The first panel at this conference was moderated by Dan Churchwell, Director of Programs and Education at the Acton Institute and featured panelists Karl Wirth, Louis Kim and Etienne de Rocquigny. This was the first of two panels 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.

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.