Father Mark Lewis, SJ, the second American-born Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, offered final greetings to all the attendees at the Acton Institute Conference, “Artificial Intelligence, Human Dignity and the Free Society,” which took place at the Gregorian on Thursday, December 4, 2025.  Father Lewis has served as Rector since September 1, 2022.  

In 1891 Pope Leo XIII published Rerum Novarum, responding to the “new things” of his era and launching a corpus of modern Catholic social teaching. Pope Leo XIV’s choice of name and his early remarks signal that he thinks we are living in a similarly historic moment of social, cultural, and economic upheaval which will be driven by rapid advances in technology, including artificial intelligence. This conference featured talks by experts in technology, theology, economics, and business to examine what the world needs today to traverse the complex problems which confront humanity.