Leo XIV responds: Is he terrified of the risks of AI, is it systemic abuse within the Church, or has he crossed the line regarding secularism in France?
Pope Leo XIV gave an interview to journalists on his return flight from Metz to Rome. Six journalists asked about sexual abuse in the Church, Church–state relations, the housing crisis, war, artificial intelligence, and parties described as extremist. The interview begins with a question about whether abuse is systemic in the Church, referring to the victims the Pope had met in France.
3 days ago
Pope Leo XIV addressed six topics in an interview with journalists on his return flight from Metz to Rome: sexual abuse in the Church, the Church’s role in public debates in France, housing, war, artificial intelligence and political extremism. He said he was not panicked about AI, distinguished abuse as a human problem while acknowledging abusive Church structures, and defended the Church’s right to speak publicly on moral and social questions.
Asked whether sexual abuse in the Church is systemic, Leo said some victims he met had described it that way. He said he preferred to distinguish sexual abuse as “first and foremost a human problem” from instances in which Church organizations had themselves operated abusively.
He said abuse in the Church also wounds victims’ faith, and that the Church has a particular responsibility to listen, accompany survivors and help them seek healing.
Responding to whether his comments on euthanasia crossed France’s boundary between religion and politics, Leo said he had not crossed it. He described the Church’s defense of life and its social teaching as applying the Gospel to people’s lives, rather than entering party politics.
He acknowledged that France had recently approved a law on end-of-life issues and said such questions were being debated in Europe and elsewhere. Speaking of Lourdes, he said the Church wanted to affirm that life has meaning amid illness, disability and pain.
Asked about an elderly disabled woman reportedly evicted in Madrid after her rent rose fivefold, Leo said he did not know the specific case. He said neighbors, communities, parishes, dioceses or the state should respond when vulnerable people are forced from their homes.
He called housing unaffordable for many people a growing problem that the Church alone could not solve, and urged political leaders and authorities to examine its systemic causes rather than act only in emergencies.
On Russia’s war against Ukraine and calls for sacrifices for peace, Leo criticized the continued growth of military spending and the concentration of wealth in the arms industry. He said that money could instead address needs including hunger, housing, unemployment, health and education.
He urged Russia, Ukraine and other countries to engage in dialogue and negotiations, saying the Church would continue to promote human dignity and peace even when its efforts appeared futile.
Leo said he was not “in panic mode” about AI, but that warnings from specialists should be taken seriously. He cautioned against dismissing potential dangers and said governments, technology leaders and civil-society groups should discuss both current developments and future risks.
He referred to the Vatican’s AI commission, established to coordinate the Holy See’s use of the technology and assess its risks and benefits. He said the Vatican was working to promote dialogue and study so that AI would not reach a point where it could destroy humanity or exclude people from decision-making.
Leo said he hoped to visit Germany but had no schedule yet; the only trip he identified as definite for the following year was World Youth Day in Korea. He expressed optimism that many people in Germany still wanted to live and celebrate their Catholic faith, while acknowledging that the Church faced serious difficulties.
Asked about the rise of far-right parties, he said it would be worth examining whether their growth was connected to declining Church membership and to forms of religion associated with far-right politics. He said German Catholic and Protestant leaders had rejected such forms as inauthentic Christianity, and called for the Gospel’s values of compassion and understanding rather than hatred and division.
Church authority requires accountability amid abuse and social change
The claim that Church authority requires accountability amid abuse and social change is well supported by Catholic teaching—but accountability is not a rejection of authority. It is a way of exercising authority faithfully: as service to the People of God, ordered to communion and mission.
Pope Leo XIV identifies listening to victims of spiritual, economic, institutional, sexual, and power-based abuse as part of the Church’s pursuit of justice. That pursuit includes acknowledging harm, making reparation, and taking steps to prevent its recurrence. He also encourages regular assessments of ministers’ responsibilities as opportunities for learning and correction, not merely as personal judgments.
This means accountability must be more than procedural. Pope Francis warned that new committees, decrees, and management systems may be necessary but cannot, by themselves, restore credibility. The Church must also examine its habits of handling power and money, relating to people, and responding to the world around it. Otherwise, reform risks becoming self-protection rather than conversion.
Social change calls for a related balance: fidelity in principle and responsiveness in practice. Catholic social teaching holds that its foundations remain rooted in the Gospel and human nature, while its application can adapt to changing historical conditions. Change, then, is neither a reason to abandon enduring moral teaching nor a reason to ignore new circumstances and harms.
The practical test is whether the Church’s exercise of authority protects human dignity, serves the vulnerable, and makes its witness more credible. Accountability does not mean that every teaching or decision is determined by popular opinion; it means that those entrusted with authority must answer for how they exercise it and remain open to correction in service of the Church’s mission.