By AC Wimmer
Rome Newsroom, May 10, 2025/08:15 am
Pope Leo XIV met the Cardinal College on Saturday morning for his first official speech since his election, describing key priorities for his pontificate in the era of artificial intelligence, while highlighting continuity with his predecessors and his commitment to the social education of the Church.
The pontiff born in the United States, speaking in Italian, explained his choice of papal name, noting that Pope Leo XIII “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution” with his encyclical Rerum novarum.
“From 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,” said Pope Leo.
The 69 -year -old Pope started meeting with a prayer, expressing his gratitude to the cardinals while recognizing his own limits by assuming the papacy.
“You, dear Cardinals, are the collaborators closest to the Pope. This proved me a great comfort to accept a yoke clearly far beyond my own limited powers, as it would be for each of us,” he said.
The Pope specifically thanked Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the Cardinal College, and Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, Camerlengo of the Church of the Church, for their service during the vacant session period.
In his speech, Pope Leo underlined his commitment to continue the church path after the council of the second Vatican, specifically highlighting the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis “Evangelii Gaudium” as offering a “masterful and concrete” direction.
The Pope identified several fundamental principles to guide his pontificate, “the return to the primacy of Christ in the proclamation; the missionary conversion of the whole Christian community; The growth of collegiality and synodality; attention to the sensus fidei, in particular in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as popular piety; The magnets for the least and the most courteous world and the dialogue of trust with the contemporary world. ”
After his prepared remarks, the Holy Father engaged in a session of dialogue with the cardinals, discussing “advice, suggestions, proposals, concrete things” raised during pre-Contournée meetings.
Pope Leo concluded by quoting the hope of Saint-Paul VI expressed at the beginning of his pontificate in 1963, praying that the Church “passes over the whole world as a great flame of faith and love lit in all men and women of good will”.
AC Wimmer (刘威猛) is the editor of Europe and Asia at EWTN News. The Australian Multilingual, raised in Bavaria and South Africa, was editor -in -chief of several information media. A graduate in Chinese philosophy and studies of the University of Melbourne, the veteran journalist is a former honorary communication researcher at his Alma Mater and sat on the board of directors of Caritas in Munich.
