Moral Conscience and the Digital Culture: Ethical-Theological Challenges in the Pontificate of Leo XIV

Abstract

The article relates moral conscience and digital culture, highlighting ethical-theological challenges in the pontificate of Leo XIV. It proceeds from his inspiration in Leo XIII to analyze papal positions in response to the moral challenges of the four industrial revolutions. It argues that the current revolution, marked by pervasiveness in both social and individual spheres, weakens moral agency by shaping affections, relationships, and formative processes. The main hypothesis holds that theological ethics must recover the centrality of conscience (GS, n. 16) to ground the defense of human dignity in the face of strong AI influences. Pope Francis's integral approach to current challenges, by addressing institutional, collective, and individual consciences in the economic and educational spheres, constitutes a valuable legacy for the present. It concludes that Leo XIV does not inaugurate a new agenda in Catholic Social Teaching but dynamically retrieves the Depositum fidei to promote human dignity.

Keywords: Moral Conscience; Pope Leo XIV; Digital Culture; Technological Revolution; Artificial Intelligence.