Leo XIV explains why he chose his name and what his vision of the papacy is.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV outlined his vision for the papacy Saturday, identifying artificial intelligence as one of the most critical issues facing humanity and vowing to continue some of Pope Francis' core priorities.

In his first formal audience, León repeatedly mentioned Francis and the Argentine pope's 2013 mission statement, making clear his commitment to making the Catholic Church a more inclusive institution, attentive to the faithful, and concerned for the "less fortunate and rejected."

Leo, the first American pope, told the cardinals who elected him that he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the meetings held in the 1960s that modernized the institution. He identified artificial intelligence as one of the major problems facing humanity and said it poses challenges for upholding human dignity, justice, and work.

The pontiff referred to artificial intelligence when explaining his choice of name: His namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was pope from 1878 to 1903 and laid the foundations of modern Catholic social thought. He did so most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers' rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age. The late pope criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centered socialism, shaping a distinctively Catholic economic current.

In his remarks Saturday, Leo said he identified with his predecessor, who addressed the great social issue of the day raised by the industrial revolution in the encyclical.

“In our days, the Church offers everyone the treasure 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 work,” he noted.

Toward the end of his pontificate, Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by artificial intelligence and called for an international treaty to regulate it.

He warned that such powerful technology risks turning human relationships into mere algorithms. Francis took his message to the Group of Seven industrialized nations when he addressed their summit last year, insisting that artificial intelligence must remain human-centered so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools are always made by humans, not machines.

The late Argentine pope also used his 2024 annual peace message to call for an international treaty ensuring that artificial intelligence is developed and used ethically, arguing that a technology lacking the human values ​​of compassion, mercy, morality, and forgiveness is too dangerous to develop unchecked.

In the speech, delivered in Italian in the Vatican synod hall, not the Apostolic Palace, Leo made repeated references to Francis and the mourning for his death. He held up Francis's mission statement from the beginning of his pontificate in 2013, "The Joy of the Gospel," as a kind of mandate for himself, suggesting that he intends to largely continue Francis's priorities.

He mentioned Francis's insistence on the missionary nature of the Church and the need to make its leadership more collegial. He also spoke about the need to pay attention to what the faithful say, "especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, especially popular piety." Again referring to Francis's 2013 mission statement, Leo emphasized the need for the Church to express "loving care for the least favored and rejected" and to engage in courageous dialogue with the contemporary world.

Leo, who was greeted with a standing ovation upon entering, read from his previously prepared text, occasionally looking up. Even when he first appeared before the world in the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica on Thursday night, Leo read from a prepared text that he must have drafted sometime before his historic election or in the hour following it.