Pope Leo laments international poverty, recalls papal teaching on the welfare state
April 11, 2026
Pope Leo XIV received directors and staff members of Italy’s National Institute for Social Security (video) and lamented the extreme poverty that affects hundreds of millions of the world’s people.
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““Many hundreds of millions of people around the world are plunged into extreme poverty and lack food, shelter, medical care, schools, electricity, clean water and essential health services,” Pope Leo said during the April 10 audience. “Yet there are disproportionate riches that remain in the hands of a few. It is an unjust scenario, in the face of which we cannot fail to question ourselves and not commit ourselves to changing things.”
“In such a context, responding to the concrete needs of people has always been at the center of the Catholic Church’s attention, both in terms of the world of work and in helping the needy,” the Pope continued, as he recalled the teaching of nine social encyclicals, including
- Rerum Novarum (1891), in which Pope Leo XIII “explicitly recalled the importance of social security and social assistance” to the weakest
- St. John XXIII’s Mater et Magistra (1961) and Pacem in Terris (1963), in which “the right to welfare is expressly elevated to the rank of a human right”
- Centesimus Annus (1991), in which St. John Paul II offered a “critique of welfarism”
- Pope Francis’s Fratelli Tutti (2020), in which “the Welfare State rises to a true and proper universal right”
“In this context, in Italy, your Institute must undoubtedly play a leading role, directing its work in various directions, implementing policies that generate social security and effective social development, starting with the protection of the weakest and investment in young people,” the Pontiff added. “For this reason, even in the face of the need to ensure the sustainability of the system, your commitment must always be aimed at safeguarding the fabric of solidarity and equity, both in terms of pensions and accompanying the worker during his or her professional career.”
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