During his first Sunday address in May, Pope Leo XIV suggested that the development of AI, and other advances, meant the Church was necessary for the defence of human dignity and justice.
Pope Leo XIV, who studied maths at Philadelphia’s Villanova University in 1977, is the first pontiff from the United States.
Born in Chicago in 1955 to parents of Spanish and Franco-Italian descent, Leo served as an altar boy and was ordained in 1982.
Although he moved to Peru three years later, he returned regularly to the US to serve as a priest and a prior in his home city.
He has Peruvian nationality and is fondly remembered as a figure who worked with marginalised communities and helped build bridges.