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Opening Remarks at UNIDIR’s Interfaith Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence, Security, and Ethics

  • 12.06.2026
    • Artificial Intelligence
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Opening Remarks by H.E. Archbishop Ettore Balestrero

Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See

to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva,

at UNIDIR’s Interfaith Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence, Security, and Ethics

Geneva, 12 June 2026

 

 

Excellencies,

Esteemed religious representatives,

Dear friends,

I am also pleased to cordially welcome you to this interfaith dialogue on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Security, and Ethics. I must congratulate Director Robin Geiss of UNIDIR on the timeliness of this initiative. Not only in preparation of the important events that he mentioned that will be taking place here in Geneva next week[1], but also (and especially!)  because of the Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas that His Holiness Pope Leo XIV recently released.

As armed conflicts and divisions continue to affect humanity, there can be no escaping serious ethical questions related to AI, security and the armaments sector. For quite a while now, the Holy See, as a State Party to several disarmament and arms control treaties, has been actively engaged in the efforts to preserve a human-centered approach, raising ethical concerns, and warning against the perils of the weaponization of AI as, for instance, in the ongoing work of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, at the UN General Assembly, and also through the initiative “Rome Call for AI Ethics”.

This is not a mere coincidence. AI, as Pope Leo XIV puts it, “now demands to be ‘disarmed’, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death”[2]. We must harness such technologies in a way that they protect and respect, first and foremost, the sacredness of life and the inherent God-given dignity of the human person.

To disarm does not mean to be against technological progress. In the peace and security domain, AI can contribute to enhance the defense and protection of civilians, help address the needs of communities affected by conflicts, enhance early warning and crisis preparedness and response, among many other functions that are yet to be explored.

Nonetheless, we must not be naïve. If AI is “detached from ethics and responsibility, [it] will render decisions about life and death more rapid and impersonal, and will present the use of force as an immediate and viable option.”[3] Most concerningly, AI can “shield people from responsibility and foster a culture in which the enemy is reduced to a statistic and the victim to ‘collateral damage.’”[4] Such an approach may seem like science-fiction, like a dystopian future, but in fact, Pope Leo XIV has suggested that we are already deeply immersed in a technocratic paradigm, whose main criteria is efficiency and power, and which is amplified by the AI revolution. This reality becomes evident when we seek to reduce our weaknesses, eliminate uncertainty, and exert total control, threatening to normalize an anti-human vision.[5]

If technology becomes the ultimate criterion, the human person risks being reduced to data, a cog in a machine or a commodity. If, however, technology is permeated by a wise perspective, it can become an instrument of growth, justice, and fraternity.

The Holy See will continue in its task to underscore the fundamental importance of safeguarding the fundamental principles of the dignity of the human person, the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity and justice, which, ultimately, are the “criteria for judging whether technologies truly serve humanity or are subjugating it.”[6] It is indeed only through an integral vision that involves these principles and engages with “those who design systems and those affected by them, richer countries and poorer ones, institutions and individuals, power centers and peripheries [that] will we be able to build a future, not for a privileged few, but for the entire human family.”[7]

Excellencies, dear friends,

Through their witness and their work, faith communities are called to act so that love for God and for neighbor may prevail over the love of self alone, which, sadly, can take root in the heart of those who regard artificial intelligence solely as an instrument of power and influence.

We believe that peace comes from God, and that humanity is magnificent because it shares in the very greatness of God. We cannot, therefore, grow weary of praying and of working in the field of artificial intelligence as well so that a culture of respect for the dignity of every person takes hold, and so that such intelligence becomes an instrument at the service of God’s Kingdom, while respecting the secular character of civil realities.

Thank you.


[1] i.e. UN General Assembly-mandated consultations on AI in the Military Domain and UNIDIR’s Global Conference on AI, Security and Ethics 2026

[2] Pope Leo XIV, Address at the Presentation and Promulgation of the Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas, Synod Hall, 25 May 2026.

[3] Pope Leo XIV, Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas, 181.

[4] Ibid, 182.

[5] Cf. Ibid., 112.

[6]  Ibid., 183.

[7]  Pope Leo XIV, Address at the Presentation and Promulgation of the Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas, Synod Hall, 25 May 2026.

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