(OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV used a light touch of humor to make a point about artificial intelligence and a Christian answer to it while sharing a meal with Spanish bishops in Madrid on June 8.
Meeting the country’s prelates over octopus, a staple of Spanish cuisine, accompanied by a bread roll sprinkled with flour in the shape of Vatican emblem, followed by carrillada, or beef cheeks, and topped with panna cotta for dessert, Pope Leo made a joke that made a point worthy of the “Magnifica Humanitas” author.
OSV News learned from a source close to the bishops’ conference that Pope Leo told the gathering he had “consulted” AI and asked what the pope should say to the Spanish episcopate.
The system began its answer with, “Pope Francis would say …,” prompting Pope Leo to cut in: “I think there is another Pope now,” the source recalled to OSV News what the pontiff said.
Only then, Pope Leo said, according to the source, did AI correct itself: “Ah, that’s right. Pope Leo is now the pope.”
A very different ‘algorithm’ for Christians
Pope Leo used the story to underline that Christians follow a very different “algorithm.”
Unlike digital systems, he said, the Gospel’s algorithm leads believers, including bishops, to love people, to accompany them and to be servants of the Word.
Pope Leo referred to a phenomenon often experienced by users of AI’s large language models, or LLM, like ChatGPT, that struggle to know who the pope currently is. Often, when asked about Pope Leo, the systems provide answers referencing Pope Francis instead.
The moment of a shared laugh came in the middle of a day marked by meaningful messages and encounters — from a groundbreaking speech to the Las Cortes Generales, or the Spanish Parliament, an afternoon meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse and a true archdiocesan evening fiesta at Santiago Bernabeu’s soccer stadium of Real Madrid, where the diocesan community meeting was planned.
Before meeting with Spanish bishops over lunch, Pope Leo told the bishops that the “synodal journey undertaken by the Church is a process of attentive listening.”
Recognizing ‘the voice of God’
“Being able to recognize the voice of God speaking through the ecclesial community is one of its fundamental values,” Pope Leo told the Spanish bishops.
He said while their ministry is often marked by challenges, “we are called to respond with courage,” so that the “immense Christian heritage of your land” may “reach its potential in bearing good fruit.”
“The strength of the Church does not come from the greatness of her resources,” the pope told the Spanish bishops, ‘but from the holiness of her children, from the communion of her pastors, and from the humble and persevering fidelity of those who allow themselves to be guided by the Spirit.”
“Our heritage should be an instrument and an opportunity for dialogue with those we encounter along the way,” the pope said, adding that for the Church to face challenges, it’s worthy to “leave behind everything that holds us back and isolates us.”
The lengthy speech, which mentioned the crisis of vocations and evangelization in a secularized world, was also a call to unity from the pope, whose episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum,” or literally “In the One, we are one.”
‘The richness of the gifts, charisms, sensibilities’
As Christians walk with Christ as “members of one body,” “this profound bond demands of the Church, in this time of increasingly drastic polarizations and oppositions, a witness to unity in diversity: a communion capable of embracing the richness of the gifts, charisms and sensibilities that the Holy Spirit stirs up in the people of God,” the pope said.
Pope Leo emphasized that bishops in their ministry are “called to be a visible sign of communion: first and foremost, of communion with Christ, lovingly safeguarding the faith we have received, in docility to the Word of God and to the living Tradition of the Church.”
“Our mission calls you to safeguard unity, foster dialogue, heal divisions and accompany the journey of the people entrusted to your care,” the pope said, invoking the Virgin Mary as the “first companion on the journey and your greatest treasure, for she shows us through her life how to welcome the Word and keep it in our hearts, how to accompany the disciples on this path and how to remain present on the Church’s journey.”
In the early evening, the pope prayed at Our Lady of Almudena Cathedral, donating a golden rose to the famed Madrid statue.
Paulina Guzik is international editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @Guzik_Paulina
