In Regina Caeli and World Communications Day addresses, Pope Leo warns about AI risks and links tech to peacebuilding

Pope Leo XIV used two linked interventions on Sunday to press a single point about technology, communication and peace. At the Regina Caeli in St. Peter’s Square on May 17, Leo tied the feast of the Ascension to “the precious fruits of communion and peace in the world.” The same day, the Vatican marked the 60th World Day of Social Communications with a message Leo had issued on January 24 under the theme “Preserving Human Voices and Faces.” Together, the texts show the new pope connecting digital life to older Catholic concerns about truth, human dignity and social peace. ### How did Leo connect the Ascension to peace? At the May 17 Regina Caeli, Leo told about 20,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square that Christ’s Ascension is not a distant event but a present reality for believers united to Jesus. He said the divine life received in baptism can “grow in and around us” and spread “the precious fruits of communion and peace in the world,” according to Vatican News’ account of the address. (vaticannews.va) The Vatican’s summary of the prayer also said Leo described Christ’s life as “a movement of ascent” that brings “light, forgiveness and hope” where there had been “darkness, injustice and desperation.” That language placed peace in a theological frame rather than a policy one: communion with God, in Leo’s formulation, should shape “thinking, feeling, and acting” in the world. (vaticannews.va) ### What did he say about AI and communication? In the message for the 60th World Day of Social Communications, released January 24, Leo said human faces and voices are “sacred” because they express each person’s unrepeatable identity. He warned that digital systems increasingly simulate “voices, faces, and emotions,” and said artificial intelligence can intrude not only on information systems but on human relationships themselves. (vaticannews.va) Vatican News’ May 17 report on the communications day said Leo urged Catholics to promote forms of communication that respect “the truth of the human person” and to direct technological innovation toward “the good of humanity.” In the January text, he said the danger is not only the tools themselves but a human willingness to hand over listening, judgment and critical thought to AI systems and social-media algorithms. (vatican.va) ### Why did “human voices and faces” become his chosen theme? On September 29, 2025, the Vatican announced “Preserving human voices and faces” as the theme for the 2026 observance. The Dicastery for Communication said modern communication ecosystems are increasingly shaped by algorithms and AI-generated text and conversation, while insisting that empathy, ethics and moral responsibility remain distinctly human capacities. (vaticannews.va) The full papal message expanded that argument by grounding it in Christian anthropology. Leo wrote that every person has an “irreplaceable and inimitable vocation” revealed through encounter with others, and he ended with a direct appeal: “We need faces and voices to speak for people again.” ### Is this part of a broader pattern in Leo’s early papacy? (vaticannews.va) On May 12, 2025, Leo told media workers to “disarm communication” of prejudice, resentment and hatred, and said “peace begins with each one of us” in the way people look at, listen to and speak about others. That earlier address shows that his May 17 remarks fit an existing line of argument about communication as a moral act tied to peace. (vatican.va) A July 10, 2025 message to the AI for Good Summit in Geneva also showed the Vatican engaging AI as a policy and ethical question beyond church media. In that note, sent on Leo’s behalf by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the Holy See addressed AI in the context of international governance and the common good. ### What comes next at the Vatican? (vatican.va) On May 21, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication will hold an international conference at the Pontifical Urbaniana University under the same theme, “Preserving human voices and faces.” Vatican News said the event will bring together academics, institutional representatives, technology experts and journalists to discuss artificial intelligence’s effects on individuals, communities and nations. (press.vatican.va) Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, and Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, are scheduled to open the conference. The Vatican has presented the gathering as a follow-up to Leo’s World Communications Day appeal to orient technological innovation toward the deepest truth of the human person. (vaticannews.va)