Pope Leo XIV addresses Italian employment consultants, calling for closeness to vulnerable families, stronger workplace safety measures, and human-centered approaches amid AI advancements
Newsroom (18/12/2025 ) In an address marking the 60th anniversary of the Association of Employment Consultants’ professional register in Italy, Pope Leo XIV on Thursday urged members of the Italian Order of Employment Consultants to remain steadfast in supporting vulnerable workers and families while vigorously promoting safety in the workplace.
Speaking at the Vatican, the pontiff emphasized the critical role these professionals play in advising companies on employment, hiring, labor laws, and social security matters. He called on them to be particularly attentive to those in greatest need, including young families with small children and employees caring for elderly or sick relatives.
“At the center of any work dynamic, there should be neither capital, nor market laws, nor profit, but rather the individual, the family, and their well-being, to which everything else is secondary,” Pope Leo XIV stated, echoing teachings from his predecessors, Pope Francis and St. John Paul II.
The Pope stressed the necessity of safeguarding human dignity amid rapid technological advancements. “Today, in a context where technology and artificial intelligence increasingly manage and condition our activities, it is urgent to ensure that companies are characterized first and foremost as human and fraternal communities,” he said.
He highlighted the specific challenges faced by workers balancing professional responsibilities with family care obligations. “These are needs that no truly civilized society can afford to forget or neglect, and you have the means to support those who struggle to meet them,” the pontiff told the consultants.
Turning to the persistent issue of workplace accidents, Pope Leo XIV lamented the ongoing toll of injuries and deaths in professional environments. Italian employment consultants, he noted, are responsible for providing and overseeing training courses aimed at preventing such tragedies.
“It is a service to their own lives,” he remarked, describing workplaces as spaces that “should always be places of life—where people spend much of their time every day and expend a large portion of their energy.” Yet, he added, these environments “frequently turn into places of death and desolation.”
Quoting Pope Francis from a 2023 address, the Pope reiterated that “safety at work is like the air we breathe: we realize its importance only when it is tragically lacking, and it is always too late!” He praised the consultants’ training efforts, stating, “Preventing is better than curing, and that is what your valuable training contributions aim to achieve.”
In his concluding remarks, Pope Leo XIV underscored the mediating role of employment consultants in fostering healthy relationships between employers and employees. These professionals, he said, handle “legal and administrative aspects that are fundamental to the lives of workers and their families.”
Warning against potential pitfalls, the pontiff identified two temptations: excessive bureaucratization of workplace relations and a detached approach to real human struggles. Drawing from Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, he noted that both tendencies “are harmful because, in the long run, they make the company environment unliveable, preventing it from being, according to its truest vocation, a supportive synergy.”
Instead, Pope Leo XIV encouraged the consultants to approach their work with empathy, avoiding being “weighed down by the employer’s perspective.” He urged them to focus “on the people in front of you, especially those who are in difficulty and have fewer opportunities to express their needs and assert their interests.”
“This is a great act of justice and charity,” the Pope concluded.
The address served as a reminder of the Church’s longstanding commitment to placing human dignity at the heart of economic and professional life, particularly in an era of evolving technologies and persistent workplace risks.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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