Pope Leo XIV Bans AI in Sermons, Warns of 'Intellectual Laziness'

The Vatican has taken a firm stance in the growing debate over the role of new technologies in religious life. Pope Leo XIV has ordered priests worldwide to stop using tools like ChatGPT for drafting pastoral content. This decision, announced during a series of audiences and communications, has sparked widespread echoes in international media, from Spain to Poland. The Holy Father stressed that a priest must engage his own mind and heart in the process of creating teachings, rather than relying on ready-made templates generated by large language models. The Pope argues that a sermon is a form of sacramental dialogue between God, the pastor, and the faithful, which technology is incapable of replicating. Since the time of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has sought to balance tradition and modernity, as expressed in the 1963 encyclical Inter Mirifica concerning the means of social communication. The criticism from the Holy See does not concern the technology itself as an auxiliary tool, but the degree of its intrusion into the sacred sphere. Leo XIV warned that too frequent recourse to artificial intelligence solutions can lead to atrophy of critical thinking among clergy. "The brain must be used" – this is one of the most trenchant slogans that emerged in the context of the new guidelines. The Vatican fears that algorithms, while adept at handling quotes from Scripture, lack grace and authentic compassion, which are crucial in pastoral work. Furthermore, the Pope pointed to the risk of theological errors that may go unnoticed by an inattentive user of copied text. „L'intelligenza artificiale può copiare le parole, ma non copierà mai l'anima che deve bruciare in ogni parola de verità rivolta ai fedeli.” (Artificial intelligence can copy words, but it will never copy the soul that must burn in every word of truth addressed to the faithful.) — Pope Leo XIV In another address, the Pope focused on support for older priests, suggesting that it is they, thanks to their years of experience, who are the guardians of the traditional form of communication based on interpersonal relationships, not digital mediation. Media note that this position places the Vatican as one of the strongest critics of the uncritical implementation of Silicon Valley solutions into private and spiritual spheres. Although canonical sanctions for using AI have not yet been formally defined, this call has the character of a moral imperative intended to redefine how the Church communicates in the 21st century.