Why Pope Leo selected his title: AI, employees’ rights, new Industrial Revolution

Pope Leo XIV mentioned Saturday that he chosen his title partly to commemorate Pope Leo XIII for his dedication to social points and employees’ rights in the course of the industrial revolution.

Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pontiff on Might 8 and mentioned that the world now faces new hurdles to employees’ rights — and humanity extra broadly — as a result of rise of synthetic intelligence.

“In our personal day, the church affords everybody the treasury of its social educating in response to a different industrial revolution and to developments within the area of synthetic intelligence that pose new challenges for the protection of human dignity, justice and labor,” Leo mentioned.

Leo’s remarks offered one of many earliest indications of his imaginative and prescient for management and priorities as head of the Catholic Church.

Leo additionally advised throughout his first assembly with cardinals since his election that he would observe the late Pope Francis‘ lead on his dedication to social justice.

“It has been clearly seen within the instance of so lots of my predecessors, and most just lately by Pope Francis himself, together with his instance of full dedication to service and to sober simplicity of life, his abandonment to God all through his ministry and his serene belief in the mean time of his return to the Father’s home,” he mentioned.

Francis, who was pope for 12 years, typically garnered criticism from conservative cardinals who mentioned he was watering down the Church’s doctrine on points like LGBT Catholics and girls’s management.

Leo XIII, the partial inspiration for the brand new pope’s title, was elected in 1878. He was a outstanding determine within the Catholic Church’s social educating, significantly surrounding the rights of employees and the working class.

Leo is the primary American pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.

Reuters contributed to this report.