Pope Leo in ‘Dilexi te’: Faith cannot be separated from love for the poor
Taking up Pope Francis’ desire “that all Christians come to appreciate the close connection between Christ’s love and His summons to care for the poor,” Pope Leo XIV issues his first Apostolic Exhortation, “Dilexi te,” as a call to Christ’s disciples “to recognize him in the poor and the suffering.”https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-10/pope-leo-faith-cannot-be-separated-from-love-for-the-poor.html
Dilexi te (“I have loved you”, from Rev 3:9) unfolds in 121 numbered paragraphs spread throughout five chapters, and flows directly from the Gospel of the Son of God, Who in the very act of entering into our world through the Incarnation became poor for our sakes. At the same time, it reproposes the Church’s social teaching, especially that of the past 150 years, as “a veritable treasury of significant teachings” concerning the poor.
The ‘faces’ of poverty
Pope Leo’s Exhortation offers numerous points for reflection and calls for action in its analysis of the many “faces of the poor and of poverty”, including “the poverty of those who lack material means of subsistence” or “who are socially marginalized and lack the means to give voice to their dignity and abilities” (9).
“The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges. She knows that her proclamation of the Gospel is credible only when it is translated into gestures of closeness and welcome. And she knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community” (75).