VaticanNews portal reports that Leo XIV (“Pope” Leo XIV, born Robert Prevost) approved the creation of an Interdicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence through a rescript dated May 12, 2026, and signed by Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The commission comprises representatives from seven Vatican bodies and aims to address “the development in recent decades of the phenomenon of Artificial Intelligence and the most recent accelerations in its widespread use; its potential effects on human beings and on humanity as a whole; the Church’s concern for the dignity of every human person, especially in relation to their integral development.” The article frames this as a continuation of Catholic social teaching, linking Leo XIV’s chosen name to Leo XIII’s *Rerum Novarum* and its response to the industrial revolution. This initiative is not merely a bureaucratic reshuffling but a revealing symptom of the conciliar sect’s fundamental apostasy — its substitution of supernatural theology with naturalistic humanism, its idolatry of technological “progress,” and its systematic silence on the only matters that truly constitute the Church’s mission: the salvation of souls, the reign of Christ the King, and the eternal truths of the Catholic faith.
The Reign of Naturalism Over Supernatural Truth
The very premise of this Interdicasterial Commission exposes the theological bankruptcy of the post-conciliar structure. The stated concerns — “potential effects on human beings,” “integral development,” “human dignity,” “justice and labour” — are drawn entirely from the lexicon of secular humanitarianism and naturalistic philosophy. Nowhere in the rescript, as reported, is there any mention of the supernatural order, the salvation of souls, the state of grace, the Final Judgment, or the reign of Christ the King over all aspects of human life, including technology. This is not an oversight; it is the very essence of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici gregis and Lamentabili sane exitu (1907), which reduced religion to a merely human phenomenon, a “self-awareness of man’s relationship to God” (proposition 20), and treated dogmas as interpretations of religious facts worked out by the human mind rather than truths of divine origin (proposition 22).
Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), condemned the proposition that “the progress of sciences requires a reform of the concept of Christian doctrine concerning God, creation, Revelation, the Person of the Incarnate Word, and Redemption” (error 64 of Lamentabili), and that “contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism” (proposition 65). The creation of this Commission is precisely such a “reform” — an implicit admission that the immutable doctrine of the Church must be recalibrated to accommodate the latest technological novelty. This is the heresy of the evolution of dogmas, condemned unequivocally by every Pope before the conciliar revolution.
The Hermeneutic of Continuity as Camouflage
The article’s attempt to link Leo XIV’s initiative to Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum is a textbook example of the hermeneutic of continuity — the Modernist strategy of using the language and names of true Popes to legitimize revolutionary novelties. Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum from the unchanging foundation of Catholic social teaching, which presupposes the social reign of Christ the King, the necessity of the true religion, the authority of the Church over the state in matters touching faith and morals, and the subordination of all temporal affairs to the supernatural end of man. Pius XI, in Quas Primas (1925), explicitly defined this reign: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations or to those who, by receiving baptism according to law, belong to the Church, even though their erroneous opinions have led them astray or discord has separated them from love, but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” The State has the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him, and this includes ordering “all relations in the state on the basis of God’s commandments and Christian principles, both in the issuing of laws and in the administration of justice, as well as in the education and formation of youth.”
By contrast, the Commission on Artificial Intelligence operates within a framework of dialogue and mutual consultation among Vatican dicasteries — a bureaucratic, horizontal model that mirrors the democratization of the Church condemned by Pius X, where “the Church listening cooperates in such a way with the Church teaching in defining truths of faith, that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening” (Lamentabili, proposition 6, condemned). The Church does not hold commissions with herself to “discover” truth; she teaches truth by the authority of Christ. The very structure of this Commission — interdicasterial, collaborative, dialogical — is an ecclesiological heresy that denies the hierarchical constitution of the Church as defined by the Council of Trent and Vatican I.
The Idolatry of “Progress” and the Abandonment of Eternal Truth
The article notes that Leo XIV “has often spoken about artificial intelligence and other technological advancements and the challenges they can pose to our society.” This obsession with technological “progress” reveals the conciliar sect’s captivity to the spirit of the age — the same spirit that Pius IX condemned as the error that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Syllabus, error 80). The Church’s mission is not to reconcile herself with the world but to convert the world to Christ. As Our Lord prayed: “I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me” (John 17:9). The Church does not address “challenges to society”; she addresses the eternal destiny of souls.
The silence of this Commission — and the article reporting on it — regarding the supramundane questions is deafening. What are the moral implications of Artificial Intelligence in relation to the creation of man in the image of God? What does AI mean for the sanctity of the human soul, which is the imago Dei? Does the creation of intelligent machines not constitute a promethean revolt against the Creator, an attempt to usurp the creative power that belongs to God alone? What are the implications for the moral law, for sin, for accountability before God? These questions are not merely absent; they are structurally excluded by the naturalistic framework of the Commission. The conciliar sect does not ask these questions because it has abandoned the supernatural order entirely; it operates within a closed universe of human “dignity” and “development” that has no need of God, no need of grace, no need of the Redemption.
The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development: A Case Study in Apostasy
The coordinating role given to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development is itself revealing. The very name of this dicastery — “Integral Human Development” — is a product of the post-conciliar substitution of the Church’s supernatural mission with a naturalistic, humanitarian agenda. The true “integral development” of the human person is sanctifying grace, which orders man to his supernatural end: the Beatific Vision. The Church has always taught that man’s ultimate end is God, and that all temporal development — economic, technological, social — is ordered to this supernatural end or it is worthless. As St. Augustine taught, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” The conciliar dicasteries, by contrast, promote a purely horizontal “development” that has no reference to the supernatural — a development without God, which is a development toward nothing, toward the abyss.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, who signed the rescript, is a figure emblematic of this apostasy — a Jesuit whose career has been dedicated to the social justice agenda that replaced the preaching of the Gospel in the conciliar sect. The use of Article 28 of Praedicate Evangelium — the apostolic constitution of the usurper Francis that restructured the Vatican curia along bureaucratic, managerial lines — further demonstrates that this Commission is a product of the revolutionary reorganization of the Church, not of her perennial constitution.
The Omission That Condemns: No Mention of Christ the King
Perhaps the most damning feature of this entire initiative — and the article reporting it — is the total absence of any reference to the social reign of Christ the King. Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors” (Quas Primas). He taught that “not only private individuals, but also rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him,” and that the State must order “all relations in the state on the basis of God’s commandments and Christian principles, both in the issuing of laws and in the administration of justice, as well as in the education and formation of youth.”
If the conciliar structures were truly concerned with the implications of Artificial Intelligence, their first and foremost duty would be to proclaim that Christ the King must reign over the field of technology as over every other field of human activity. The development and deployment of AI must be subject to the moral law, to the Ten Commandments, to the teaching of the Church on justice, on the dignity of the human person as a creature made for God, on the dangers of pride and rebellion against the Creator. But this Commission will do none of these things, because it is a product of an apostate structure that has denied the kingship of Christ over society and replaced it with a humanitarian, naturalistic, and fundamentally atheistic framework disguised in Catholic terminology.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation Speaks of “Human Development”
The creation of an Interdicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence by the structures occupying the Vatican is not a sign of the Church’s relevance to the modern world; it is a sign of the depth of the apostasy. It demonstrates that the conciliar sect has fully embraced the spirit of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X — the “synthesis of all heresies” — and has reduced the Church’s mission to a humanitarian NGO that issues statements on technology, climate, and social justice while remaining supernaturally mute on the only matters that will endure for eternity: the salvation of souls, the glory of God, and the reign of Jesus Christ over all creation.
Leo XIV’s Commission will produce documents. It will hold meetings. It will issue guidelines on the “ethical use” of AI. And it will accomplish nothing — because it operates outside the grace of God, outside the authority of the true Church, and outside the supernatural order for which the Church was founded. The faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith must reject this entire apparatus as a product of the abomination of desolation (Matt. 24:15) and cling to the unchanging teaching of the Church: that Christ is King, that His Kingdom shall have no end, and that no machine, no algorithm, no “artificial intelligence” will deliver humanity from the only intelligence that matters — the divine intelligence that created all things and holds all things in being.
Source:
Pope approves creation of Interdicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence (vaticannews.va)
Date: 16.05.2026