Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert F. Prevost of the U.S., seems on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican, Might 8, 2025.
Dylan Martinez | Reuters
Pope Leo XIV stated Saturday that he chosen his identify partly to commemorate Pope Leo XIII for his dedication to social points and staff’ rights throughout the industrial revolution.
Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pontiff on Might 8 and stated that the world now faces new hurdles to staff’ rights — and humanity extra broadly — as a result of rise of synthetic intelligence.
“In our personal day, the church gives everybody the treasury of its social instructing 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 stated.
Leo’s remarks supplied one of many earliest indications of his imaginative and prescient for management and priorities as head of the Catholic Church.
Leo additionally urged 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 stated.
Francis, who was pope for 12 years, typically garnered criticism from conservative cardinals who stated he was watering down the Church’s doctrine on points like LGBT Catholics and ladies’s management.
Leo XIII, the partial inspiration for the brand new pope’s identify, was elected in 1878. He was a distinguished determine within the Catholic Church’s social instructing, notably surrounding the rights of staff and the working class.
Leo is the primary American pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
Reuters contributed to this report.
