Vatican News – Pope Leo’s Dilexi Te: Faith cannot be separated from love for the poor

Taking up 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”.

By Salvatore Cernuzio

Pope Leo XIV’s first Apostolic Exhortation sees the love of Christ incarnated in love for the poor, in caring for the sick, opposing slavery, defending women who experience exclusion and violence, making education available to all, accompanying migrants, charitable giving, working for equality and more.

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.

Pope Leo XIV’s first Apostolic Exhortation, “Dilexi te”

Following in the footsteps of his predecessors

With this document, signed on 4 October, the feast of Saint Francis of Assis, Pope Leo situates himself firmly on the path laid out by his predecessors, including Saint John XXIII, with his appeal, in Mater et Magistra, to wealthier countries not to remain indifferent to nations oppressed by hunger and extreme poverty (83).

Saint Paul VI added his own voice with Populorum progressio and his appearance at the United Nations as an “advocate of the poor”; as did Saint John Paul II, who consolidated the doctrinal foundations of the Church’s “preferential option for the poor”.

More recently, Benedict XVI, in Caritas in veritate, offered a more markedly political take on the crises of the Third Millenium; while Francis made care for the poor and solidarity with the poor one of the key themes of his pontificate.

Begun by Francis, completed by Pope Leo

Like Francis, who completed the work of Benedict XVI on the encyclical Lumen Fidei, Pope Leo XIV took up the text of his immediate predecessor for his first major Magisterial document. Dilexi te builds on the teaching of Francis’ final encyclical – Dilexit nos, on the Sacred Heart of Jesus – highlighting the “close connection” between the love of God and love for the poor. “In the poor”, writes Pope Leo, God “continues to speak to us” (5).

The Holy Father likewise recalls the theme of the Church’s “preferential option… for the poor”, an expression that arose in the context of Latin America (16). Pope Leo explains that this “‘preference’ never indicates exclusivity or discrimination towards other groups” but instead emphasizes “God’s actions, which are moved by compassion toward the poverty and weakness of all humanity” (16).

“On the wounded faces of the poor, we see the suffering of the innocent and, therefore, the suffering of Christ Himself” (9).

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).

Pope Leo also notes the existence of moral, spiritual, and cultural poverty; the poverty of “those who have no rights, no space, no freedom” (9).

Inequality and new forms of poverty

Confronted with this reality, Pope Leo says that although “the commitment to the poor and to removing the social and structural causes of poverty has gained importance in recent decades… it remains insufficient” (10).

He warns of the emergence of new, sometimes “more subtle and dangerous” forms of poverty, and decries economic “rules” that increase wealth for a few but also increase inequality (10, 13).

“I can only state once more that inequality ‘is the root of social ills’” (94).

‘The dictatorship of an economy that kills’

“The claim that the modern world has reduced poverty is made by measuring poverty with criteria from the past that do not correspond to present-day realities”, Pope Leo writes. From this point of view, he welcomes the fact that “the United Nations has made the eradication of poverty one of its Millenium Goals” (13, 10).

However, he says, there is a long way to go, especially in an era in which the “dictatorship of an economy that kills” continues to prevail; the wealth of the few continues to grow “exponentially” while the gap between rich and poor increases; and “ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation” remain widespread” (92).

The ‘throwaway culture’, market freedom, and pastoral care of the elites

All of this, Pope Leo says, indicates the continued existence of a “throwaway culture”, sometimes “well disguised”, that “tolerates with indifference that millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings” (96, 11).

The Holy Father condemns “pseudo-scientific data” used to support the claim “that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty”, as well as the idea that “we should opt for pastoral work with the so-called elite, since, rather than wasting time on the poor, it would be better to care for the rich” to gain their assistance in finding real-world solutions for poverty (114).

“Indeed, ‘it frequently becomes clear that, in practice, human rights are not equal for all’” (94).

A change in mentality

Pope Leo thus calls for a “change in mentality” that can free us from “the illusion of happiness derived from a comfortable life that pushes many people towards a vision of life centred on the accumulation of wealth and social success at all costs, even at the expense of others and by taking advantage of unjust social ideals and political-economic systems that favour the strongest” (11).

“The dignity of every human person must be respected today, not tomorrow” (92).

In every rejected migrant, it is Christ Himself who knocks

Pope Leo also devotes ample space to the theme of migration, illustrating his words with the image of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who in 2015 became a symbol of the European migrant crisis with the photo of his lifeless body on a beach. “Unfortunately, apart from some momentary outcry, similar events are becoming increasingly irrelevant and seen as marginal news items”, the Pope observes (11).

At the same time, he recalls the Church’s centuries-old work in favour of those forced to abandon their lands, seen in refugee reception centres, border missions, and the efforts of Caritas Internationalis and other institutions (75).

“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).

With regard to migration, the Pope adopts Francis’ famous “four verbs”: “welcome, protect, promote, and integrate”. And he also borrows from his predecessor the description of the poor as “not only objects of our compassion, but teachers of the Gospel” (79).

“Serving the poor is not a gesture to be made ‘from above’, but an encounter between equals, where Christ is revealed and adored… Therefore, when the Church bends down to care for the poor, she assumes her highest posture” (79).

Women, victims of violence and exclusion

The Holy Father likewise considers the current situation, recalling the countless people who die every day “due to lack of food and water” (12).

Similarly, we must not forget those women, the “doubly poor… who endure situations of exclusion, mistreatment and violence, since they are frequently less able to defend their rights”, he adds, quoting Francis (12).

‘The poor are not there by chance’

Pope Leo XIV offers an in-depth reflection on the causes of poverty: “The poor are not there by chance or by blind and cruel fate. Nor, for most of them, is poverty a choice”, he says. “Yet, there are those who still presume to make this claim, thus revealing their own blindness and cruelty” (14).

While recognizing that “among the poor there are also those who do not want to work, perhaps because their ancestors, who worked all their lives, died poor”, the Pope highlights that there are “so many others — men and women — who nonetheless work from dawn to dusk, perhaps collecting scraps or the like, even though they know that their hard work will only help them to scrape by, but never really improve their lives” (14).

In one of the main points of Dilexi Te, Pope Leo insists that it cannot be said “that most of the poor are such because they do not ‘deserve’ otherwise, as maintained by that specious view of meritocracy that sees only the successful as ‘deserving’” (14).

Ideologies and political orientations

Sometimes, Pope Leo observes, Christians themselves allow themselves to succumb to attitudes shaped by “secular ideologies or political and economic approaches that lead to gross generalizations and mistaken conclusions” (15).

“There are those who say: ‘Our task is to pray and teach sound doctrine’. Separating this religious aspect from integral development, they even say that it is the government’s job to care for them, or that it would be better not to lift them out of their poverty but simply to teach them to work” (114).

Almsgiving often disparaged

A symptom of this mentality is the fact that the exercise of charity is sometimes dismissed or ridiculed “as if [it] were an obsession on the part of a few and not the burning heart of the Church’s mission” (15). The Holy Father dwells at length on almsgiving, which in our day is “rarely practiced”, and “even at times disparaged” (115).

“We Christians must not abandon almsgiving. It can be done in different ways, and surely more effectively, but it must continue to be done. It is always better at least to do something rather than nothing. Whatever form it may take, almsgiving will touch and soften our hardened hearts. It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility. For our part, we need to give alms as a way of reaching out and touching the suffering flesh of the poor” (119).

Indifference on the part of Christians

Along the same lines, the Pope acknowledges that “at times, Christian movements or groups have arisen which show little or no interest in the common good of society and, in particular, the protection and advancement of its most vulnerable and disadvantaged members” (112).

Again quoting Francis, Pope Leo warns that if “any Church community” does not cooperate “in helping the poor to live with dignity and reaching out to everyone”, it will “risk breaking down, however much it may talk about social issues or criticize governments. It will easily drift into a spiritual worldliness camouflaged by religious practices, unproductive meetings and empty talk” (113).

“We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor” (36).

The witness of saints, blesseds, and religious orders

In contrast to this attitude of indifference, there is a world of saints, blesseds, and missionaries who, over the centuries, have embodied the image of “a poor Church for the poor” (110), from Francis of Assisi and his gesture of embracing a leper (7), to Mother Teresa, a “universal icon of charity” dedicated to the most destitute in India, who accompanied the dying “with the tenderness of prayer” (77).

The Pope also recalls the witness of Saints including Lawrence, Justin, Ambrose, and John Chrysostom; as well as Saint Augustine, who stated: “Anyone who says they love God and has no compassion for the needy is lying”, a reference to 1 John 4:20 (45).

Pope Leo points to the work of the Camillians for the sick (50), and of the women’s congregations in hospitals and nursing homes (51). He notes the welcome given to widows, abandoned children, pilgrims, and beggars in Benedictine monasteries (55); and recalls the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians who initiated “an evangelical revolution” through a “simple and poor lifestyle” (63); as well as the Trinitarians and Mercedarians who, fighting for the liberation of prisoners, expressed the love of “a God who frees not only from spiritual slavery but also from concrete oppression” (60).

“The tradition of these orders did not come to an end. On the contrary, it inspired new forms of action in the face of modern forms of slavery: human trafficking, forced labour, sexual exploitation and various forms of dependency. Christian charity is liberating when it becomes incarnate” (61).

The right to education

Looking to the example of Saint Joseph Calasanz, who founded the first free public school in Europe (69), the Pope emphasizes the importance of educating the poor, which “is not a favour but a duty” (72).

“Children have a right to knowledge as a fundamental requirement for the recognition of human dignity” (72).

The efforts of popular movements

In the exhortation, the Pope also mentions the fight against the “destructive effects of the empire of money” (81) by popular movements, led by leaders often “viewed with suspicion and even persecuted” (80). Popular movements, he writes, “invite us to overcome ‘the idea of social policies being a policy for the poor, but never with the poor and never of the poor, much less part of a project which can bring people back together’” (81).

The duty of making our voices heard

In the final pages of the document, Leo XIV reminds every member of the People of God of their duty to “make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve” (97).

“Unjust structures need to be recognized and eradicated by the force of good, by changing mindsets but also, with the help of science and technology, by developing effective policies for societal change” (97).

The poor at the heart of the Church

“It is evident”, Pope Leo says “that all of us must ‘let ourselves be evangelized’ by the poor” (102).

“No Christian can regard the poor simply as a societal problem”, he insists; rather “they are part of our ‘family’. They are ‘one of us’”. And so, he says, “our relationship to the poor” cannot “be reduced to merely another ecclesial activity or function” (104).

“The poor are at the heart of the Church” (111).