Paul Tighe

Paul Tighe (born 1958) is an Irish-born bishop and Secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education. Long involved in the Church’s engagement with digital media, he became a central figure in the Holy See’s effort to speak coherently about artificial intelligence.

Antiqua et Nova

Tighe helped shepherd Antiqua et Nova, the Vatican’s January 2025 note on the relationship between artificial and human intelligence. Its stance is calibrated rather than fearful: AI can relieve people of drudgery, but work is more than a paycheck — it is a source of creativity, connection, and dignity — so the technology should augment human beings, not replace them.

In interviews around the document, Tighe framed the Church’s role as offering ethical guidance to developers rather than opposing the field, emphasising education and formation so that people can use these tools wisely. He works alongside the Vatican’s AI adviser Paolo Benanti in an institutional stance that engages the technology on its merits.