Pope Leo XIV lays out vision of papacy and identifies AI as a main challenge for humanity

VATICAN CITY AP Pope Leo XIV laid out the vision of his papacy Saturday identifying artificial intelligence as one of the preponderance critical matters facing humanity and vowing to continue with selected of the core priorities of Pope Francis But in a sign he was making the papacy very much his own Leo made his first outing since his voting traveling to a sanctuary south of Rome that is dedicated to the Madonna and is of particular significance to his Augustinian order and his namesake Pope Leo XIII Townspeople of Genazzano gathered in the square outside the main church housing the Madre del Buon Consiglio Mother of Good Counsel sanctuary as Leo arrived and greeted them The sanctuary which is managed by Augustinian friars has been a place of pilgrimage since the th century and the previous Pope Leo elevated it to a minor basilica and expanded the adjacent convent in the early s After praying in the church Leo greeted the townspeople and explained them they had both a gift and a responsibility in having the Madonna in their midst He offered a blessing and then got back into the patron seat of the car a black Volkswagen En track back to the Vatican he stopped to pray at Francis tomb at St Mary Major Basilica The after-lunch outing came after Leo presided over his first formal audience with the cardinals who elected him pope In it Leo repeatedly cited Francis and the Argentine pope s own mission announcement making clear a commitment to making the Catholic Church more inclusive and attentive to the faithful and a church that looks out for the least and rejected Leo the first American pope advised the cardinals that he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council the s meetings that modernized the church He identified AI as one of the main issues facing humanity saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity justice and labor Specific signs about the future emerge The Vatican meanwhile provided hints of its own about the Leo pontificate It revealed Saturday that Leo would retain the motto and coat of arms that he had as bishop of Chiclayo Peru that emphasize unity in the church The motto In Illo uno unum was pronounced by St Augustine in a sermon to explain that although we Christians are numerous in the one Christ we are one The emblem is that of the Augustinian order a pierced flaming heart and a book representing the Scriptures The Vatican also provided details about the pectoral cross that Leo is wearing It was a gift from the Augustinian order when he was made a cardinal in It contains relics of St Augustine and his mother St Monica who was crucial in his conversion to Christianity St Augustine of Hippo is one of the theological and devotional giants of early Christianity The Augustinian order formed in the th century as a area of mendicant friars is dedicated to poverty provision and evangelization Identifying with Pope Francis Leo referred to AI in explaining the choice of his name His namesake Pope Leo XIII was pope from to and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought He did so largest part famously with his encyclical Rerum Novarum which addressed workers rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age The late pope criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching In his remarks Saturday Leo noted he identified with his predecessor In our own day the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity justice and labor he reported Toward the end of his pontificate Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it Francis in numerous solutions saw the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost as something of an heir apparent He moved him to take over a small Peruvian diocese in where Prevost later became bishop and head of the Peruvian bishops conference and then called him to Rome to take over one of the majority of vital Vatican offices vetting bishop nominations in In the speech delivered in Italian in the Vatican s synod hall not the Apostolic Palace Leo made repeated references to Francis and the mourning over his death He held up Francis mission declaration The Satisfaction of the Gospel as something of his own marching orders He cited Francis insistence on the missionary nature of the church and the need to make its leadership more collegial He cited the need to pay attention to what the faithful say especially in its majority authentic and inclusive forms especially popular piety Again referring to Francis mission message Leo cited the need for the church to express loving care for the least and rejected and engage in courageous dialogue with the contemporary world A quick conclave Greeted by a standing ovation Leo read from his prepared text only looking up occasionally Even when he first appeared to the world on Thursday night Leo read from a prepared handwritten text in Italian that he must have drafted sometime before his historic polling or the hour or so after He seemed largest part at ease speaking off-the-cuff in the minimal words he pronounced in Spanish Prevost was elected the th pontiff on Thursday on the fourth ballot of the conclave an exceptionally fast outcome given this was the largest and bulk geographically diverse conclave in history and not all cardinals knew one another before arriving in Rome Madagascar Cardinal D sir Tsarahazana notified reporters on Saturday that on the final ballot Prevost had received more than of the votes That suggests an extraordinary margin well beyond the two-thirds or votes necessary to be elected A comment from a contender Cardinal Pietro Parolin the Vatican secretary of state who had been considered one of the top contenders to be pope offered his congratulations on Saturday in a letter published in his hometown paper Il Giornale di Vicenza Parolin praised Leo s grasp of in the modern day s problems recalling his first words from the loggia when he spoke of the need for a peace that is disarmed and disarming Parolin mentioned he had appreciated Prevost s leadership in Chiclayo saying he helped handle a particularly thorny complication with no details and grew to appreciate his governance more closely at the Vatican handling the bishops office Specifically Parolin praised Leo s understanding of people and situations his calmness in argumentation balance in proposing solutions respect care and love for everyone