Pope Leo XIV has approved the creation of an Interdicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence, a new Vatican body meant to coordinate the Church’s response to one of the most pressing cultural and ethical questions of the day.
The decision was formalized in a rescript dated May 12, released May 16, and signed by Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The document points to the rapid development of artificial intelligence, its widening use, and its potential effects on “human beings and on humanity as a whole.”
At the heart of the initiative is a familiar concern of Catholic social teaching: the dignity of every human person, especially in relation to integral human development.
As read in Vatican News, the commission will bring together representatives from seven Vatican bodies: the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the Dicastery for Communication, the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
For its first year, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development will coordinate the commission’s work. After that, leadership may rotate among the participating institutions in renewable one-year terms, with the Pope deciding which body will guide the next phase.
According to the rescript, the coordinating institution will help foster collaboration and the exchange of information on AI-related projects, including policies for the use of artificial intelligence within the Holy See. The text also stresses the importance of “dialogue, communion, and participation.”
The commission was established under Praedicate Evangelium, the apostolic constitution governing the Roman Curia, which allows dicastery heads to create interdicasterial commissions when a subject touches the responsibilities of several Vatican offices.
The new body builds on recent Vatican work in this field. In January 2025, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education published Antiqua et Nova, a note on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence.
AI has also emerged as a defining theme of Pope Leo XIV’s early pontificate. On May 10, just days after his election, he told cardinals that his choice of name was inspired by Leo XIII, whose encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the upheavals of the industrial revolution.
Today, Leo XIV suggested, the Church faces another such turning point: a technological revolution that raises urgent questions about human dignity, justice, and labor.
