Pope Leo in Argentina: Economy must serve people, not profit alone

Pope Leo XIV called for an economy rooted in human dignity at the Catholic University of Argentina Nov. 9, defending the value of work and entrepreneurship while warning that artificial intelligence (AI) and unchecked automation could threaten jobs and harm workers and families.

The address came during Pope Leo’s apostolic journey through South America, following the first leg of his trip in Uruguay. On Nov. 9, before speaking at the university, he celebrated Mass before approximately 2.5 million people in Buenos Aires, where he addressed challenges facing families.

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Speaking to representatives of Argentina's working community gathered at the university, Pope Leo outlined the principles of Catholic social teaching that guided his remarks.

“The human person is the author, the center and the goal of all economic and social life,” he said. “The economy, therefore, must be at the service of the person, and not the person at the service of the economy.”

Referring to Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed the relationship between labor and capital, the Holy Father discussed the consequences of unemployment.

“To deprive a person of work is not simply to deny that person an income,” Pope Leo said. “It severely wounds their dignity, deprives them of the ability to contribute to society and plunges them into social exclusion, thereby fragmenting the unity of society and undermining the communal activity that is aimed toward the common good.”

Pope Leo also discussed subsidiarity, the Catholic principle that governments and larger institutions should support rather than replace the work of local communities.

“In the tradition of the Church’s social thought, the State is not expected to do everything,” he said.

The Pope said public authorities must retain their regulatory responsibilities while recognizing the contributions of families, community organizations and informal workers.

Entrepreneurship and workers' rights

Turning to business leadership, Pope Leo cited Venerable Enrique Shaw, an Argentine Catholic entrepreneur, as an example of integrating business leadership with Christian faith. Shaw “understood that industry was not just a productive mechanism or a means of accumulating capital, but a true community of people called to grow together,” the Pope said.

He also recognized the contributions of entrepreneurs to economic development and the personal and financial risks involved in creating jobs.

“Business leaders, whose capital creates jobs, often put their own assets at risk,” he said, “for it is impossible to create wealth in a country without personal involvement, without accepting the uncertainty that the future brings, whose parameters are entirely beyond our control.”

The Pope described entrepreneurship as a vocation with responsibilities to workers and society.

“The business vocation is a noble task when it is guided by the principle of the social function of property and capital,” he said.

He also warned against making profit the sole measure of business success.

“When economic profit is established as the sole criterion of success, a business becomes dehumanized and turns into a structure of sin that generates exclusion,” he said. “Business leaders are called to overturn this technocratic mentality through ethical investment that gives priority to the dignity of work and environmental sustainability, recognizing that financial success must be measured in terms of the common good.”

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The Pope then addressed the role of trade unions, whose “specific mission is to be instruments of solidarity and cohesion, channels of cooperation between workers and businesses.”

“From this perspective, trade unions are indispensable institutions when they defend those who have no voice and resist the commodification of labor,” he said.

AI and the future of work

Turning to artificial intelligence and automation, Pope Leo warned of the potential consequences for employment.

"The challenges posed by artificial intelligence and unregulated automation can put countless jobs at risk and become a real threat to proper integral human development," he said.

Addressing the responsibilities of those developing and deploying these technologies, the Holy Father called for ethical oversight.

"Technology must always be subject to ethics; an algorithm cannot replace human discernment or the intrinsic value of a worker’s physical presence and effort," he said.

The Pope also urged public officials to consider the effects of technological change on employment and to pursue policies that support access to work.

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Toward the end of his address, Pope Leo reflected on the spiritual significance of everyday work.

“Let us not shy away from our daily encounter with Christ in the tasks of each day, however banal and insignificant they may seem to us,” he said. “No work is trivial in the eyes of God: the greatness of a task lies not in what is done, but in the love invested in every gesture, every word and every thought.”