The Pontifical Gregorian University outlines principles for AI integration across students, faculty, and staff, balancing innovation with human dignity and authentic learning.
Newsroom (06/05/2026 Gaudium Press ) The Pontifical Gregorian University has adopted a comprehensive set of guidelines governing the use of artificial intelligence across its community, approved by the Rector’s Council on April 30, 2026. The document establishes a nuanced approach to AI integration that seeks to harness technological benefits while safeguarding the university’s commitment to human formation and authentic intellectual development.
The guidelines emerge at a critical moment in higher education, as institutions worldwide grapple with the proliferation of AI tools and their implications for learning, teaching, and research. Rather than imposing blanket restrictions, the Gregorian’s framework draws a clear distinction between “enhancing” uses of AI—those that support and empower individuals—and “substitutive” uses that replace original thought and creative capacity.
A Catholic Perspective on Technology
The university grounded its approach in Catholic principles, particularly the teachings of Pope Leo XIV, who emphasized during a November 2025 visit to the campus that artificial intelligence represents a manifestation of human creative capacity entrusted by God. “The Church does not shy away from the advent of AI,” the guidelines state, “seeing in it possibilities for the growth of evangelization, communities, and research.”
This theological framework shapes the university’s practical approach. Drawing on the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the guidelines advise that individuals should use created things “as much as they help him toward his end, and must rid himself of them as much as they are a hindrance to him.” In the university context, this principle translates into a commitment that AI tools be employed to “empower users and enrich their formation” rather than diminish human capacities.
Defining the Boundaries
The university defines artificial intelligence as “the tangible, real-world capacity of non-human machines or artificial entities to perform tasks, solve problems, communicate, interact, and act logically in ways comparable to biological humans.” Crucially, the guidelines emphasize that AI “is used to support human beings in their work, not to replace them” and that it “does not replace the faculties of reasoning, creativity, and generativity.”
This distinction proves essential to understanding the university’s three-category framework. The guidelines recognize that the appropriateness of AI use depends heavily on context, necessitating tailored recommendations for students, teaching staff, and administrative personnel.
Student Guidelines: Clarity and Verification
For students, the framework identifies five appropriate uses of AI: writing support limited to grammatical and spelling correction; translation of texts outside academic exercises; organization of study materials; research and identification of sources; and creation of bibliographic citations. Significantly, students are encouraged to declare any use of AI in their submitted work and to seek clarification from professors when uncertain about appropriate applications.
The guidelines provide concrete guidance through a use case involving source research. A student may legitimately ask an AI chatbot to generate a list of primary sources for a term paper or examination. However, the guidelines explicitly prohibit requesting that the chatbot analyze those sources or draw conclusions from them. Moreover, students must independently verify that sources are real, academically appropriate, and aligned with Catholic Church teaching.
Three categories of inappropriate use are identified for students: generation of academic texts and arguments without substantial creative contribution; significant modification of tone, style, or communicative intent; and use of AI tools during examinations without explicit professor permission.
Faculty Empowerment and Responsibility
Teaching staff recommendations reflect a similar balance. Appropriate uses include supporting course design and pedagogical innovation, preparing summary materials and teaching aids, managing organizational tasks related to teaching and research, and organizing course materials. Notably, the guidelines permit AI to assist in assessment processes, but explicitly reserve all evaluative, educational, and formative decisions for the professor.
A use case illustrates this boundary. A professor may employ generative AI to develop new course features, identify materials, and generate assessment questions. However, “all evaluative, educational, and formative decisions remain the responsibility of the professor and cannot be delegated to AI systems.” Additionally, professors bear responsibility for ensuring that course materials and research align with Church teaching.
Inappropriate uses for faculty mirror those for students, with the addition of two prohibitions: automated evaluation without human judgment and delegation of academic decisions to AI systems.
Administrative Efficiency with Human Oversight
Administrative staff are identified as beneficiaries of AI’s capacity to enhance organizational efficiency. Appropriate applications include document management support, workflow optimization through automation of repetitive tasks, and communication assistance such as document translation and automatic transcription. These uses are conditioned on full compliance with data protection, privacy, information security requirements, and institutional mission.
The guidelines explicitly state that AI cannot replace the decision-making responsibility or creative abilities of administrative personnel. Three inappropriate uses are identified: replacement of correspondence and communications with AI-generated texts without review, entrusting final decisions to AI without human supervision, and presenting AI-generated content without clear attribution of its origin.
Implementation and Institutional Responsibility
Rather than imposing uniform enforcement mechanisms, the guidelines delegate implementation responsibility to the university’s three missions, each empowered to determine specific applications aligned with its particular context and needs. Decisions regarding how to address incorrect use remain with individual missions, which will apply existing norms on plagiarism and university ethics.
This decentralized approach reflects confidence in the university community’s capacity for discernment. The guidelines note that “the ability to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate uses of AI is the responsibility of every member of the Gregorian community.”
The Underlying Concern
Beneath the detailed framework lies a fundamental concern about human development. The guidelines warn that improper AI use—through plagiarism, invented sources, or replacement of original thought—places users at disadvantage when required to demonstrate learning, creativity, and acquired skills. This concern resonates beyond academia, touching on broader questions about how technology shapes human development.
The opening quotation attributed to Pope Leo XIV captures this anxiety: “Be prudent, be wise, take care that the use of AI does not limit your true human growth. Use it in such a way that, if it disappeared tomorrow, you would still know how to think, how to create, how to act on your own, and how to form authentic friendships.”
Conclusion
The Pontifical Gregorian University’s guidelines represent a measured attempt to integrate technological capability with institutional mission and human formation. By distinguishing enhancement from substitution, the framework acknowledges both the genuine benefits AI offers and the risks it poses to authentic intellectual and personal development. Whether this approach succeeds in practice will likely depend on the commitment of the university community to maintaining the principle of discernment that the guidelines identify as “fundamental and prevailing.”
About the Pontifical Gregorian University: Located in Rome, the Pontifical Gregorian University is a papal university established in 1584, dedicated to theological and philosophical education within the Catholic intellectual tradition. The university’s mission encompasses teaching, research, and the formation of its members through the principle of cura personalis, attention to the individual person.
- Raju Hasmukh
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