The Vatican News portal reports that “Pope” Leo XIV wrote a letter to *Popotus*, a children’s supplement of the Italian bishops’ newspaper *Avvenire*, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary. In the letter, the antipope urges parents and teachers to protect children from the “inhuman idea of information and education” in the digital age and the era of artificial intelligence. He warns that children might come to believe they can find in AI chatbots their “best friends or the oracle of all knowledge,” which would dull their intellect and capacity for relationships. The antipope calls for preserving a “childlike outlook on reality” to “remain human,” and invites children to help adults “restore beauty to the world.” He concludes by referencing Jesus’ words: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven,” suggesting that looking into the “lost eyes of children in the face of the barbarity of war” can lead to conversion.
This letter exemplifies the complete theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar “Church,” which has replaced the supernatural mission of the Catholic Church with a sentimental, naturalistic humanism. The antipope’s message, devoid of any reference to God, grace, or the Catholic Church, promotes a vague moralism that is utterly incompatible with integral Catholic doctrine.
Naturalism Masquerading as Spirituality
The antipope’s central theme is the preservation of a “childlike outlook on reality” as the means to “remain human.” This is pure naturalism. He frames the problem of AI and war in terms of human dignity, creativity, and relationships, without a single mention of sin, redemption, or the necessity of the Catholic Church. The “conversion” he proposes is merely a psychological shift—looking at the world with “pure eyes”—not the supernatural conversion of the soul to God through faith and baptism.
This stands in stark contrast to the immutable teaching of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas, established the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that removes God from public and private life. He declared: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed, because the main reason why some have the right to command and others have the duty to obey was removed.” The antipope’s letter ignores this fundamental principle entirely. There is no call for the social reign of Christ the King, no mention of the divine law as the sole standard for education, and no assertion that true peace is found only in the Kingdom of Christ. Instead, he offers a therapeutic, human-centered solution to problems that are fundamentally supernatural in origin—the rejection of God’s law.
The Omission of the Supernatural: The Gravest Accusation
The most damning evidence of the letter’s apostasy is its total silence on the supernatural order. The antipope speaks of “restoring beauty to the world” and the “universal language of love,” but never identifies the source of beauty and love: God, the Creator, and the Incarnate Word. He exhorts children to preserve “trust in those who love you,” but never directs that trust to God or the Church, the pillar and ground of truth (1 Tim. 3:15).
This omission is a direct rejection of Catholic doctrine. The Syllabus of Errors, promulgated by Pope Pius IX, condemns the very mindset displayed here. Error #57 states: “The Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences.” The antipope’s letter assumes that human progress in AI and education is neutral, requiring only a “childlike” moral guardrail. Catholic teaching, however, holds that all human endeavors must be ordered to the supernatural end of man: the vision of God. Pope Leo XIII taught in Immortale Dei: “The power of the Church is not of human but of divine origin… and it is not lawful for the State to withhold from the Church the liberty of action and of judgment which is her right.” By reducing the crisis to a humanistic problem of “remaining human,” the antipope denies the Church’s divine mission and the necessity of the social reign of Christ.
Misuse of Sacred Scripture: Stripping the Gospel of Its Supernatural Sense
The antipope invokes Matthew 18:3: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” In Catholic exegesis, this passage calls for humility, dependence on God, and purity of heart—virtues infused by grace, not merely a psychological posture. The antipope, however, reduces “becoming like children” to a method of “seeing the essence of everything” and finding “surprising answers.” This is a classic Modernist hermeneutic, condemned by St. Pius X in the decree Lamentabili sane exitu.
Proposition #26 of Lamentabili states: “Faith, as assent of the mind, is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities.” The antipope’s interpretation treats the Gospel command as a useful psychological tip, not a divine mandate requiring supernatural grace. Proposition #59 adds: “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him.” By reinterpreting “childlikeness” as an evolving human insight rather than an immutable call to theological humility, the antipope embraces the Modernist error of the evolution of dogma.
The Idolatry of Technology and the Denial of the True Source of Knowledge
The antipope’s warning against AI chatbots as “oracles of all knowledge” is framed solely in terms of dulling intellect and creativity. He fails to identify the core sin: idolatry. Seeking ultimate knowledge or friendship from a created thing, rather than from God, is a violation of the first commandment. The antipope’s solution—preserving a “childlike outlook”—is a naturalistic placebo. The true Catholic response, as taught by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus, is to affirm that “human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood” (Error #3). The antipope’s letter implicitly accepts this premise by not condemning AI as a false oracle but merely as a dulling influence. He does not call for the subordination of all technology to the law of God and the teaching authority of the Church.
The “Lost Eyes of Children”: A Sentimental Diversion from Apostasy
The antipope’s poetic reference to the “lost eyes of children in the face of the barbarity of war” as a catalyst for conversion is a calculated emotional manipulation. It shifts focus from the true cause of war and suffering: sin and the rejection of Christ’s kingship. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, directly linked the “flames of mutual hatred and internal discord” to the removal of Christ from public life. The antipope, however, suggests that gazing at children’s suffering can convert us—a sentimentality that replaces the need for doctrinal correction and penance.
This is a diversion from the real apostasy. The “barbarity of war” is a symptom of the “plague of secularism” condemned by Pius XI. The antidote is not a “childlike outlook” but the public recognition of Christ’s royal authority. As Pius XI declared: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ… For what we wrote at the beginning of Our Pontificate about the diminishing authority of law and respect for power, the same can be applied to the present times: ‘When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the entire human society had to be shaken.’” The antipope’s letter is a deliberate omission of this essential doctrine, promoting instead a vague, ecumenical humanitarianism.
Conclusion: A Manifestation of the Conciliar Apostasy
This letter from “Pope” Leo XIV is not an isolated error but a systematic expression of the post-conciliar “Church’s” apostasy. It embodies the errors condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici gregis and the Syllabus of Errors: the reduction of the supernatural to the natural, the evolution of doctrine, the denial of the Church’s exclusive role as the dispenser of salvation, and the substitution of sentimental humanism for the immutable truths of the Catholic faith.
The antipope calls for “restoring beauty to the world” through children’s “uniqueness, which is a gift from God,” but he divorces that gift from the life of grace and the sacraments. He never mentions baptism, the Eucharist, or the necessity of belonging to the Catholic Church for salvation. This is the logical outcome of the conciliar revolution, which has replaced the Sacrifice of the Mass with a “table of assembly,” and the doctrine of the Social Kingship of Christ with a nebulous “humanity.”
The integral Catholic, adhering to the faith of all time, must reject this letter as heretical and apostate. True conversion comes not from a “childlike outlook” but from the imposition of the mind of Christ through the Church’s teaching authority. True peace is found only in the Kingdom of Christ, which requires the public acknowledgment of His law by individuals, families, and states. The antipope’s message is a snare, leading souls away from the narrow path of Catholic truth and into the broad ditch of naturalistic Modernism.
Source:
Pope: May the lost eyes of children in the face of war convert us (vaticannews.va)
Date: 22.03.2026