Catholic professor discusses Pope Leo’s peace efforts after Vatican’s nuclear weapon, AI conference

A Vatican-hosted summit on nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence (AI) highlighted Pope Leo XIV’s continued focus on peace-building efforts, according to a Catholic professor who participated in the event.

Maryann Cusimano Love, chair of the politics department at The Catholic University of America and scholar of international relations and peace-building, discussed the Holy Father’s focus on the subject in an interview with “EWTN News In Depth” anchor Catherine Hadro.

She also discussed a new book published by the Vatican on July 21, which compiles Leo’s writings and speeches on peace. The pontiff authored his own forward for the book, calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons globally.

Peace-building is “a theme that Pope Leo has been consistent with since the beginning of his papacy, and it really fits with the times that weʼre in right now,” Love said.

“Weʼre seeing expansion of war, weʼre seeing the expansion in the number of conflicts, the deadliness of these conflicts, and weʼre also seeing new ways in which new technologies are being used — AI drones, lethal autonomous weapons systems — that are very concerning,” she said.

“So heʼs being a voice of really the practical, and a voice of the people, saying: Look, peace is possible. Peace is practical and peace is our calling, as Catholics and people of goodwill. This is something we can do. Weʼve done it before and we can do it again,” she said.

Love was one of more than 200 academics who participated in the Vatican-hosted Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War from July 14–16. The assembly adopted the “Rome Declaration for an Unarmed and Disarming Peace,” which laid out concerns about how technological advancement affects warfare.

“The Church has been advocating for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons as long as there have been nuclear weapons, and whatʼs added to this in this last weekʼs activities and the Rome Declaration is the layer of artificial intelligence that increases the urgency with which we need to proceed to disarm nuclear weapons,” Love said.

“And it increases the ways in which we need to look at this interaction between AI and our and our military ecosystems,” she said. “So the call is specifically for the responsible use of AI, for there to be a slowing down in the integration of these systems, particularly into military systems, until we can be sure that theyʼre safe for the sharing of information between tech companies and the public about the vulnerabilities of these systems and the problem areas — the blind spots — these systems have.”

The summit was inspired by Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which offers guidance on how society should approach AI. The encyclical specifically raises concerns about AI making decisions about life and death in warfare.