Father Robert Sirico, the president emeritus and the co-founder of the Acton Institute, offered his concluding remarks at the Acton Institute Conference, “Artificial Intelligence, Human Dignity and the Free Society,” which took place at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on Thursday, December 4, 2025.  

Father Sirico’s leadership on issues at the intersection of faith and economics is known throughout the world and his recent book on the “Economics of the Parables” is a favorite book of many Christian business leaders.  

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.