Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi te offers a powerful contribution to Catholic Social Teaching, calling the Church to deepen its love for the poor through justice, worship, and lived Christian discipleship. 

This blog highlights ways that Dilexi te connects Pope Leo XIV’s call to love the poor through justice, worship, and Catholic Social Teaching.

Explore – Reflect on how Dilexi te calls us to encounter Christ in those who are marginalized.
Act – Practice proximity by becoming more attentive to the economic, social, cultural, and spiritual realities of others.
Pray – Pray for open hearts to help people love more concretely through justice, mercy, and solidarity. 

An Invitation to Rediscover Love

When Pope Leo XIV released his apostolic exhortation Dilexi te (“I Have Loved You”), he did more than issue a teaching document—he offered a heartfelt invitation. He invites us, as disciples, to rediscover what it means to love the poor not out of guilt or duty, but out of love for Christ himself. “The poor you will always have with you,” Jesus said—not to excuse indifference, but to remind us that his presence abides most clearly in those who struggle and suffer.

The Gospel in Action

Pope Leo builds on the legacy of Pope Francis, who dreamed of “a Church that is poor and for the poor.” He reminds us that this dream is not a social program—it’s the Gospel in action. From the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet to Saint Lawrence, who called the poor “the treasures of the Church,” the message resounds: our faith is credible only when it takes the side of the lowly.

Seeing Poverty in All Its Forms

The Pope describes poverty not as a single condition but as a web of realities—economic, social, cultural, and spiritual. Some forms are visible, like hunger or homelessness. Others are hidden: isolation, addiction, loss of purpose, or exclusion. The “cry of the poor,” he writes, is really the cry of Christ. To hear it is to enter the very heart of God.

Saints Who Made Love Concrete

Throughout the document, Leo XIV tells the story of the Church through the saints who made love a concrete reality. Saint Francis and Saint Clare chose to embrace poverty to draw closer to the suffering Christ. Saint Camillus de Lellis and Saint Louise de Marillac cared for the sick as a mother cares for her child. The monks of old built hospitals and schools so that no one would be forgotten. In each of these examples, holiness meant proximity—getting close enough to touch the wounds of the world.

The New Faces of Poverty

This call continues today. The Holy Father names the new faces of poverty—migrants, prisoners, those without work or housing, and even the “spiritually poor” whose hearts are empty. He challenges comfortable Christians to recognize how our lifestyles, choices, and even our silence can contribute to injustice. The conversion he seeks is not merely personal but social: to move from charity as sentiment to love as justice.

Faith and Economics in Dialogue

Here Pope Leo sounds much like modern Catholic thinkers such as Anthony Annett, whose book Cathonomics shows how faith can illuminate economics. Both Annett and Leo argue that markets exist for people, not the other way around. Love for the poor means reforming the systems that exploit them—workplaces that pay unfair wages, politics that divide, and economies that discard the weak.

A Love Song, Not a Lament

But Dilexi te is not a lament; it’s a love song. The Pope insists that the poor evangelize us—they teach us what it means to depend on God and to find joy in simplicity. To walk with them is to walk with Christ. “No gesture of affection, however small,” Leo writes, “will ever be forgotten.” The message is clear: holiness begins not in grand plans but in the daily choice to love concretely—sharing food, listening with compassion, defending human dignity.

A Parish Called to Conversion

For faith communities, this exhortation is both a challenge and an opportunity. It asks us to look around and ask: Who are “the poor” in our midst? They may be the elderly neighbor who lives alone, the family struggling to pay rent, the refugee far from home, or the teenager who feels unseen. The Church becomes truly herself only when she makes room for these faces of Christ.

Voices from Dilexi te

(Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te, Pope Leo XIV, October 4, 2025)

“No Christian can regard the poor simply as a societal problem; they are part of our ‘family.’ They are ‘one of us.’ Nor can our relationship to the poor be reduced to merely another ecclesial activity or function.”

This quote captures Pope Leo XIV’s conviction that compassion for the poor is essential to the Christian identity and mission.

“I am happy to make this document my own — adding some reflections — and to issue it at the beginning of my own pontificate, since I share the desire of my beloved predecessor that all Christians come to appreciate the close connection between Christ’s love and his summons to care for the poor.”

Leo XIV emphasizes his continuity with Pope Francis, linking their shared vision of love and service as the heart of evangelization.

“In a world where the poor are increasingly numerous, we paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people.”

This observation critiques the widening gap between wealth and poverty, recalling the social concerns of Rerum Novarum and Fratelli Tutti.

“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.”

Here, Pope Leo portrays the Church as a compassionate mother whose mission is to accompany, welcome, and build community, particularly for migrants and refugees.

“Love for the Lord, then, is one with love for the poor… contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history.”

This beautifully expresses the central theme of Dilexi te: that to love Christ is to love and serve the poor.

These words invite every reader to listen with the heart—to see in the faces of the poor not a challenge to be solved, but a mystery of love to be embraced.

Discussion Questions

1)How does Pope Leo’s vision of a “Church for the poor” challenge our own comfort zones?

2) In what ways do we see “hidden poverty” in our communities—and how can we respond creatively?

3) What saints or examples of holiness inspire you to live the Gospel through service and justice?

4) How can parish life more fully reflect the link between worship and care for the poor?

5) What economic or social realities in our society contradict the dignity of the human person?

6) How might our faith communities learn from the wisdom, resilience, and faith of the poor themselves?

Readers are invited to deepen their engagement through Education for Justice resources, including a Thematic Summary & Reflection Guide to Dilexi te, a discussion guide, and a Pope Leo XIV “Peace Be With You” prayer designed for communal and individual reflection.