Pope Leo XIV delivered a direct challenge to Catholic legislators gathered in Rome on 21 August, warning that without deliberate, human-centred regulation, Pope Leo’s AI colonialism concern could become reality: wealthier nations using artificial intelligence to entrench dependency among poorer ones. The address, delivered during a private audience with delegates from the EWTN News-reported gathering of the International Catholic Legislators Network (ICLN), sets out what the pontiff sees as the political and moral responsibilities that follow from the technology’s rapid spread.
Pope Leo AI colonialism framing and what it means for policy
‘The rapid development of artificial intelligence risks creating new forms of technological dependence, with poorer nations increasingly reliant on wealthier ones,’ Pope Leo said. ‘We must remain vigilant in this regard, lest innovation become another vehicle for ideological or economic colonialism.’
The framing is deliberate. Describing AI’s geopolitical dimension as a potential form of colonialism places it alongside historical patterns of resource extraction and dependency, rather than treating it as a neutral technical problem. The pontiff asked lawmakers to implement legislation that uplifts their constituents, putting human welfare ahead of technological momentum.
The ICLN, founded in 2010, describes its mission as providing ‘Christians in public office with faith formation, expert education and a global network of peers and friends’ to encourage leadership ‘committed to the dignity of every human being,’ according to the National Catholic Reporter. The network held its annual meeting from 20 to 23 August in Rome, under the theme ‘Human Dignity and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges, Chances and Control.’
Algorithms, families and the architecture of domination
Pope Leo did not confine his remarks to the macro-level question of geopolitical dependency. He also addressed what he called a ‘subtle form of domination’ already present in everyday digital life. ‘When algorithms decide who is seen, who remains invisible, when digital platforms shape public discourse without accountability, and when the dignity of workers is subordinated to the optimization of systems,’ he said, that constitutes domination in practice.
Social media, in his reading, is not a neutral platform but a system of structured visibility and invisibility, one that operates without democratic accountability. The observation carries obvious implications for any legislator considering how to regulate platform algorithms or mandate transparency in content-ranking systems.
The pontiff extended his concern to the family, which he described as the unit where fundamental social learning takes place. ‘It is within the family that we first learn trust before calculation, generosity before competition, dialogue before division, and love before power,’ he said. AI, he argued, must not be permitted to erode that institution, ‘whether by reducing persons and relationships to data and simulations, by flooding young minds with content that distorts desire, or by economic models that make family life economically precarious.’
He called on lawmakers to promote policies that ‘strengthen marriage and families, support parents in their educational mission and enable young people to look to the future with confidence.’
The address also carried a pointed aspirational note: ‘The world does not need an artificial intelligence that diminishes humanity; rather, it needs human intelligence enlightened by wisdom, political authority guided by conscience and technological innovation directed by charity.’
A consistent papal position on AI governance
The Rome address is not an isolated intervention. Pope Leo has made AI governance a recurring theme since the early period of his papacy. He previously asked the AI industry to ‘cultivate moral discernment’ and to ‘develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and a reverence for life.’ In May, he issued a letter examining AI’s impact on the global workforce, the environment and democracy, a document that drew responses from executives, lawmakers and academics.
Taken together, the papal interventions form a coherent position: that AI is not merely a technical subject but a question of political economy, power and human dignity, one that legislators cannot defer to technologists to resolve on their own. The Pope Leo AI colonialism framing in particular raises a challenge that trade negotiators, development finance institutions and multilateral bodies are also starting to grapple with: who controls the data, the models and the infrastructure, and on whose terms does the technology spread.
The ICLN’s Rome meeting runs until 23 August, with human dignity and AI forming the central thread of its programme throughout, according to the Vatican-adjacent network’s stated agenda for the gathering.