Pope Leo XIV, accompanied by, from left, Prefect of the Pontifical Family Archbishop Petar Rajič, Dean Antonella Polimeni, and his vicar for the town of Rome Cardinal Baldo Reina, visits the Città Universitaria (College Metropolis) at Sapienza College of Rome to satisfy with college and college students on the establishment’s main campus, one of many world’s oldest and largest universities, Thursday, Could 14, 2026.
Gregorio Borgia/AP
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Gregorio Borgia/AP
ROME — Pope Leo XIV on Thursday denounced how investments in synthetic intelligence and high-tech weaponry had been main the world right into a “spiral of annihilation,” as he known as for peace within the Center East and Ukraine throughout a go to to Europe’s largest college.
Leo’s speech at Rome’s La Sapienza College marked the primary time a pope has visited the campus since Pope Benedict XVI known as off a deliberate speech there in 2008 within the face of protests from college and college students.
The American pope was warmly welcomed on Thursday, together with by a few of Sapienza’s latest college students: Younger Palestinians who arrived in Italy this week on a “humanitarian corridor” from Gaza to proceed their research on the college. The Italian authorities, working with Catholic organizations, has introduced a whole bunch of Palestinians to review and obtain medical care in Italy for the reason that Israeli warfare in opposition to Hamas in Gaza started in 2023.
Leo met a number of the Gaza college students throughout a short greeting on the campus chapel, and once more after his speech in the primary lecture corridor of the college, which was based by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303.
In his speech, Leo denounced how army spending had elevated dramatically this 12 months, particularly in Europe, on the expense of training and healthcare, whereas “enriching elites who care nothing for the common good.”
He known as for higher monitoring of how AI was being developed and utilized in army and civilian contexts “so that it does not absolve humans of responsibility for their choices and does not exacerbate the tragedy of conflicts.”
Pope Leo XIV visits the Città Universitaria (College Metropolis) at Sapienza College of Rome to satisfy with college and college students on the establishment’s main campus, one of many world’s oldest and largest universities, Thursday, Could 14, 2026.
Gregorio Borgia/AP
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Gregorio Borgia/AP
“What is happening in Ukraine, in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon, and in Iran illustrates the inhuman evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation,” he mentioned.
The pope mentioned training and analysis should transfer as a substitute in the wrong way that values life “the lives of peoples who cry out for peace and justice!”
Leo has recognized AI as some of the vital issues going through humanity, particularly its utility in warfare and on a regular basis life. They’re themes he is anticipated to discover extra absolutely in his first encyclical, as a consequence of be launched within the coming weeks.
Nada Rahim Jouda, 19, was one of many Gazans who met Leo, simply two days after she arrived in Italy. She was nonetheless marveling at her new life learning enterprise science in Rome, a metropolis that she mentioned was “like heaven for me.”
“Everything here is green and it’s not gray and troubles everywhere and miserable people in the streets,” she mentioned.
However Jouda stays involved for the household she left behind: her mom, recovering from leukemia, and youthful sisters aged 17 and 13. Over the course of the warfare in Gaza, the household was compelled to maneuver 4 occasions, and her mom was unable to obtain care or check-ups for her most cancers.
“They all rely on me. I’m the only hope that they have,” she mentioned.
