Pontiff to make marginalised a focus of first papal visit since 2011 including meeting with migrants in the Canaries

Pope Leo has urged political leaders to seek unity, rather than divide their populations for political gain, and said they must fight for peace, in the opening speech of his tour in Spain.

The pope has made the marginalised a focus of his visit – his first tour of an EU country, apart from Italy – including meeting homeless people in Madrid and migrants in the Canary Islands. The pope, who has clashed with the US president, Donald Trump, over his immigration policies and war with Iran, said his visit was aimed at setting an example of respecting “every human being”.

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© Photograph: Shutterstock

© Photograph: Shutterstock

© Photograph: Shutterstock

Pontiff’s resolve to highlight plight of migrants has aligned him with Spanish PM, whose inner circle and party are mired in corruption allegations

While Pope Leo XIV isn’t due to touch down in Madrid until 10.30am on Saturday, his presence in the Spanish capital is already verging on the ubiquitous.

The smiling, avuncular face of the first US pontiff greets visitors from posters, from the sides of buses, from commemorative travel cards and even from the digital screens on the metro system, where it flickers up between adverts for sun cream and banking deals.

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© Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington, said recent statements by the exorcist “undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil.”

© Andrew Medichini/Associated Press

Even for nonbelievers like me, the pope has become a reassuring – and all too rare – voice of moral clarity

Do you remember the early 2000s, when Silicon Valley buzzed with idealism and tech bros told us they were going to save the world? “Don’t be evil” was Google’s unofficial motto; its 2004 IPO prospectus declared that doing “good things for the world” was more important than “short term gains”. Mark Zuckerberg similarly wrote in Facebook’s 2012 IPO letter that the social network was “built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected”.

As was obvious to anyone paying attention, this was all performative bullshit. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic about that period of time – which came to a definitive end in 2018, with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. By and large, billionaires and CEOs still cared what the hoi polloi thought of them. They were self-aware enough to realize that, even with all their billions, there’s a lot more of us than there are of them.

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© Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters

© Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters

© Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters

Maria Montserrat Alvarado will lead communications department, overseeing news site, radio station, press office and more

Pope Leo has appointed the first lay woman to a top position in the governance of the Roman Catholic church.

Maria Montserrat Alvarado, who is now president of the US-based Catholic media outlet, EWTN News, will lead the Vatican’s powerful communications department, which was set up by the late Pope Francis in 2015 and oversees the Vatican’s news site as well as its radio station, newspaper, press office, publishing house and film library.

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© Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

© Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

© Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

Experts say AI firm’s engagement with Vatican risks creating ‘feelgood’ discourse that lacks critical examination

Why did Anthropic’s founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI?

In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task. The pontiff delineated the technology’s most concerning threats to humanity: replacing workers, accelerating war and exploiting the environment. At a ceremony honoring the holy teaching the day of its release at the Vatican, the pope was flanked by an unusual guest speaker: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, one of the people behind the AI boom so worrying Leo.

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© Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

The intelligent and thoughtful encyclical is an important warning of the uses and misuses of a rapidly developing technology. Silicon Valley is wrong to dismiss it

Often I’m asked if I think that the novels of the future will all be written by AI. It’s not so much a question as a provocation. Do I worry that a machine can do what I do, only better? I usually say something like: “No algorithm is going to write Anna Karenina!” which is also not a real answer.

So I’m grateful to Pope Leo XIV, the American pope, for his recently issued letter to the world, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. It’s a long (more than 40,00 words), intelligent and thoughtful encyclical in which the pope addresses the uses and misuses of a rapidly developing technology. Now when someone asks my opinion of AI, I can refer them to the pope’s letter, or at least chapter three.

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© Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters

© Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters

© Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters

Search takes place amid intensifying focus on separate allegations of influence peddling as problems worsen for prime minister Pedro Sanchez

In recent days across parts of Europe, temperatures have soared, heat records have been broken and spring has felt more like the height of summer.

Météo France, the French national weather service, has attributed this to a “heat dome”, with warmth held in place by a high-pressure weather front that has produced temperatures more than 10C above what used to be usual for this time of year.

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© Photograph: Fabio Frustaci/EPA

© Photograph: Fabio Frustaci/EPA

© Photograph: Fabio Frustaci/EPA

The co-founder of a prominent A.I. company was nearby as the pope implored A.I. leaders to slow down and consider the technology’s possible perils.

© Yara Nardi/Reuters

The co-founder of a prominent A.I. company was nearby as the pope implored A.I. leaders to slow down and consider the technology’s possible perils.

© Alberto Pizzoli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In his letter, the first American pontiff called for putting care for humans at the heart of technological change.

© Yara Nardi/Reuters

Pontiff calls for ‘disarming’ of artificial intelligence and apologises for church’s delay in condemning slavery

Pope Leo has denounced the “culture of power” driving the rapid rise of artificial intelligence while warning that the technology must be subject to the “most rigorous” ethical constraints as it infiltrates everything from work to war.

In his encyclical – the first major text on safeguarding humankind of his papacy – he also apologised for the Catholic church’s long delay in condemning slavery, describing it as “a wound in Christian memory”, and spoke of the “new forms of slavery” due to the digital economy.

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© Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters

© Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters

© Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters

The pope’s encyclical will address ‘the protection of the human person in the age of AI’, the Vatican says

In the first major text of his papacy, Pope Leo will address the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.

The Chicago-born pontiff will present the document, known as an encyclical, at the Vatican next week during an event attended by Christopher Olah, the co-founder of Anthropic – a US-based AI firm that has clashed with Donald Trump’s administration.

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© Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

© Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

The Right Rev Evelio Menjivar-Ayala vows to ‘keep talking’ as West Virginia bishop, amid tension between Trump and the Vatican

The new bishop appointed to lead West Virginia Catholics has pledged to continue speaking up for immigrants in the mould of Pope Leo, who appointed him last week amid ongoing tension between Donald Trump and the Vatican.

The Right Rev Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, 55, is not planning to hide his views after being elevated from assistant bishop in Washington DC to lead the diocese that covers West Virginia – the first Latino American bishop from El Salvador, who left Central America as a teenager and arrived in the US smuggled in the trunk of a car.

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© Photograph: Mihoko Owada/Catholic Standard

© Photograph: Mihoko Owada/Catholic Standard

© Photograph: Mihoko Owada/Catholic Standard

His appointments of bishops have focused on pastoral care and reflect the changing composition of Catholic pews and priests.

© Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press

One year on the job, the first US pope wins support for his progressive views and his defiance of Donald Trump

As Pope Leo XIV concludes his first year as the first American pope on Friday, Americans shared with the Guardian how they feel about the 70-year-old pontiff who has increasingly found himself at odds with Donald Trump.

Several described his papacy as a “breath of fresh air” compared with earlier, more conservative eras of church leadership.

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© Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

US secretary of state speaks with Leo and officials after tensions following attacks by Trump over Iran war

The Vatican has said it raised the “need to work tirelessly in favour of peace” in talks with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is in Rome on a trip widely regarded as an effort to ease tensions after Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of Pope Leo.

Amid unprecedented strain on relations between the Holy See and Washington, Rubio was received by the pope on Thursday at the Apostolic Palace, before holding a series of meetings with Vatican officials

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© Photograph: ABACA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: ABACA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: ABACA/Shutterstock

Our national political correspondent Lisa Lerer explains the impact of President Trump’s spate of attacks against Pope Leo XIV ahead of the closely contested midterm elections.

The meeting at the Vatican followed President Trump’s condemnation of Pope Leo XIV for opposing the war in Iran.

© Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media, via Reuters

Pontiff responds after US president accuses him of ‘endangering a lot of Catholics’ with stance on Iran war

• Middle East crisis – live updates

• People in the US: what do you think of Chicago-born Pope Leo?

Pope Leo has said he has never supported nuclear weapons and that those who criticise him need to speak the truth, in response to Donald Trump’s latest tirade accusing him of “endangering a lot of Catholics” with his stance on the Iran war.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday night after leaving the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, the first US-born pontiff said: “The mission of the church is to preach the gospel, to preach peace.”

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© Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP

© Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP

© Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP