During the ongoing G-7 Summit in Italy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Pope Francis on Friday. In a video shared by ANI, Modi can be seen stopping to hug Pope Francis, who was being taken around the venue in a wheelchair. The 87-year-old Pope, the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, engaged in a light-hearted exchange with Modi, though the feed from the venue did not have any audio. Modi also met with other world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Pope Francis at Outreach Session of G7 Summit in Italy. The Prime Minister also strikes up a conversation with British PM Rishi Sunak. pic.twitter.com/BNIpfK6lIN
— ANI (@ANI) June 14, 2024
PM Modi on X (Formerly twitter)
In the latest tweet PM Modi said, “Met Pope Francis on the sidelines of the Summit. I admire his commitment to serve people and make our planet better. Also invited him to visit India.
Met Pope Francis on the sidelines of the @G7 Summit. I admire his commitment to serve people and make our planet better. Also invited him to visit India. @Pontifex pic.twitter.com/BeIPkdRpUD
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 14, 2024
This is not the first meeting between Modi and Pope Francis; they previously met in Vatican City in 2021. Pope Francis is the head of the state of the Vatican and the leader of the Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination worldwide. According to PTI, India is expecting a visit from Pope Francis next year. Diplomatic relations between India and the Holy See, the Vatican’s government, have been in place since 1948. Pope John Paul II visited India in 1999, meeting President KR Narayanan, Vice President Krishan Kant, and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. A state visit is the highest level of visit by a head of state or government to a country.
In their 2021 meeting, Modi and Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar were hosted by Pope Francis, discussing various issues including the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.
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At the G-7 Summit, Pope Francis addressed world leaders about the ethical considerations of artificial intelligence (AI). He cautioned that AI, being a powerful technology, risks reducing humans to mere algorithms. His address, the first by a Pope at a G-7 Summit, emphasized the need to ensure AI remains human-centric, with humans retaining control over critical and mundane decisions alike.
“We would condemn humanity to a future without hope if we took away people’s ability to make decisions about themselves and their lives, by dooming them to depend on the choices of machines. We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: Human dignity itself depends on it,” said Pope Francis, according to the Associated Press. He was specially invited by Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the host of this year’s G-7 Summit.
