The American pope’s vision: Leo XIV talks choice of name, priorities in first meeting with cardinals

Rome Newsroom, May 10, 2025 /
08:15 am

Pope Leo XIV met with the College of Cardinals Saturday morning for his first official address since his election, outlining key priorities for his pontificate in the age of artificial intelligence, while emphasizing continuity with his predecessors and commitment to the Church’s social teaching.

The U.S.-born pontiff, speaking in Italian, explained his choice of papal name, noting that Pope Leo XIII “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution” with his encyclical Rerum Novarum.

“In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” Pope Leo said.

The 69-year-old pope began the meeting with a prayer, expressing his gratitude to the cardinals while acknowledging his own limitations in assuming the papacy.

“You, dear cardinals, are the closest collaborators of the pope. This has proved a great comfort to me in accepting a yoke clearly far beyond my own limited powers, as it would be for any of us,” he said.

The pope specifically thanked Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, and Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, for their service during the sede vacante period.

In his address, Pope Leo emphasized his commitment to continuing the Church’s path following the Second Vatican Council, specifically highlighting Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” as providing “masterful and concrete” direction.

The pope identified several fundamental principles to guide his pontificate, “the return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation; the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community; growth in collegiality and synodality; attention to the sensus fidei, especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as popular piety; loving care for the least and the rejected; courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world.”

After his prepared remarks, the Holy Father engaged in a dialogue session with the cardinals, discussing “advice, suggestions, proposals, concrete things” raised during the pre-conclave meetings.

Pope Leo concluded by quoting St. Paul VI’s hope expressed at the beginning of his pontificate in 1963, praying that the Church would “pass over the whole world like a great flame of faith and love kindled in all men and women of good will.”