The Bishop of Rome took time this week to speak with the clergy of his diocese, engaging in a long question-and-answer session.
During a meeting with priests from Rome on February 19, 2026, at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV urged them to "resist the temptation to prepare homilies with artificial intelligence."
The 45-minute dialogue included personal confidences and recommendations, and was made public on Friday. During the meeting, the Bishop of Rome emphasized the need to avoid negativity in order to speak credibly about people's suffering.
Incidentally, I invite you to resist the temptation to prepare homilies with artificial intelligence! Just as all the muscles in the body die if we do not use them, if we do not move them, the brain needs to be used, so our intelligence, your intelligence, needs to be exercised a little so as not to lose this ability. But it takes much more than that, because to give a true homily, which is to share the faith, AI will never be able to share the faith!
In Paul VI Hall, after his speech, Leo XIV engaged in a dialogue with the priests of his diocese, addressing in particular the situation of elderly priests, who are increasingly numerous in Europe while priestly vocations are in decline. The Pope said that everyone should "prepare ourselves in life, in a certain sense, to be able to accept, when the time comes, old age, infirmity, illness, and even loneliness." But, he said, this already starts with how life is lived during the younger years.
There are people – let us say this frankly – who, even as young people, go through life with a certain bitterness, having never known the experience of friendship, fraternity or communion. And so, even as young people, or from middle age onwards, they live with this bitterness, never happy with anything and always with this somewhat negative spirit.
The Holy Father said that living life in this way helps to understand the problem of euthanasia.
You know very well that in many countries – in Europe, in Italy… In Canada it is already legal – euthanasia is discussed in many places: the question of the end of life, people who no longer have a sense of purpose in life and are there with the cross of an illness and say: “I don’t want to carry this anymore, I would prefer to take my own life.” If we are so negative about our life, and at times with less suffering than many people endure, how can we say to them: “No, you cannot take your own life, you must accept...”? But then we behave in this way, very negative about everything. That is, we must be the first witnesses to the fact that life has great value. And gratitude throughout life is very important.
Here are further excerpts from the question-and-answer session, which is translated in full by the Vatican press office.
Youth live alone - help them
With the famous smartphone, which probably all of us carry in our pockets today, we live alone even if they say, “No, my friend is here,” but there is no human contact. They live in a kind of distance from others, a coldness, without knowing the richness and value of truly human relationships. So there too we must seek to offer young people another kind of experience of friendship, of sharing and, little by little, of communion, and from that experience invite them to know Jesus, who invites us to be not his servants but his friends.
To do all this takes a lot of time, sacrifice, and reflection, to see how to reach these young people who today are often led away to a terrible life, drug addiction, delinquency, violence, difficulties, isolation... Not long ago, a young person asked me this question: “You talk a lot about communion and unity, why? What is the value of it?” In other words, he did not even understand, in his own experience, that there is great value in coming out of loneliness and seeking friends and communion.
Always getting to know the other's reality
I speak from personal experience. I lived in Rome for four years in the 1980s, then for twelve years from 2000 to 2012-13, and now for three years, and every time I return to Rome, in a certain sense, I find another Rome. There are many things... The “eternal city,” let’s say, the streets, are the same, the potholes are the same, but life has changed so much. So, in order to serve as Bishop of Rome, I thought a lot about this when we went to Ostia last Sunday to talk to these people. We need to start by getting to know their reality as thoroughly as possible. I cannot even bring continuity: if I am transferred from one parish to another, I cannot think, “This worked there, let's continue doing the same things.” If you want to love someone, you must first get to know them. If you want to love and serve a community, it is very important to know it.
And there are many realities in this world of mobility, which I have spoken about a little, that are constantly changing. And so it takes an effort on the part of parish priests, priests, and all those who collaborate in the parish council to really see what the challenges are at this moment in this place, in this parish, which we need to see and know a little.
Hit the books ... and have good food
[S]tudy in our lives must be permanent and continuous. When I hear someone say to me – this is historical, a priest told me –: “I haven't opened a book since I left the seminary." My goodness, I thought, how sad! And how sad for his faithful, who have to listen to God knows what. We also need to keep up to date, and that group of priests, at their monthly meeting [he refers to a groups of priests he knew in Chicago who would get together once a month] would say to each other, in turn, “It’s your turn, choose an article, something.” The person would then send it to everyone in advance, everyone would read it, and then when it was time to share, they would talk about theology, pastoral care, new initiatives, the reality of the Church, etc. It was a beautiful thing. And it was their own initiative.
And here, then, is another very important point: if I sit here and say, “No one comes to visit me ” — which may happen to some of you — let us not be afraid to knock on someone else’s door, to take the initiative, to say to our companions or to a group of friends, to some of them: “Why don’t we get together every now and then to study together, reflect together, have a moment of prayer and then a good lunch?” The parish priest with the best cook can invite others, so you can have a good lunch together.
