By Matthew Gambino • Posted October 1, 2026

This week the Vatican announced the theme of the next World Day of Communications message by Pope Leo XIV: “A New Gaze: Paying Attention in the Age of Clickbait.”

I look forward to reading the message when it’s released Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of communicators, journalists and the Catholic Media Association.

The theme of “paying attention” couldn’t be more timely.

What I perceive as profound changes in our culture, our politics, and our climate are calling me to attention. The rise of artificial intelligence and its potential for enormous benefits and dangers is on my mind, and that of many people.

Pope Leo XIV called attention to the latter in his encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas,” on safeguarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence. Since its publication in May, the speed of AI development has been surprising.

Almost every week we learn how AI models have exceeded the expectations of their designers. AI has achieved breakthroughs in science and medicine, and it has broken through proscribed limitations in ways that anyone paying attention will find disturbing.

Many people are using AI for everyday tasks such as professional or personal writing. That practice is relatively new, but for years we’ve already been living in a digital environment in which algorithms influence our “gaze” – where we look, for how long, and to whom.

We’re baited to click on digital content with the promise, “if you liked that, you will love this more.” One link leads to another until we realize how easily we just spent an hour burrowing through rabbit holes of content packaged just for our interests.

Not all of that time spent is bad. It’s never been easier to solve a home repair, learn a musical instrument or language, or find wholesome entertainment, not to mention keeping up with friends and relatives.

Where we place our gaze is the theme of the coming papal message on communications. The message of Pope Leo next January likely will reinforce the themes of his encyclical as he addresses today’s “attention economy.”

Via clicks on an endless flow of content, people’s attention spans become monetized and exploited as a commodity to be mined. There is emerging evidence that the over-consumption of content on social media is reducing the IQ of users and their ability to reason and concentrate.

If it’s hard to pay attention now, it’s likely only going to get harder as AI intensifies effects we are already seeing.

One casualty, according to the Vatican, is that communications between persons also is being transformed by digital culture. Life-giving relationships among persons – family, friends, and strangers – are built on the raw material of paying attention.

That word comes from the Latin meaning to reach out to another. Jesus, who reached out and allowed Himself to be seen and touched, remains our model. He calls us to step back from the bait of digital engagement – however enriching it may be – and commit our gaze to God in time of silent prayer and contemplation.

As Pope Leo recently told a group of contemplative religious women, the work of proclaiming the Gospel has “its origin in silence, listening, prayer, and a profound relationship with God.”

Silence, he said, “is particularly important in a world marked by speed, in which everything has to be immediately visible and every emptiness is quickly filled.”

This prescription of prayer not only applies to consecrated religious, but to all the faithful. Periods of silent, contemplative prayer in one’s busy day or week lead us to a deeper relationship with God.

That endless source of grace can open our hearts to one another and strengthen the bonds between us as no technology can. Through prayer and contemplation, God shows the way to safeguarding the human person in this and every age.

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Matthew Gambino is deputy communications officer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.