Pope Leo XIV says AI is main challenge for humanity as he sets out papacy: Live

The Vatican has released Pope Leo XIV’s schedule for his first week as pontiff:

• Saturday May 10 he will meet with the Cardinals
• Sunday May 11 he is set to deliver his first noon blessing from the loggia
• Monday May 12 he has an audience with the media
• Friday May 16 he will meet with global diplomats
• Sunday May 18 he will celebrate his first Mass at St. Peter’s Square
• Wednesday May 21 he will holds his first general audience

The new Pope has also been invited to travel to Turkey at the end of May to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea – a landmark event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations.

As Chicago-native Robert Francis Prevost walked out on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday, sports fans in unison had one question.

James Liddell answers the all-important question: Does the American Pope root for the Chicago Cubs or the Chicago White Sox?

Father Rob Hagan had always referred to him as “Bob”.

Now, he said, “referring to him as Pope Leo XIV is just an honour.”

In an interview with The Independent, Fr Hagan said Pope Leo was “incredibly bright” and speaks several languages, but he was also a kind person.

“He has a real approachability and warmth, a twinkle in his eye, he’s really a gift to the church and to the world.”

Read the full interview below:

One of Pope Leo XIV’s neighbours intuited when he was still a young boy that he would someday become pope.

John Prevost, one of Leo’s brothers, says he thinks it happened when Leo was in first grade.

“One of the neighbourhood ladies across the street said to him, ‘You will be the first American pope,”‘ he said. “How she did that, who knows?”

A clue as to how Prevost sees his role as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics comes in his choice of papal name, Catherine Pepinster writes.

In the Catholic world, a Leo is seen as a reformer pope. And the new Pope could prove no laughing matter for the US president and his team.

Read her full analysis below:

The former cardinal Robert Prevost chose the name Leo as his papal name, becoming the 14th Pope to do so.

The choice has been fairly widely credited to the last Pope to hold that name, Pope Leo XIII, who headed the church from 1878 to 1903.

Leo XIII was known for his devoted focus on social justice issues, and is often credited with laying the foundation for modern Catholic social teaching.

Another Leo had one of the shortest pontificates in history. Pope Leo XI lasted from 1 April 1605 until his death on 27 April 1605.

Read more about the history of papal names here:

The Duke of Edinburgh will represent the King at the inauguration of the new Pope next weekend, Buckingham Palace has said.

Edward will travel to the Vatican to attend Pope Leo XIV’s formal installation as pope at a mass in St Peter’s Square on 18 May.

A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said: “The Duke of Edinburgh will represent His Majesty at the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.”

Buckingham Palace previously said the King had sent a private message congratulating the Pope on his election and passing on his and the Queen’s most sincere good wishes for his pontificate.

The King had developed a strong bond with Pope Leo’s predecessor Pope Francis over the years and met him in person while in Italy not long before the Church leader’s death last month.

The Prince of Wales, a future head of the Church of England, represented his father during Pope Francis’s funeral mass in St Peter’s Square on 26 April.

Pope Leo XIV has identified artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity.

In his first formal audience, he identified AI as one of the main issues facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labour.

Leo referred to AI in explaining the choice of his name: His namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was pope from 1878 to 1903 and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought.

He did so most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age.

The late pope criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching.

In his remarks Saturday, Leo said he identified with his predecessor, who addressed the great social question of the day posed by the industrial revolution in the encyclical.

“In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour,” he said.

Toward the end of his pontificate, Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it.