The greatest Leo, AI and wars

There are three great Pope Leos. And the greatest will be the new pope, Leo XIV, aka Robert Francis Prevost – “Rob” to his two elder brothers and “Bob” to other relatives, friends and the religious community; His Holiness to all of us Catholics, good and bad.

Pope Leo I. As the bishop of Rome, he repelled an invasion by Attila the Hun, ruler of the Huns from 434 to 453, and one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman empires. He conquered northern Italy but was unable to conquer Rome because Pope Leo I talked him out of it. That simple. Attila had a vision of the Saints Peter and Paul, carrying drawn swords and threatening Attila if he dared to attack the city of Rome, says Wikipedia.

Pope Leo XIII. He authored in 1891 the 14,175-word “Rerum Novarum” (“Of New Things”), the encyclical that deplored the plight of the 19th century urban poor and denounced unrestricted naked capitalism. “It enunciated the late 19th century Roman Catholic position on social justice, especially in relation to the problems created by the Industrial Revolution, and it emphasized the church’s right to make pronouncements on social issues as they related to moral questions,” says Britannica.

“The Church recognizes that the lack of workers’ unions contributed to an unjust situation where many work in conditions little better than slavery. One solution proposed by socialists was to eliminate private property altogether,” says the California Catholic Conference.

Pope Leo XIII dismissed this solution because “every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own.” He also notes that “the impelling reason and motive of his work is to obtain property.” Instead of helping the working class, the elimination of private property would only hurt those it was intended to benefit. Private ownership “is not only lawful, but absolutely necessary,” declares the encyclical. Also, the right to property is essential in maintaining the structure of the family. A worker ought to be given the opportunity to live sparingly, save money and invest his savings for the future.

Those teachings remain as relevant today in the 21st century as they were 134 years ago. If you ask me, “Rerum Novarum” is a thesis for a revolution by the working class.

Pope Leo XIV, the Amerikano, the Peruvian pope, the pontiff of the people and the leader of Christians who are “mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied” and where the Catholic Church’s “missionary outreach is most desperately needed.” By the way, “pontiff” is latin for bridge builder – pont (bridge) + facere (to do, to make).

In his talk on Friday, May 9, with the cardinals at the Sistine Chapel, in a private mass, his first as the bishop of Rome, Robert Francis explained why he chose Leo.

“There are different reasons for this (my name), but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution,” Pope Leo XIV said. “In our own day, the church offers to everyone the treasury of her 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 said.

Rerum Novarum is the battle plan to fight artificial intelligence (AI). Leo is right. AI is the latest invention of capitalists.

The biggest and most rapacious capitalists are the tech entrepreneurs, the tech titans – the Big Seven of the US – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia. There are also the non-Christian tech giants – Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi. They have no religion, except profit and mind control. All are involved in AI – as innovators or its big users. Sadly, dealing with machines implies no ethics, no values, no conscience. How does the Catholic Church fight that? Rerum Novarum. To defend human dignity, justice and labor.

Without meaning to, Pope Leo XIV may have declared the biggest war of the Catholic Church – fight the abuses of AI and its creators. His weapons? What the text-savvy pope calls “complete dedication to service and simplicity of life.”

Speaking to the cardinals on May 10, Leo made 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 the rejected.” “Walk with me,” he asked the cardinals.

But of course, the pope has also spoken of other wars. During his first Sunday mass as pope on May 11, 2025 before a crowd of 150,000 at St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo delivered a message of peace and belted into hallelujah in praying the Regina Caeli (“Queen of Heaven”). And then went on to denounce wars.

Leo said: “The immense tragedy of the Second World War ended 80 years ago, after having claimed 60 million victims. In today’s dramatic scenario of a ‘piecemeal Third World War,’ as Pope Francis stated many times, I too address the world’s leaders, repeating the ever-timely appeal: ‘Never again war!’”

“I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people. May everything possible be done to reach an authentic, just and lasting peace, as soon as possible. Let all the prisoners be freed and the children return to their own families,” he pleaded.

He called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “Let humanitarian aid be provided to the stricken civil population, and let all the hostages be freed,” Leo prayed, as he also “welcomed with satisfaction the announcement of the ceasefire between India and Pakistan,” adding, “I hope that through the upcoming negotiations, a lasting accord may be reached soon.”

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]