President Lori Meets Pope Leo XIV

Marywood President Lisa A. Lori, J.D., was one of the delegates of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) who attended a special audience with Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. President Lori was in Rome for ACCU’s 2026 Rome Seminar.

In his address to the Catholic college and university presidents, Pope Leo XIV encouraged the group to instill in students “a true passion for the truth—and not only intellectual truth, but the Truth that is Christ himself.”

The Holy Father further encouraged the leaders by observing, “Your authenticity as true disciples of Christ will certainly assist you in transmitting the living Gospel in such a way that those entrusted to you can truly encounter the Lord and discover in the Catholic faith the unifying vision that Truth alone can provide.”

The Pope acknowledged the increasing fragmentation of knowledge currently being experienced in the world of education and affirmed the pivotal importance of Catholic education in today’s world, referencing his recent Encyclical Letter, Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, published on May 25.

“It is crucial that young men and women learn to engage positively with new technologies, while at the same time truly developing their God-given skills and capacities to reason, think critically, and commit knowledge to memory, thus preparing them to shape responsibly the world to come,” he emphasized.

Pope Leo also expressed his hope that, as educators continue to carry out the Church’s evangelizing mission, “students will always be able to find in your institutions the sound doctrine entrusted to the Church, which will serve as a true and lasting foundation not only for their lives, but for the future of the nation.”

Read the full text of Pope Leo XIV’s address to the ACCU delegation:

Pope Leo XIV’s 2026 ACCU Address