‘Preserving Human Voices and Faces’: International Conference on AI at Urbaniana University
Vatican's Dicastery for Communication organized an international conference titled “Preserving human voices and faces” at Pontifical Urbaniana University on 21 May to coincide with World Day of Social Communications. The conference brings together academics, institutional representatives, high‑tech experts, and journalists to discuss the influence of Artificial Intelligence on individuals, communities, and society. The event aligns with Pope Leo XIV’s message for the World Day, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding human identity amid technological advances. The conference is a joint effort with the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the John XXIII Foundation, highlighting the Vatican’s commitment to dialogue on AI and communication.
5 months ago
The Vatican will host an international conference on artificial intelligence at the Pontifical Urbaniana University on 21 May 2026. Organised by the Dicastery for Communication together with the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the John XXIII Foundation, the event’s theme – “Preserving human voices and faces” – follows Pope Leo XIV’s call to safeguard personal dignity in the age of digital innovation and to align technology with the deepest truth of human communication 1.
The conference is intended as a day‑long “moment of reflection and dialogue” on AI’s effects on individuals, communities and nations. It seeks to echo the Pope’s exhortation that all technological progress should serve the gift of communication, protecting human identity and expression 1.
The Dicastery for Communication leads the programme, collaborating with the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the John XXIII Foundation. The opening remarks will be delivered by Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, and Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education 1.
The gathering coincides with the World Day of Social Communications, a liturgical celebration that highlights the role of media and digital tools in evangelisation. By linking the conference to this day, the Vatican underscores the moral responsibility of AI developers and users to respect human voice and face 1.
Examine the Catholic Church’s stance on AI’s impact on human dignity
The Catholic Church does not treat AI as merely a technical matter. It evaluates AI through an anthropological and ethical lens: whether it helps or harms the inviolable dignity of the human person—especially by safeguarding truth, freedom, conscience, communion with others, and the integral development of persons and society.
Catholic teaching begins with the conviction that the human person is created in the image of God, and therefore has a dignity that is not reducible to function or performance. In Antiqua et Nova, the Church explicitly links the gift of intelligence to human dignity, describing intelligence as essential to being made “in the image of God,” and calling humans to exercise it through responsible reason and technical stewardship.
This means the Church judges AI by asking: Does AI respect what makes a human human? Not simply “Does it produce results?” but “Does it support the human calling to truth, love, freedom, and communion?”
A key element here is the Church’s integral anthropology: the human being is a unity of body and soul, and the person transcends the material world through the soul while still living knowledge and freedom through embodied life.
A major theme of the Church’s analysis is the distinction between AI “intelligence” and human intelligence.
Antiqua et Nova notes that AI is designed to imitate human intellectual activity, generating outputs that can appear humanlike (for example, producing text or images).
But the document insists on a crucial clarification: AI’s advanced abilities can be sophisticated at performing tasks, yet AI does not possess “the ability to think” in the human sense.
This is not a purely technical distinction; it is an ethical one, because how “intelligence” is defined shapes how humans understand themselves and their relationship to technology. The Church criticizes any functional/reductive view (e.g., judging “intelligence” by behavior or output) as missing the full scope of human experience—such as emotions, creativity, moral sensibility, and religious sensibility.
The document grounds human intelligence in the classical framework of intellectus (the intuitive grasp of truth) and ratio (discursive reasoning), describing them as two modes of one intelligence that involves the whole person—knowing, willing, loving, choosing, and desiring.
Implication for dignity: If AI is treated as if it replaces the human person’s distinctive capacity for truth-seeking and moral agency, then technology becomes a cultural force that can eclipse the sense of what is human.
The Church’s concern is not only about “harm” in a narrow sense. It also worries about dignity when AI reshapes public life and social institutions.
Because AI can generate persuasive “artifacts” that may be indistinguishable from human creations, Antiqua et Nova raises concern about AI’s role in a broader “crisis of truth in the public forum.”
This matters for dignity because human persons are ordered to truth: the Church describes intelligence as “God’s gift fashioned for the assimilation of truth,” and teaches that openness to truth is essential for authentic charity.
If AI undermines truth, it damages the conditions under which persons can form conscience, build trust, and live in justice and love.
The Church also highlights that AI systems are designed to learn and make certain choices autonomously, adapting to new situations beyond what programmers foresees. That raises “fundamental questions about ethical responsibility and human safety.”
From a dignity perspective, this implies that AI cannot be treated as morally neutral or “beyond blame.” Human beings and institutions must remain accountable for how AI is developed, deployed, and governed.
Catholic social teaching insists that human dignity requires institutions that improve the conditions of human life and pursue the common good.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church also teaches that excessive social and economic disparity contradicts the Gospel and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, and peace—describing such inequalities as sometimes “sinful inequalities.”
Implication for AI: If AI deployment increases exploitation, surveillance, exclusion, or concentrates benefits “in the hands of a few,” it risks becoming an instrument of sinful inequality rather than a tool ordered to human fulfillment and the common good.
The Church frames dignity as tied to rights flowing from the person’s intrinsic worth. The Catechism teaches that respect for the human person involves considering the other as “another self” and presupposes respect for fundamental rights that flow from the person’s intrinsic dignity.
In Gaudium et Spes, the Council affirms that rights and duties regarding the human family are universal and inviolable, and that society must provide what is necessary for a truly human life—explicitly including rights such as education, employment, a good reputation, respect, appropriate information, activity in accord with conscience, and protection of privacy and rightful freedom even in religious matters.
Implication for AI: AI systems and AI-shaped institutions must be evaluated by whether they protect (or erode) these dignity-linked rights—especially privacy, conscience, and the ability to live truthfully and freely.
A particularly pointed application concerns minors. Pope Leo XIV warns that AI algorithms can be used in ways that manipulate children and adolescents by influencing decisions and preferences. He also insists that parents and educators must be aware of these dynamics and that tools should be developed to monitor and guide young people’s interactions with technology.
He describes safeguarding human originality and connectedness as something that must be guided by respect for human dignity.
This again ties dignity to more than cognitive capacity: it includes the integrity of personal development and the formation of authentic responsibility.
The Church’s stance is not anti-technology. It affirms that AI can open “new horizons for creativity,” but it insists on serious ethical governance and a criterion rooted in the “integral development of the human person and society.”
Pope Leo XIV explicitly describes AI as “above all else a tool,” stressing that tools draw their ethical force from the intentions of those who wield them. He notes both noble uses and possible misuse for selfish gain, conflict, and aggression.
He further warns that authentic ethical assessment requires evaluating risks and benefits according to a “superior ethical criterion,” including the spiritual and intellectual well-being of persons—especially the safeguarding of inviolable dignity and respect for cultural and spiritual riches.
Catholic teaching evaluates AI’s impact on human dignity by asking whether AI supports the human person’s distinctive vocation: truth-seeking intelligence, freedom of conscience, authentic relationships, and integral development oriented to the common good.
When AI contributes to truth and serves human rights, it can be compatible with dignity; when it reduces persons to outputs, erodes truth, bypasses accountability, or manipulates the vulnerable (especially minors), it directly threatens the conditions required for human dignity to flourish.