Pope Leo XIV Warns of a 'Paradise of Machines' as France Visit Exposes a Catholic Schism

Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence could undermine humanity, speaking of a 'paradise of machines' during the opening of a four-day state visit to France, according to Al Jazeera and Le Monde. The remarks, delivered in Paris before crowds that Le Monde described as cheering, framed the trip around technology and its limits rather than the diplomatic courtesies that usually dominate a papal journey.

Meeting President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, the pope also condemned surrogacy, the buying of organs and what Le Monde translated as the concept of 'arranging one's own death'. The bioethics passage gave the visit a doctrinal edge: Le Monde reported that Leo 'stands firm' on these questions, which places the Vatican's teaching on the human person at the centre of a European conversation about assisted dying and reproductive technology.

The visit is being read in Rome as a test of how the Argentine-born pontiff positions the Holy See toward secular Europe. The New York Times reported that Leo, having visited Africa, is now touring France to appeal both to Roman Catholicism's 'original heartlands' and to its newer strongholds — an attempt, the paper wrote, to be 'everyone's pope'.