Pope Leo XIV Calls Out Priests for Using AI to Write Their Sermons: “The Brain Needs to Be Used”

Standing before clergy inside the Paul VI Hall, Pope Leo XIV made it clear that sermons written by artificial intelligence are not the future of the Church.

According to the Irish Star, during a closed-door meeting with priests from the Diocese of Rome on Thursday, Leo cautioned against outsourcing homilies to AI tools. “To give a true homily is to share faith,” he said, stressing that artificial intelligence “will never be able to share faith.”

He urged priests to resist what he called “the temptation to prepare homilies with Artificial Intelligence.” Then he added a warning about intellectual laziness: “Like all the muscles in the body, if we do not use them, if we do not move them, they die. The brain needs to be used, so our intelligence must also be exercised a little so as not to lose this capacity.”

Leo also spoke about the pull of social media. He said chasing “illusion on the internet, on TikTok” cannot replace real spiritual connection.

The remarks come at a time when the Vatican is rolling out an AI-powered translation system capable of rendering liturgical celebrations in St. Peter’s Basilica into dozens of languages in real time. So while the Church embraces certain technologies, Leo drew a line at replacing pastoral voice with software.

He doubled down on lifelong learning, recalling a priest who told him, “I have not opened a book since I left the seminary.” Leo’s response was blunt: “My goodness, I thought, how sad!”

For Leo, faith requires study, reflection, and a human touch. Not an algorithm.