Christ is encountered and loved in the needy, Pope says in Paris
September 26, 2026
In a visit to a Catholic apostolate that serves migrants and refugees, Pope Leo XIV said that “Christ, poor and crucified, continues to allow himself to be encountered and loved through these men and women, who call us to go beyond ourselves and to dare to practice charity.”
The Pontiff made his remarks during a visit (video) to the Maison Bakhita Center for Social Support and Integration this morning, at the beginning of the second day of his apostolic journey to France.
Quoting his 2025 apostolic exhortation on love for the poor (Dilexi Te), Pope Leo said that “or 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. To enter truly into this great mystery, we need to understand clearly that the Lord took on a flesh that hungers and thirsts, and experiences infirmity and imprisonment.”
The Pope added:
Brothers and sisters, a most important insight that inspires your commitment concerns the exchange of gifts, which takes place anew in every encounter. No one is so poor as to have nothing to give; no one is so rich as to have nothing to receive.
There is life in abundance wherever each person’s limitations become an opening to the mysterious presence of others, in whom the Other par excellence—the God of life—draws near. This does not deny the hardship that sin has introduced into history, but it helps us not to remain imprisoned by it. We proclaim that redemption is possible, that it has begun, that it is ongoing, and that it involves us as living members of the Body of Christ.
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Further information:
- Visit to the Maison Bakhita Centre for Social Support and Integration (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 9/26/26)
- Visit to the “Maison Bakhita” Centre for Social Support and Integration (Holy See Press Office, 9/26/26)
- Pope at Maison Bakhita: ‘No one is so poor as to have nothing to give’ (Vatican News, 9/26/26)
- Maison Bakhita elated for Pope Leo's visit (Vatican News, 9/25/26)
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