Pope: Digital communication must serve truth and human dignity
Pope Leo XIV urged Catholic communicators at the SIGNIS World Conference in Kigali to base digital communication on truth, human dignity, peace, and environmental care. He highlighted that online communication shapes culture and collective conscience, citing his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. The Pope called for practical strategies to promote cultural harmony and environmental wellbeing through digital media. He expressed prayers and blessings, encouraging participants to seek wisdom and strength for their work.
about 2 months ago
Pope Leo XIV used the opening of the first SIGNIS World Congress in Kigali, Rwanda (August 3‑8 2026) to call Catholic communicators to shape digital media around truth, human dignity, peace and care for creation. 1
The Holy Father’s address, read by Archbishop Arnaldo Catalán and signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, urged participants to give “new impetus” to communication that serves the common good of the whole human family. 2
He reminded them that online communication does more than transmit information; it creates culture and influences the collective conscience, echoing his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. 1 3
Leo XIV asked communicators to develop tools and strategies grounded in truth and respect for every person’s dignity. The message linked these goals to Gospel values of communion, peace and responsible stewardship of creation. 2
Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, warned that a media culture dominated by algorithms threatens genuine human encounter. He stressed that AI can process data but cannot replace wisdom born from freedom, experience, responsibility and love, urging that humans remain in control of the technologies they create. 2 3
Ruffini challenged SIGNIS to act as a global network of faith‑based professionals rather than a bureaucratic body, fostering trust, reliable information and projects that promote a more human way of communicating. He called for alliances with journalists, entrepreneurs and information engineers to build a digital ecosystem that places human voices and faces at its centre. 2 3
The congress’s theme, “Digital Communication for Cultural Harmony and Environmental Well‑Being,” guided discussions on:
Representatives from more than twenty African nations—including Rwanda, Burundi, the DRC, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Benin, South Africa and Mozambique—took part. 2
Pope Leo XIV’s address at the SIGNIS World Congress emphasized that digital media must be a tool for truth, human dignity, peace and ecological care. He cautioned against letting algorithms and AI dictate the narrative, urging communicators to preserve human agency, foster dialogue and build a collaborative, faith‑rooted network that serves the common good. 1 2 3*
Digital communication must uphold truth, dignity, and stewardship
Digital communication is not morally neutral. Every post, message, image, comment, and use of artificial intelligence can either serve truth and human dignity or contribute to confusion, manipulation, and harm. Catholic teaching therefore calls for a style of communication marked by truthfulness, respect for the person, and responsible stewardship of technology.
Truth is not merely a private possession or a tool used to gain influence. Pope Leo XIV teaches that “truth is a common good and not the property of those who have power or influence.” Digital communication should therefore be ordered toward the honest pursuit of reality, not toward popularity, profit, ideological control, or the achievement of immediate reactions.
This requires more than avoiding deliberate lies. It also means resisting:
The Church emphasizes that responsible communication involves verification, cross-checking sources, and reasoned argumentation. Truth is also relational: it is built through trust, honest dialogue, and shared practices of seeking what is real.
The Dicastery for Communication similarly teaches that those who communicate truth must ensure that the information is truthful not only when creating it, but also when sharing it. A person who forwards false or unverified material assumes moral responsibility for helping it circulate.
Catholic communication begins with the conviction that every person is created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, people must never be reduced to targets, data points, political enemies, sources of profit, or objects of ridicule.
Pope Benedict XVI taught that media contribute to humanization when they promote the dignity of persons and peoples and place themselves at the service of truth, goodness, fraternity, and the common good.
This principle applies especially when communication involves vulnerable persons, public controversy, or personal failure. Even when criticism is justified, it should not become contempt, humiliation, or character assassination. Pope Leo XIV calls for communication disarmed of prejudice, resentment, fanaticism, hatred, and aggression. He particularly stresses the need to listen to the weak and those who lack a public voice.
A Christian digital presence should therefore ask:
Truth and charity cannot be separated. The Church’s pastoral reflection states that to communicate goodness requires content oriented toward helping rather than harming, and toward positive action rather than useless conflict.
Stewardship is the responsible care and governance of something entrusted to us. Digital tools are human inventions and can serve education, evangelization, solidarity, health care, and social participation. But they can also be used for domination, manipulation, exploitation, and exclusion.
Magnifica Humanitas warns against the technocratic paradigm—the tendency to judge everything according to efficiency, control, and profit. When this happens, human beings risk being treated as instruments within a system rather than as persons possessing inviolable dignity.
This concern is particularly important in relation to artificial intelligence. AI can generate content rapidly, but it does not possess human conscience, moral responsibility, or the capacity for genuine personal relationships. Those who design, manage, and use AI systems remain responsible for their effects. Ethical governance must therefore go beyond utility and efficiency and remain centered on the human person.
Stewardship involves responsibility at several levels:
Pope Leo XIV also calls for media, information, and AI literacy at every level of education. Such formation helps people recognize how algorithms shape their perception, identify possible bias, validate AI-generated information, and protect their images, voices, privacy, and personal data from fraud, cyberbullying, and deepfakes.
Communication does not simply transfer information; it helps create the moral and social environment in which people live. Pope Leo XIV states that communication creates a culture and forms digital environments that can become spaces for dialogue and discussion.
Consequently, repeated patterns of online behavior influence how society understands reality, authority, friendship, sexuality, success, suffering, and the value of human life. Digital content is not confined to a “virtual” world: what begins online can shape real decisions, relationships, and communities, especially among the young.
A culture of constant outrage, mockery, suspicion, and self-promotion forms people in those habits. By contrast, communication characterized by patience, attentive listening, accuracy, beauty, and compassion can foster freedom and communion.
For Christians, this has an explicitly evangelical dimension. The Gospel is not to be reduced to attractive content or used merely to gain attention. Pope Benedict XVI teaches that the truth of the Gospel must be proclaimed in its integrity and then embodied in the real world and in direct human relationships.
A Catholic approach can be summarized in several habits:
Pause before sharing.
Ask whether the information is true, necessary, and beneficial.
Verify before believing.
Consult reliable sources, distinguish fact from opinion, and be especially cautious with emotionally provocative material. Pope Leo XIV stresses that AI-generated information may be inaccurate and requires external validation.
Speak about people as persons.
Avoid insults, dehumanizing labels, unnecessary exposure of private information, and public humiliation.
Correct with charity.
The aim should be clarification and the protection of truth, not victory over an opponent.
Resist the tyranny of popularity.
The truth does not become more true because it receives more views, likes, or shares. Pope Benedict XVI explicitly warns that the worth of truth does not derive from its popularity.
Protect privacy and consent.
Do not distribute another person’s image, voice, personal data, or private correspondence without legitimate permission.
Use technology intentionally.
Digital tools should support human relationships rather than replace every form of personal presence.
Prefer dialogue to reaction.
Serious communication requires listening, reflection, and the willingness to understand another person before responding.
Digital communication fulfills its human and Christian purpose when it serves truth, protects dignity, and is governed by responsible stewardship. The central question is not simply what technology can do, but what kind of people and society its use is forming.
The Catholic vision rejects both the idolization and the demonization of technology. Digital tools should be placed within an ethical framework in which human conscience, freedom, solidarity, and the common good guide innovation. Fidelity to truth and respect for human dignity are therefore not optional ideals; they are the conditions that make digital communication genuinely human.