Pope Leo’s apostolic exhortation points us to the poor

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Oct 10, 2025

Pope Leo has just released his first magisterial text to the whole Church, the Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te, directed deliberately to “all Christians” on the subject of “love for the poor”. It’s a beautiful text which, while originally planned by Pope Francis, was substantially re-developed and promulgated as something deliberately Leonine (see Phil Lawler’s news analysis: Pope Leo on poverty: Not just the voice of Pope Francis). The text is a moving call to all Christians to avoid compartmentalizing the poor as a spiritual and material afterthought, but rather to imitate Christ in orienting their lives to the needs of the poor. Undoubtedly this is something each of us must think about in relationship to the dominant patterns of our own lives.

In this document Pope Leo does take advantage of one of the best insights of Pope Francis, as quoted in paragraph 114: “The worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care…. Our preferential option for the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious care.” (Interestingly, this is quoted from Francis’ first Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium in 2013, which was influenced by the preparatory work of Pope Benedict before his resignation.)

Of course, it would be very wrong to think this emphasis absolves us from material assistance. For example, I daresay that it would be difficult to provide genuine spiritual care to the poor without seeking to help them keep body and soul together, including the effort to find work and, where applicable, to develop an income necessary to support a family.

On the other hand, I acknowledge that most people reading this will not find themselves in a position to provide work to the poor—something of which I am acutely aware of when beggars knock on my door. Despite our own call to respond to the needs of others, it remains important to develop parochial and diocesan services which can build networks with not only willing caregivers but willing employers who are able to offer work to those among the poor who are sufficiently capable and responsible.

At the same time, there are many among the poor who lack the ability, for whatever reason, to work either steadily or productively, which means that a broad array of services is always needed. Nonetheless, the point made by Pope Francis and now again by Pope Leo is well-taken: Spiritual care care must play an important role so that the poor have opportunities to enter into a parish community while growing through the knowledge of God, the friendship of Christ, and the sacraments of the Church.

In any case, it is precisely in Catholic communities that we should find those who heed St. James’ warning: “If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” [Jas 2:15-17]

From homily to summary

After this brief homily, as drawn mostly from the text, let me provide a quick outline of the new apostolic exhortation, which is very easily read. It consists of five brief chapters:

1. A Few Essential Words: The Pope introduces St. Francis of Assisi as a model and examines “the cry of the poor” as we encounter it today through inequalities built into our society that we take for granted, especially as they affect vulnerable women and children—and including various ideological prejudices.
2. God Chooses the Poor: Here Leo gives the lie to the “prosperity gospel” and explores the poverty of Christ as an important model, along with the emphasis on mercy toward the poor that we find throughout Sacred Scripture: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?” [again, citing St. James: 2:14]
3. A Church for the Poor: This is a wonderful review of care of the poor as exemplified by saints and religious communities down through the centuries: Feeding, educating, caring for the sick, freeing prisoners, protecting migrants or even, as with St. Teresa of Calcutta, serving the very poorest of the poor. Leo also discusses the growing awareness of the preferential option for the poor under Pope St. John Paul II.
4. A History that Continues: This is a brief history of the development of the Church’s social doctrine. “We must continue”, Leo writes, “to denounce the dictatorship of an economy that kills”, emphasizing that “the dignity of every human person must be respected today, not tomorrow, and the extreme poverty of all those to whom this dignity is denied should constantly weigh upon our consciences.” The Pope challenges our modern “throwaway culture” and our assumption that human dignity is a product of our own abilities and worldly achievements. Citing a 1984 statement by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Leo quotes: “Spiritual conversion, the intensity of the love of God and neighbor, zeal for justice and peace, the Gospel meaning of the poor and of poverty, are required of everyone…. The concern for the purity of the faith demands giving the answer of effective witness in the service of one’s neighbor, the poor and the oppressed in particular….”
5. A Constant Challenge: It is from this concluding section that I drew the opening point about the worst discrimination against the poor being a lack of spiritual care. Leo also returns to the example of the Good Samaritan, who cared for those in need personally: “No Christian can regard the poor simply as a societal problem; they are part of our ‘family’.” Or, again, “For Christians the poor are not a sociological category but the very ‘flesh’ of Christ. It is not enough to profess the doctrine of God’s Incarnation in general terms.”

There were untaken opportunities in this apostolic exhortation to attack our culture’s denigration of the family and defense of both promiscuity and divorce, which contribute greatly to the poverty and despair of both women and children, not to mention the lack of formation that leads to drugs and other destructive habits, with the same results. But I admit that such an approach might have drawn the focus away from everything else and, after all, the Pope did place special emphasis on the need for spiritual care.

To wrap up this apostolic exhortation, Leo cites St. John Chrysostom: “Almsgiving is the wing of prayer. If you do not provide your prayer with wings, it will hardly fly.” Then he concludes with this:

Through your work, your efforts to change unjust social structures or your simple, heartfelt gesture of closeness and support, the poor will come to realize that Jesus’ words are addressed personally to each of them: “I have loved you” (Rev 3:9).