Leo XIV to the new bishops: neither technology nor artificial intelligence frees us from sin

On 10 September 2026, in the Synod Hall, Leo XIV received one hundred and forty-seven new bishops at the close of their formation days in Rome, held on the theme of the service of communion. He addressed several counsels to them: to remain with Christ, to put on the heart of the Good Shepherd, to exercise the solicitude of an episcopal fatherhood, and to serve in the “amoris officium,” the office of love of which Saint Augustine speaks. “We are bishops, but we are first of all disciples,” he reminded them.

The episcopate is not an honour but a charge. The perennial doctrine teaches that the bishops, set to rule the Church of God, succeed the Apostles and hold the highest rank of the sacrament of Order. Their measure was fixed once for all by the Lord: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep” (John 10:11). Nothing new is asked of them; it is the perpetual law of the charge, which Saint Augustine named in a single word: not a title, but an office of love.

Leo XIV warned these pastors that technical progress and artificial intelligence “certainly cannot free humanity from sin and its consequences: the crises it is passing through are the tragic proof.” On this point the faith does not vary by a line. No work of man, no machine, remits sins: the Redemption is the work of the Blood of Christ alone, applied by the sacraments He instituted. Outside this source there is no salvation, and the crises of the age are but its bitter proof. The number of these counsels was reckoned variously, four or five according to the accounts; the tally matters little. What remains is the measure: a bishop is first a disciple, and none walks alone save by following the one Shepherd.

Sources. Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), on the sacrament of Order and the remission of sins through the merits of Christ. Saint John 10:11 and Saint Mark 3:14, according to the Vulgate. Saint Augustine, The City of God, book XIX, chapter 19 (the episcopate as “amoris officium”). Council of Trent, session VI, on justification, and session XXIII, on the sacrament of Order.