As announced this past weekend by The Holy See, Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te (I Have Loved You), builds on Pope Francis’ encyclical Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us), emphasizing God’s preferential love for the poor and the Catholic Church’s mission to care for them.
Continuing the spiritual legacy of Pope Francis and signed on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (October 4), Dilexi Te calls every believer to rediscover the joy and holiness found in closeness to the poor, those who suffer, and to all who are on the margins of life. Furthermore, Dilexi Te calls believers to be cognizant of the spiritual poverty that afflicts the world today.
In both definitions of poverty (physical need and spiritual), Pope Leo emphasizes poverty as an opportunity of divine encounter, of hope, and of unity–our salvation is bound up with the lives of the poor, and through them, the Church is renewed.