ROME – Pope Leo XIV voiced concern over “some things” happening in the United States and revealed he turned down plans for an AI version of himself in his first major interview since his election. The first American pope highlighted the significance of a letter his predecessor Pope Francis had sent to US bishops earlier this year rebuking the Trump administration’s immigration deportation plans. “I was very happy to see how the American bishops picked that up, and some of them were courageous enough to go with that,” he said, referring to public comments made in the wake of the letter. But Leo insisted he won’t engage in “partisan politics,” saying it’s up to church leaders in the United States to take the lead on engaging with the Trump administration. Leo, who was elected in May this year, gave the interview to Elise Allen, senior correspondent at Catholic news site Crux, for her biography, “Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the XXI Century.
”Leo said he is yet to have any direct contact with President Donald Trump, although he pointed out that his older brother, Louis Prevost, had met with Trump in the White House. Leo said he is “very close” with his brothers “even though one is far on one end politically, we’re in different places.”
The pope said there are “some things going on in the [United] States that are of concern” and that “sometimes decisions are made more based on economics than on human dignity and human support.”
It is understood that some of Leo’s main concerns with the Trump administration regard immigration, and he brought up the subject when he met US Vice President JD Vance earlier this year.
Leo said he is not afraid to “raise issues,” to “continue to challenge” and to engage Trump directly if given the opportunity. He said that, unlike his Argentine predecessor, “the fact that I am American means, among other things, people can’t say, like they did about Francis, ‘he doesn’t understand the United States, he just doesn’t see what’s going on’.”
He stressed he would “want to support” Trump in his efforts “promoting peace in the world.”
But he said he’ll seek mainly to engage with the bishops of the US, won’t “get involved in partisan politics” and, when asked if whether being an American pope might give him more sway with Trump, replied: “Not necessarily.”
Leo is signaling he’s going to be less combative with Trump than his predecessor, but that he is not going to be afraid to speak out if needed. Before his election, Leo had reposted tweets critical of Trump and Vance. The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics addressed an issue that would have baffled his predecessors in the millennia-old office: artificial intelligence.
The pope wants the church to “speak up” on this topic, warning against “the extremely rich people who are investing in artificial intelligence, totally ignoring the value of human beings and of humanity.”
Leo said he refused to authorize plans for an “artificial me” which meant “anybody could sign on to this website and have a personal audience with ‘the pope’,” and receive answers to questions.
“I said, ‘I’m not going to authorize that.’ If there’s anybody who should not be represented by an avatar, I would say the pope is high on the list,” he explained. He did not elaborate on who put forward the proposal.
He stressed he is not against AI but said that to lose the relationship between faith and science “will leave science as an empty, cold shell.”
