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The Editorial Directorate of the Dicastery for Communication presents the documentary, “León de Perú”, featuring footage that retraces the mission of Robert Francis Prevost in Peru before he became Pope Leo XIV.

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WASHINGTON – “Solidarity with refugees and migrants is not optional; it’s a living testimony of the Gospel,” said Bishop Mark J. Seitz. On World Refugee Day (June 20), the Catholic Church stands in prayerful solidarity with refugees around the globe to recognize and honor the courage, resilience, and dignity of those forced to flee their homes.

As chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, Bishop Seitz reaffirmed the commitment of the Catholic faithful to walk with refugees in compassion and hope: 

“In their journey, refugees embody the hope we are called to share as Christians. As we welcome them, we reflect on our own pilgrimage toward the eternal home promised to us. Their resilience and faith challenge us to serve others more deeply and to build a world where every person is treated with dignity and can live in peace and freedom. Together with people of faith and goodwill, we recognize the profound witness of individuals and communities who open their hearts and homes to those seeking safety—welcoming the stranger, healing wounds, and restoring hope.

“We bishops of the United States remain resolute in our call for the consistent protection of refugees amid their disparate treatment by our government. The Church recognizes the right of each country to control its borders, while also affirming the right to seek refuge when life-threatening circumstances deny people the foremost right to remain in their homeland. As our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, has affirmed, the temptation to turn inward, to isolate ourselves from the needs of our brothers and sisters around the world, is incompatible with a Christian vision for the common good. We must remember Christ’s exhortation in Luke’s Gospel: to whom much is given, much is required.”

In his Pentecost homily, Pope Leo XIV reiterated that Christian love transcends borders, as he declared, “Where there is love, there is no room for prejudice, for ‘security’ zones separating us from our neighbors, for the exclusionary mindset that, tragically, we now see emerging also in political nationalisms.”

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On the eve of World Refugee Day the Sant’Egidio community holds its annual prayer vigil in memory of all those who lost their lives on their journey to Europe.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Access to vast amounts of data and information is not the same thing as having intelligence, which is uniquely human and requires being open to truth, goodness and the real meaning of life, Pope Leo XIV told AI experts and executives.

"Authentic wisdom has more to do with recognizing the true meaning of life than with the availability of data," he said in a written message released by the Vatican June 20.

"Acknowledging and respecting what is uniquely characteristic of the human person is essential to the discussion of any adequate ethical framework for the governance of AI," he wrote.

The message, written in English, was addressed to people attending the second annual Rome conference on AI, Ethics and the Future of Corporate Governance being held in Rome and at the Vatican June 19-20.

The conference "brings together executives from leading AI companies as well as large enterprises using AI with policymakers, scholars, ethicists and lawyers to consider in a holistic way the challenges facing the ethics and governance of AI, both for companies developing this revolutionary technology as well as the enterprises incorporating AI into their businesses," according to the event's website. 

Speakers included representatives from top AI-tech firms such as Google, IBM, Anthropic, Palantir Technologies, Cohere and AI21 Labs. Speakers from the Vatican included: Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the substitute for general affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State; Archbishop Carlo Maria Polvani, secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education; Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, retired president of the Pontifical Academy for Life; and Franciscan Father Paolo Benanti, a member of the U.N. AI committee and a professor of moral theology at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University.

In his message, Pope Leo said their presence "attests to the urgent need for serious reflection and ongoing discussion on the inherently ethical dimension of AI, as well as its responsible governance."

"Together with its extraordinary potential to benefit the human family, the rapid development of AI also raises deeper questions concerning the proper use of such technology in generating a more authentically just and human global society," he wrote.

He reiterated Pope Francis' definition of AI platforms as "tools," which, he said, reflect "the human intelligence that crafted them and draw much of their ethical force from the intentions of the individuals that wield them."

While "in some cases, AI has been used in positive and indeed noble ways to promote greater equality," he wrote, "there is likewise the possibility of its misuse for selfish gain at the expense of others, or worse, to foment conflict and aggression."

The Catholic Church wishes to contribute to "these pressing questions by stressing above all the need to weigh the ramifications of AI in light of the 'integral development of the human person and society,'" he wrote. That means the material, intellectual and spiritual well-being of the human person must be considered, human dignity must be safeguarded, and the cultural and spiritual riches and diversity of the world’s peoples must be respected.

"Ultimately, the benefits or risks of AI must be evaluated precisely according to this superior ethical criterion," he wrote. 

"AI, especially Generative AI, has opened new horizons on many different levels, including enhancing research in healthcare and scientific discovery, but also raises troubling questions on its possible repercussions on humanity's openness to truth and beauty, on our distinctive ability to grasp and process reality," Pope Leo wrote. 

He underlined concerns about the possible consequences of AI use on the intellectual and neurological development of children and young people. "Our youth must be helped, and not hindered, in their journey towards maturity and true responsibility," he wrote.

Never before have people had "such quick access to the amount of information now available through AI," he wrote.

"But again, access to data -- however extensive -- must not be confused with intelligence, which necessarily 'involves the person’s openness to the ultimate questions of life and reflects an orientation toward the True and the Good,'" he wrote, citing the Vatican document titled "Antiqua et Nova (ancient and new): Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence," approved by Pope Francis in January.

Pope Leo told participants he hoped the conference would also consider how AI fits in with helping young people connect with older generations and "integrate truth into their moral and spiritual life, thus informing their mature decisions and opening the path towards a world of greater solidarity and unity."

"The task set before you is not easy, but it is one of vital importance," he wrote, thanking them for their efforts.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Holy Year 2025 can have a lasting impact on the world's poorest countries if governments and international institutions embrace a key element of the biblical concept of jubilee by forgiving, restructuring or pausing foreign debt repayments, said a report commissioned by Pope Francis.

At the late pope's request, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University in New York brought together 30 global experts in debt, development and the global financial system to address the current debt crisis, prevent future crises and promote sustainable development.

The "Jubilee Commission," which began meeting in February, released "A Blueprint for Tackling the Debt and Development Crises and Securing a Sustainable People-Centered Global Economy" June 20 at the Vatican.

"Today, 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on health, and 2.1 billion live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on education," the report said. "Interest payments on public debt are therefore crowding out critical investments in health, education, infrastructure and climate resilience."

The indebted governments -- "fearful of the political and economic costs of initiating debt restructurings -- prioritize timely debt payments over essential development spending," the report said. "This is not a path to sustainable development. Rather, it is a roadblock to development and leads to increasing inequality and discontent." 

Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, an interfaith group promoting debt relief and development, was not a member of the commission, but supported its work and was at the Vatican for the launch of the report.

Changing the way loans to developing nations are made, structured and restructured when a crisis occurs is essential because economic crises "are the main causes for war, for human rights violations, for migrations, for many of the environmental challenges that we are having," he told Catholic News Service June 19.

Many people will say, "A debt that is owed is a debt that should be paid," LeCompte said, "but I think it's more complicated than that."

Especially since the pontificate of St. John Paul II and his push for foreign debt relief, he said, the Catholic Church's position has been that "a lot of lending has been used not to help people, but to hurt people," and "historically, lending that has been promised to build bridges has built palaces. Lending that has been promised to build roads has been turned into military dictatorship funding."

The Jubilee Commission report said, "Debt contracts are voluntary arrangements between creditors and debtors, and as such, they are equally responsible when matters go badly and there are problems in repayment."

"Indeed," it continued, "in some ways, creditors, who typically have more expertise in risk assessment and management, might even have greater responsibility" than the debtor nation.

The experts on the commission said, "Development inherently involves risk -- whether from long-term investments, exposure to commodity price fluctuations, or vulnerability to external shocks -- and that sustainable development requires these risks to be distributed globally in an efficient and equitable manner."

"The burden should be borne by those most capable of absorbing it, which is not what the current system delivers," the report said. 

And, the experts said, there must be a fair way of responding to situations where a debtor nation simply cannot afford to service its debt while feeding its people.

"At the heart of the problem lies a hole in the international economic architecture: the absence of a sovereign debt crisis resolution mechanism," the report said. "While mechanisms exist for corporate bankruptcy within countries, there is no equivalent framework for sovereign debtors."

Without such a process in place, the experts said, "in each crisis, debt restructurings must be negotiated. These negotiations are governed not by fairness or efficiency, but by power, with the result that the outcomes are typically neither fair nor efficient."

Exacerbating the problem, they said, "prevailing legal systems -- notably those of England and the United States, the major jurisdictions for the issuance of government international bonds -- permit specialized financial speculators, known as vulture funds, to purchase defaulted debt on secondary markets and sue for full repayment."

"This financial play turns a society's suffering into a source of profit," the report said. "Under current rules, a handful of speculators can effectively hold tens of millions of people hostage."

The experts urged support for the creation of a "Jubilee Fund," proposed by Spain, that would help countries buy back their debt at reduced rates rather than having the debt be sold at a discount to the vulture funds.

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See also: The Letter to President Trump on Global Debt Relief During Jubilee Year, April 8, 2025, from Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, Chairman, Committee on International Justice and Peace of the USCCB, and from Eric LeCompte of the Jubilee USA Network.
 

Pope Leo XIV thanks priests of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy who have completed a year of missionary service for their dedication and urges them to live their priesthood with humility, closeness, and faith, wherever the Church may send them.

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The priests of West Africa recently concluded their 11th annual ordinary Congress with Holy Mass at Saint Michael Parish in Cotonou, Benin. In their final communiqué, the Union of Priests of West Africa notably called for peace and security in the sub-region while denouncing cases of kidnapping and assassination of pastoral agents in the exercise of their ministry.

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Pope Leo calls on religious to never cease to bring consolation to those being persecuted for their faith, as he thanks the Order of Friars Minor Conventual and Trinitarians on the occasion of their General Chapters.

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When faced with the "exceptional product of human genius" which is artificial intelligence, Pope Leo XIV warns it raises pressing questions, must never forget human dignity, and cannot interfere with the proper human and neurological development of young people and children.

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Amid the escalation of war in the Holy Land and the suffering and fear it is causing, Father John Luke Gregory, Franciscan Father of the Custody of the Holy Land, reflects on the many challenges posed by the current situation and on how faith gives us the power to look to the horizon with hope and even find joy amid despair.

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