As my esteemed colleague Joshua Wolens once wrote, I "never thought I'd die fighting side-by-side with the Pope." Pope Leo XIV has made AI a key theme of his papacy, and his thoughts on the technology at times could not be clearer: he says it's "turning people into passive consumers of unthought thoughts".
In a private exchange with priests of the Diocese of Rome last week, the Pope responded to questions after giving a speech. Advising priests to “rekindle the fire” of their ministry, Pope Leo went on to give an example of just what kind of fire he means, and bemoaned what he described as a trend of priests using AI to write their homilies.
