Pope Leo XIV in Buenos Aires: human dignity must come before profit, and technology must answer to ethics

Pope Leo XIV in Buenos Aires: human dignity must come before profit, and technology must answer to ethics.

Pope Leo XIV told representatives of Argentina's social movements and workforce on Monday that the dignity of the human person must always take priority over economic gain, delivering one of the central addresses of his South America journey at the Catholic University of Argentina in Buenos Aires, Vatican News reported.

The Pope walked his audience through the principles of the Church's social doctrine, calling human dignity the “first and most fundamental” of them. He said promoting the common good requires moving past “sterile individualism and corporatist utilitarianism,” and reminded listeners that while the Church defends private property, that right carries a “social mortgage” because the earth's goods are meant for all.

He was blunt about business: when profit becomes the only measure of success, he said, a company “becomes dehumanized and turns into a structure of sin that generates exclusion.” He held up Venerable Enrique Shaw, an Argentine Catholic businessman on the path to beatification, as a model of treating a company as a community of people rather than a machine for accumulating capital.

Turning to artificial intelligence, the Pope warned that unregulated automation could put countless jobs at risk and insisted that “technology must always be subject to ethics,” adding that no algorithm can replace human judgment or the value of a worker's presence and effort. He also called for “social friendship” to overcome Argentina's deep political polarization.

“No work is trivial in the eyes of God,” he said, urging those present to place “God at the forefront of our actions and the human person at the center of our choices.” Vatican News' editorial director described the speech as a comprehensive synthesis of Catholic social teaching and an affirmation of Pope Francis' teaching. The address came hours after the Pope met privately with survivors of clergy abuse, during a 12-day trip that continues through Nov. 17.