope from the US given America’s superpower standing. However Prevost was already recognized to many.

They stated he made an impression in smaller teams the place English was the important thing language of communication in a conclave that introduced collectively 133 cardinals from 70 international locations.

Madagascar Cardinal Désiré Tsarahazana instructed reporters on Saturday that on the ultimate poll, Prevost had acquired “extra” than 100 votes. That implies a unprecedented margin, effectively past the two-thirds, or 89 votes, essential to be elected.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state who had been thought of one of many high contenders to be pope, provided his congratulations on Saturday in a letter printed in his hometown paper, Il Giornale di Vicenza.

Parolin praised Leo’s grasp of right this moment’s issues, recalling his first phrases from the loggia when he spoke of the necessity for a peace that’s “disarmed and disarming.” Parolin stated he had appreciated Prevost’s management in Chiclayo, saying he helped deal with a very thorny drawback — with no particulars — and grew to understand his governance extra intently on the Vatican dealing with the bishops’ workplace.

Particularly, Parolin praised Leo’s understanding of individuals and conditions, his “calmness in argumentation, steadiness in proposing options, respect, care and love for everybody.”

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