Lorena Jaume-PalasíMay 25
The pope doesn’t increase credibility by presenting his encyclical with a billionaire AI overlord. Presenting it with data workers, with communities protecting their territories against technological exploitation might have. But this is just another normalization of AI inevitability discourse
Show threadLorena Jaume-Palasí
The pope doesn’t only commit a performative contradiction when presenting his encyclical. He has been criticizing while simultaneously legitimizing and supporting #bigtech for a while now. In February 2026 the Vatican launched two equity stock indexes „aligned with catholic values“ and guess who is indexed? Tesla, apple, NVIDIA, alphabet, meta, amazon !!!!. So which big tech billionaires are you referring to in the encyclical Leo XIV? https://www.businessinsider.com/vatican-bank-catholic-stock-indexes-faith-based-investing-portfolio-morningstar-2026-2
Want to invest like a Catholic? The Vatican has a new stock index for that.

Vatican Bank announced indexes for both the European and US markets that align with Catholic teachings. Holdings include Meta, Nvidia, Amazon, and ASML.

Business Insider
May 25 at 3:56pmWeb
Show threadLorena Jaume-PalasíMay 25
Also can the Vatican be finally transparent about how their total assets have been growing *this rapidly* in the course of the last years? According to Antonio Guerrero Alves, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, 2020 total assets were "2,2 billion euros", 2021 "3,9 billion euros"
https://www.omnesmag.com/en/news/apsa-y-santa-headquarter/ and according to IOR last report 2024 it was 5,7 billions euros. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_the_Works_of_Religion#cite_note-annualreport2024-3
News on Vatican finances - Omnes

The publication of the financial statements of the Holy See and the APSA show the state of the Vatican's finances.

Omnes
Show threadLorena Jaume-PalasíMay 25
And while criticizing the AI overlords for not giving back enough, somehow the Vatican was only able to commit 10% of their budget to charity services according to their last own report https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/12/01/the-holy-see-closed-the-2024-fiscal-year-with-a-surplus-of-1-86-million/
The Holy See closed the 2024 fiscal year with a surplus of $1.86 million

Show threadTom TomMay 25

@lopalasi well if the ai overlords gave 10% of their budget to charity, that would be a good start

(This is not an excuse for the catholic church greediness)..

Show threadL'égrégore André ꕭꕬMay 27
@lopalasi I'm sorry, but the Vatican Bank going into partnership with _Morningstar_ Indexes sends me. Literal Lucifer collaboration.
Show threaddasgrueneblattMay 27
@lopalasi "performative contradiction"? That's totally on brand for a double-digit number of centuries now. No surprise there.
Show threadKhleedrilMay 28
@lopalasi What did they expect when they elected an American pope? Or is that exactly what they expected...?