Pope Leo XIV has made it clear: his pontificate will stand at the crossroads of justice and innovation.

In his inaugural address, he bypassed theological abstraction and went straight to the heart of human suffering. His first concern? Children—specifically the millions still trapped in child labour.

With a bold and compassionate tone, Leo XIV said he chose his name to honour Pope Leo XIII, whose 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum responded to the abuses of the first industrial revolution.

Now, more than a century later, Pope Leo XIV believes we face a similar moral crossroads—this time driven by global inequality and the rise of artificial intelligence.

“The silence of the powerful is not neutrality—it’s complicity.”

A new industrial revolution

“In our own day,” he declared, “the Church offers everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice, and labour.”

The social question of our time

At the centre of his vision is what he calls “the social question of our time”: child labour.

The numbers are staggering. According to the International Labour Organization, around 160 million children worldwide—one in every ten—are engaged in work that deprives them of their education, safety, and future.

Despite decades of international pledges, the crisis persists.

Echoing Pope Francis

Pope Francis, in one of his final public appeals, echoed the urgency: “We cannot remain indifferent. We cannot accept that little brothers and sisters… may have their childhood taken from them, their dreams.”

Child labour in the modern world

The exploitation of children isn’t new. In the 19th century, children worked in factories, mines, and mills under conditions that were often deadly.

Pope Leo XIII condemned this reality in Rerum Novarum, warning that early and excessive labour “blights the young promise of a child’s faculties.”

Today, the face of child labour has changed, but the injustice remains.

Hidden in plain sight

It now hides in global supply chains and unregulated economies. Investigations have uncovered violations in agriculture, meatpacking, and fast food, even involving major brands like McDonald’s, Subway, and Tyson Foods.

Migrant children and those living in poverty remain especially at risk.

“Justice must keep pace with innovation.”

A Church that acts

Catholic social teaching responds not just with moral outrage, but with a call to action.

Grounded in the dignity of the human person and the common good, it urges us to confront root causes—poverty, lack of education, inequality—and to build systems that protect and uplift the vulnerable.

The dangers of artificial intelligence

But Pope Leo XIV is also looking forward to the rising impact of artificial intelligence.

AI, he warns, is reshaping economies and threatening to widen existing inequalities, especially for the young and the poor.

“Users of all ages, but especially the young,” Pope Francis cautioned in 2024, “need to develop a discerning approach.”

Justice must keep pace

Leo XIV’s mission is to ensure that justice keeps pace with innovation.

Just as his predecessor addressed the upheavals of industrial capitalism, Leo now calls the Church to lead in the face of the challenges of the digital age.

His message is clear: the Church must speak—and act—on behalf of the voiceless, because behind every number is a child.

And in this new revolution, the silence of the powerful is not neutrality—it’s complicity.

• Nuala Kenny is a Sister of Charity in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a pediatrician. An officer of the Order of Canada since 1999, she has published several books, including Healing the Church (Novalis, 2012) and Rediscovering the Art of Dying (2017). She is co-author of Still Unhealed: Treating the Pathology in the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis (Novalis and Twenty-Third Publications, 2019). She most recently published A Post-Pandemic Church: Prophetic Possibilities (Novalis and Twenty-Third Publications, 2021).
• Flashes of Insight is an international publication. The editorial policy is that spelling reflects the country of origin.
• First published in La Croix International. Recompiled for Flashes of Insight.