Dilexi Te and the Church’s preferential love for the poor

On Oct. 4, 2025, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Leo XIV issued his first major teaching document called Dilexi te (“I have loved you”) on love for the poor. The title is taken from the words of Jesus in heaven comforting a suffering Christian community on earth (Rev 3:9). Pope Leo intentionally connects this teaching to Pope Francis’s last encyclical, Dilexit nos (“He loved us”), where Francis reflects upon the human and divine love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and how our devotion to his Sacred Heart can renew in our own hearts a deeper love for God and for our neighbor. 
 
Francis had already started Dilexi te before he died, and Leo completed it to stress his own commitment to the poor and marginalized in continuity with his predecessor: “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” (3). This kind of collaboration between two popes is not unprecedented. Francis’s first encyclical, Lumen fidei (“the light of faith”) was a completion of a work already begun by Benedict XVI before he retired from the papacy. 
 
In Dilexi te, Leo offers pastoral guidance to the Christian faithful on the Church’s “preferential love for the poor.” According to this Catholic doctrine, Christians have a moral obligation to prioritize caring for the poor, marginalized and vulnerable in society, based upon the example of Christ and the entire Christian tradition. As Leo explains, this preference for the poor “never indicates exclusivity or discrimination towards other groups” but rather “is meant to emphasize God’s actions, which are moved by compassion toward the poverty and weakness of all humanity. … God has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest” (16). Since they have so little, and their needs are greater, our loving service to the poor should be greater too.  
 
Who are “the poor”? According to Leo, poverty takes many forms – the materially poor, the homeless and destitute, the lowly and powerless, those suffering from moral or spiritual poverty, the socially marginalized, the uneducated, the sick and dying, immigrants, those struggling with addiction, the imprisoned or enslaved, and so on (9, 12, 49, 59, 68, 73, 76). The common feature of “the poor” is that they are human persons who suffer a lack or deficiency of some kind that causes tremendous suffering. 
 
Leo stresses that charitable works are not an obsession on the part of a few but rather “the burning heart of the Church’s mission” (15). Leo also emphasizes his conviction that “the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society, if we can only set ourselves free of our self-centeredness and open our ears to their cry” (7). Leo teaches that “charity has the power to change reality; it is a genuine force for change in history” (91). Leo then recalls the 2,000-year history of the Church’s teaching and practice of caring for the poor to make clear that it has always been a central part of the Church’s life and renewal. Leo draws upon teaching and examples from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Fathers of the Church, saints and religious orders and the social doctrine of the Church over the past 150 years, all to demonstrate the Catholic Church’s unwavering commitment to the poor and the power of Christian charity to change the world.  
 
Why is care for the poor and suffering so essential to the Church’s identity and mission? As Leo explains, “love for the Lord … is one with love for the poor” (5). Leo points out Jesus’s own teaching that “the primacy of love for God is clearly complemented by his insistence that one cannot love God without extending love to the poor” (26). Pointing to Jesus’s insistence that the twofold commandment to love God above all things and to love your neighbor as yourself surpasses all other commandments (Mark 12:29-31), Leo states “the two loves are distinct but inseparable” (26). You cannot claim to love God without also loving your neighbor in need. 
 
Leo takes this a step further and teaches that works of mercy for the poor are a sign and requirement of authentic worship of God (27, 42), quoting St. John Chrysostom, “What advantage does Christ gain if the sacrificial table is laden with golden vessels, while he himself dies of hunger in the person of the poor? Feed the hungry first, and only afterward adorn the altar with what remains” (Homily on Matthew 50,4) (41). If we do not in some manner serve those in greatest need out of Christian charity, our worship of God becomes lifeless, self-focused and hypocritical. 
 
Leo recalls no less than five times in Dilexi te (5, 26, 28, 52, 73) Jesus’s parable about the Final Judgment where he describes the separation of the sheep (the righteous) from the goats (the wicked) based upon their care for those in need (Matt 25:31-42), and teaches, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do to me” (Matt 25:40). The righteous invited into his heavenly kingdom are those who serve Christ in those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, homeless, and in prison, but the wicked are those who ignore those in greatest need and as a result are cast into the darkness. In the end, we will all be judged on how we treated the poor, the marginalized and the least among us.  
 
How are we to help the poor and suffering? Leo urges a comprehensive approach that meets the needs of the whole person, including everything from eradicating structural causes of poverty and inequality found in our laws and institutions, to almsgiving to assist with basic material needs, to religious instruction and sacramental ministry that meets spiritual needs. No one can do everything for the poor, but every one of us can do something.
 
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, encourages us to take up Leo’s challenging message in Dilexi te: “A radical love for Jesus Christ and a sincere desire to worship God is countercultural, and as we continue to unpack the message of Dilexi te, I invite all people to read, reflect and pray with the message offered by our Holy Father. May it call us to renewal of our Church and society so that we learn to approach each person with the same love Christ has for that person.”