In a letter for the 30th anniversary of the children’s section of Avvenire, the Italian bishops’ newspaper, Pope Leo XIV reflected on Christ’s words, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
“To be like children is not to go back, but to guard a key to see the essential of everything, to find surprising answers to even the most difficult questions,” Pope Leo wrote. “Perhaps only by looking at the bewildered eyes of children in the face of the barbarity of war can we be converted.”
“We must not let children come to believe that AI chatbots can be their best friends or the oracle of all knowledge, thereby dulling their intellect and their ability to form relationships, and stifling their creativity and their thinking,” the Pope added. “We must protect their childhood and guide their growth so that they are protagonists of a renewed world.”