During a recent meeting with the clergy of the Roman diocese, Pope Leon XIV He clearly warned against the temptation to use artificial intelligence in preparing the homily. In an open dialogue with the priests held in February 2026, the current successor of St.Peter raised several contemporary pastoral challenges – among them was a place for tools such as ChatGPT or other language models.

"Please, resist the temptation to prepare a homily using artificial intelligence," said the Pope, quoted by Vatican News. He emphasized that a real homily is not a collection of nicely arranged sentences, but authentic Sharing Faith. And this – as he pointed out – the machine will never be able to do.

"The brain needs to be practiced, or it dies"

Leon XIV used a very plastic metaphor, comparing intellect to the muscles of the human body:

"Like all the muscles in the body – if we don't use them, if we don't move them – they die, so does the brain need to be used, and your intelligence needs to be trained."

In this way, the pope expressed concern that the regular commission of AI to write sermons could lead to the gradual disappearance of personal intellectual and spiritual efforts of priests. In his opinion, a homily should grow out of prayers, personal meeting with Christ and from the real life and problems of the faithful – not from the ready-made prompter entered into the chatbot.

Why now?

Although the theme of artificial intelligence in the Church has been appearing for several years, it was in 2026 – when ChatGPT, Claude or Grok tools became widely available and very advanced – the problem took on a real dimension. Media reports that some clergymen (especially in countries with high pastoral burden) began experimenting with AI's generation of sermon sketches to save time.

The Pope has not introduced a formal ban, but his appeal is a very clear indication of moral and pastoral. Many commentators read it as a clear signal for bishops and religious superiors: they should encourage priests to work independently on homilys and avoid treating AI as a substitute for personal thought.

Reactions in the Church and Media

Leon XIV's appeal quickly ran around the Catholic world and sparked a lively discussion:

some priests admitted in anonymous conversations that they had actually used the AI for "first versions" or to seek inspiration from quotes;
others stress that a good sermon requires empathy and personal testimony – things that the algorithm does not have;
There have also been critical voices that the Pope too demonizes technology, which can be a helpful tool (e.g. for Bible research or rapid translation).

Regardless of these opinions, the Pope's position is clear: sermon is not a product, but a meeting. And in this meeting, a living, training priest's mind cannot fail.

The Vatican has not yet announced any further regulations on the matter, but Leon XIV's words will certainly affect the preparation of Sunday homilys in Polish, Italian, American or Brazilian parishes.

Source: Spider’s Web