The Pope Is Begging Priests To Stop Using ChatGPT To Write Homilies
In the Year of our Lord 2026, the Vatican is cracking down on robots.
For centuries, the Catholic Church has survived wars, plagues, schisms, revolutions and the printing press.
But now, the Vatican has drawn a line in the sand over what it sees as its latest threat: ChatGPT
In a closed-door meeting with clergy from the Diocese of Rome, Pope Leo XIV reportedly warned priests against giving in to the "temptation to prepare homilies with artificial intelligence."
That's right. No outsourcing Sunday's sermon to the robots.
"Like all the muscles in the body, if we do not use them, if we do not move them, they die," the Pope said. "The brain needs to be used, so our intelligence must also be exercised a little so as not to lose this capacity."
Pope Leo XIV is urging priests to write their own homilies.
(Getty Images)
The Pope made it clear that no matter how sophisticated artificial intelligence becomes, it cannot replace the real thing.
"To give a homily is to share faith," he said, and AI "will never be able to share faith."
I'm completely with the Pope on this one. But as a former Catholic school kid, I do wish ChatGPT had been around when it was time to do confession.
Man, that was so uncomfortable. It'd be so much easier to just type your transgressions into a laptop and have an overly genial AI chatbot tell you that your actions were actually justified and that you shouldn't feel bad at all.
The robots aren't taking over the church while this guy's in charge.
(Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)
Pope Leo also cautioned clergy against confusing social media engagement with authentic connection, warning about a common "illusion on the internet, on TikTok" where followers and likes are mistaken for genuine spiritual community.
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It's a fascinating snapshot of where we are as a society. If priests need a reminder not to have AI write their sermons, that tells you everything about how deeply this technology has embedded itself into the fabric of our society.
The Vatican, for its part, is still embracing tech in other ways — including an upcoming AI system that will reportedly translate liturgical texts in real time.
So I guess I learned all those Latin hymns for nothing.