In his very first address to representatives of the media, our newly elected Pope Leo XIV quoted these important words from a sermon by St. Augustine: “Let us live well and the times will be good. We are the times!” (Audience of the Holy Father Leo XIV to representatives of the media, 12 May 2025) Although the world is still just getting to know Pope Leo XIV, these words may give us some insight to future themes of his pontificate.

When St. Augustine wrote the quoted sermon over sixteen hundred years ago, he was speaking to Christians who lived in very challenging times: The Roman Empire was enduring invasions by the barbarian Visigoths, there was widespread moral decline in society, and the Catholic Church faced prevalent heresies such as Donatism and Pelagianism. Although it may have been tempting for Christians to despair over the times in which they lived, St. Augustine challenged them to respond with unceasing prayer and courageous virtue:

And so, Brethren, we say, pray as much as you are able. Evils abound, and God has willed that evils should abound. Would that evil men did not abound, and then evils would not abound. Bad times! Troublesome times! This men are saying. Let our lives be good; and the times are good. We make our times; such as we are, such are the times (Sermon 30 on the New Testament).

Isn’t it funny how we can be tempted to desire life in another time, as if we’d be better suited for an easier era? Rather than complaining about the evils of the day, Augustine challenged Christians to be holy so that the times would become holy. We are the times!

In our own day, we do face significant difficulties: There are armed conflicts around the world, the West has almost entirely shaken off its Christian heritage, and there are deep divisions within the Church.

The choice of the name “Leo” points to another challenge at the forefront of the Holy Father’s mind. Just as Pope Leo XIII defended the dignity and rights of workers during the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century, Pope Leo XIV intends to defend human dignity during the AI Revolution of our own day:

Sensing myself called to continue in this same path, I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to 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 (Address of the Holy Father to the College of Cardinals, 10 May 2025).

We shall see in the coming years how Pope Leo XIV presents and develops Catholic social teaching in response to the challenges of our own day. In the meantime, we can put into practice the words of St. Augustine already quoted by our Holy Father: “Let us live well and the times will be good. We are the times!”