At UNESCO in Paris, Pope Leo deplores the crisis of the United Nations

Pope Leo XIV used a historic address at UNESCO headquarters in Paris to deliver a pointed warning that the United Nations and other multilateral institutions are in a crisis of effectiveness, with international dialogue at risk of becoming a hollow “charade.”

Speaking on Friday, the first day of his four-day visit to France and the first papal appearance at the UN cultural agency since John Paul II in 1980, the American-born pontiff said the world looks at international bodies with “mixed feelings.” They are needed for challenges no nation can face alone, yet they suffer “a crisis of effectiveness, especially when dialogue is seen as an obstacle to action rather than a resource for peace, a charade rather than an opportunity to seek the common good together.”

He added that those in power often treat the law as a tool of convenience: “Instead of respecting the law, those in power invoke it when it serves their interests and disregard it when it restrains them, treating even justice itself as though it were a commodity to be bought and sold.”

The timing was unmistakable. Leo spoke as a tense UN General Assembly continued in New York. Three days earlier, President Donald Trump had used his own UNGA speech to attack UNESCO by name. Trump called it “deeply ironic” that the UN maintains “an entire institution, the UNESCO group of people and countries, devoted to protecting cultural heritage — yet, with their ceaseless promotion of mass migration, these globalists are actively destroying the greatest cultures and most extraordinary heritage in history.” The United States announced its withdrawal from UNESCO in 2025, with the exit scheduled to take effect at the end of 2026.

Leo did not name Trump or any other leader. He framed the problem as a broader failure of political will and trust. Peace, he insisted, quoting UNESCO’s 1945 constitution, must be built in “the minds of men,” because that is where wars begin. Treaties and power balances are necessary but insufficient. Authentic peace, he said, “springs from the virtue of justice rather than a simple contract, and from a right will rather than an unstable balance of interests.” War remains “the most terrible of ‘human works,’” because it puts science itself at the service of destruction.

The Holy See has maintained a permanent observer mission at UNESCO since 1952; Leo noted that 2027 will mark the 75th anniversary of that presence. He presented the agency as both instrument and forum—a place where humanity can still reflect on its history and future through education, science, and culture. The Church, he said, wants to renew that partnership in service of “the common good, which is the social expression of the dignity” shared by every person.

Under Donald Trump’s two presidencies, the United States has repeatedly withdrawn from UN bodies and slashed funding on the grounds that many agencies no longer serve American interests. In his first term the administration left UNESCO (2017) and the UN Human Rights Council (2018), announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization in 2020, and cut or froze contributions to UNRWA and other programs; President Biden later reversed most of those exits. After returning to office in 2025, Trump moved faster and farther: he ordered withdrawal from the WHO and the Paris Agreement on day one, ended participation in the Human Rights Council, halted funding for UNRWA, and announced a second UNESCO exit effective at the end of 2026. In January 2026 he directed agencies to leave 66 international organizations, including 31 UN entities such as UN Women, UNFPA, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Assessed contributions have been paid only in small amounts, leaving the United States billions in arrears, while voluntary humanitarian funding has fallen sharply and Congress has imposed further cuts and conditions on UN regular-budget and peacekeeping money.

AI and the meaning of being human

The rest of the speech developed themes Leo has made central to his 16-month papacy, especially the risks of artificial intelligence. He asked a question he said no culture can evade: “What does it mean to be human?” Every generation must answer it, he argued, particularly when technology and ideology distort the answer.

AI, he said, “amplifies this problem.” Systems can correlate data but “cannot answer questions that concern the meaning of human life, which is rooted in lived experience.” Meaning, he added, “is the oxygen of the spirit.” The resulting paradox is stark: “while ‘intelligence’ is attributed to computational systems, we struggle to recognize the inalienable dignity of human persons, whose lives are judged according to the criterion of efficiency and, when deemed no longer productive, are rejected and discarded.” New technologies must remain “at the service of the human person rather than becoming yet another instrument of domination and injustice.” He specifically urged protection of children and young people so that digital tools never become “an opportunity for exploitation.”

Earlier Friday at the Élysée Palace, Leo had already warned President Emmanuel Macron and French authorities against a “paradise of machines” invading daily life and called for education in ethical discernment. The UNESCO visit included a morning youth forum inspired by his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

France trip and unfinished Church business

Leo’s France itinerary is tightly scheduled: Paris, then Lourdes and Metz. After UNESCO he traveled by popemobile to the restored Notre-Dame Cathedral for vespers, praising the collective effort that rebuilt the fire-damaged landmark as proof that “the heart of a people beats here.” He also restated the Church’s opposition to assisted dying, genetic manipulation, surrogacy, and organ trafficking, saying science and technology must not become “profit-driven ventures.”

The pastoral subtext is repair. A 2021 report documented widespread clergy sexual abuse in France. On Sunday in Lourdes the pope is scheduled to meet seven survivors. French bishops have introduced compensation and safeguarding measures, but victims continue to press for fuller accountability.

Leo presented UNESCO not as a relic of a fading postwar order but as a still-necessary place to recover a culture of peace, truth, and human dignity at a moment when multilateral institutions look, to many, exhausted. Whether governments hear that as a rebuke or an invitation remains an open question – one made sharper by the contrast with the speech delivered in New York three days earlier.

Caption: Pope Leo XIV (C-L) shakes hands with UNESCO Director General Khaled Ahmed El-Enany (C-R) after a visit to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, 25 September 2026, on the first day of his apostolic journey to the country. Pope Leo XIV is on a visit to France from 25 to 28 September. EPA/MAURIZIO BRAMBATTI