Pope Leo XIV doesn’t want your parish using AI art

You may have heard about or read Pope Leo XIV’s now viral statement on X, 

“In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.”

You may have missed that this adaptation created for X was quoting part of his message to artists at “The Art of Possibility: Weaving Together” meeting organized by the dicastery for culture and education. During his speech, before making the statement that turned into a tweet, Pope Leo addressed the artists in the room saying, “I also say to you today: the Church needs you.” 

The Church needs you.

I’d venture to say this doesn’t only apply to artists. This applies to all the people of God: the Church needs you. She needs what only you can do. She needs what God created you and you alone to do. 

To add some emphasis to the words of St. John Henry Newman: “God has created you to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to you which he has not committed to another. You have your mission. You may never know it in this life, but you shall be told it in the next.” 

Humanity is far too magnificent to be reduced to efficiency

At the core of Catholic social teaching is the inherent dignity of the human person. Every single human being in existence — at every stage of life — has inherent worth. The Church has given us this beautiful teaching that human beings have inherent dignity, apart from what they can contribute to the world. Human beings have inherent dignity because they are loved and willed by God, and bear his image. Every. Single. One. 

In our Western culture, however, this teaching can be hard to see behind the systems we’ve been surrounded by for all our lives. Oftentimes, productivity and efficiency are rewarded, leading us to believe the lie that productivity and efficiency are where we earn our worth. 

Enter the AI revolution, with all of its products and services promising to make us more efficient, productive, and solve all of our problems. How do we hold fast to the truth of inherent human dignity, when the world around us seems to be rewarding machine-fueled production, work, and creativity. 

What can machines do that humans can’t?

There is nothing that a machine can do that humans cannot that is essential to human life. So do we really need technology? Do we need AI? 

Pope Leo XIV told us that, “Technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity,” in his encyclical; but he also implores us in the same letter that we carefully discern the role we allow AI to play in our lives, culture, and society. 

We don’t need AI, but there are some things it can do that make room for other things that may be more important. 

Analogously, I don’t technically need a car to get from my house to my parish, but having a car reduces my commute from 25 minutes to 5, making more space for family time, rest, and recreation each Sunday. In the same way, I don’t need AI to turn my recipes into grocery shopping lists, but using it for that gives me just a few extra minutes in my day to be present to my children.  

Now, there’s a whole case that can (and probably should) be made about the way AI can atrophy our ability to think and reduce the day-to-day friction that is necessary to grow in virtue and holiness. I still believe exploring these realities is critical as we all continue to traverse the unknown territory that is the AI revolution. That said, I am trying to follow Pope Leo’s cue of not immediately assuming AI is antagonistic, but treading forward with a discerning heart and mind.  

Do what only you can do and were created to do

As St. John Henry Newman has reminded us, there are things that only you can do. You were created for a distinct purpose. You were willed by God to exist right now — not some other time, today. There are things God has created you to do that no other person — much less, machine — can do. Within your work, your ministry, your vocation, there are facets of God’s heart that only you can express. 

This is why Pope Leo XIV cares about what we designate as “art” vs AI generated content. Because machines can’t do the human work that only humans were created to do. To make things a bit more personal: no thing and no one can do what you were created to do. 

As the world moves forward in navigating the new and unknown territory that AI presents, my sense is that Pope Leo XIV’s encouragement is not meant to cause us to demonize new technology as much as it is meant to lead us to reflect on the profound gift of our humanity — the gift that it is to be created in God’s own image and likeness; the gift it is that God himself took on our human nature to redeem it for eternity; the gift that it is to enter into God’s own divine life; the gift that it is to be held in existence by him, uniquely, as he created us. 

In your parish role, what is God asking you to do that nobody else can? Think of every person you interact with in your role — teammates, clergy, volunteers, and parishioners — how has God created you uniquely to serve and love them? 

You — just where you are, with your unique gifts and talents, with the heart that only you have — were created for this moment. Go bravely into it!