Pope Leo XIV Warns Priests Against AI in Sermon Prep

Pope Leo XIV issued a firm directive to priests on February 19, urging them to avoid using artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT to prepare sermons during a closed-door meeting with clergy from the Diocese of Rome. The pontiff emphasized that such reliance weakens human intellect and undermines the authentic sharing of faith essential to preaching.

Speaking to the assembled priests, the 70-year-old pope compared the brain to a muscle that atrophies without exercise. "Like all the muscles in the body, if we do not use them, if we do not move them, they die," he said, according to reports from the meeting. "The brain needs to be used, so our intelligence must also be exercised a little so as not to lose this capacity." He described AI-generated homilies as a temptation, insisting that true preaching requires personal experience. "To give a true homily is to share faith," the pope stated, "and AI will never be able to share faith."

The remarks mark a practical boundary on technology's role in worship, coming amid the Vatican's own adoption of AI for other purposes, such as a new system to translate liturgical texts into up to 60 languages in real time. While the pope endorsed...