The presentation of the exhortation Dilexi te on love for the poor, completed and published by Pope Leo XIV, but using the drafts prepared by Pope Francis, was an opportunity to pay tribute to the Argentine pontiff who died nearly six months ago. On October 9, 2025, during the presentation of the document at the Vatican press office, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, responsible for the Pope's charitable works, shared some insights into the radicalism to which Francis had called him in the service of the poor.
“We're Pope Leo's first aid service, the ambulance ready to go out and help people in need on his behalf,” explained the prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, speaking for the first time at a press conference.
Confirmed by Pope Leo XIV in his role as "apostolic almoner," he recalled being mandated by Pope Francis nearly 13 years ago to “act” and not to “talk to journalists.”
“I don't want you to be in the Vatican; I want you to go out. That way you’ll understand what the poor need, and you’ll find yourself at the heart of the Gospel,” the Argentine pontiff told Cardinal Krajewski. “We must not do what we want to do, but respond to what the poor need,” insisted the Polish cardinal.
He stressed that the challenges of recent years have shown him that it is necessary to “be ready and very flexible.”
The successive challenges of Francis' pontificate
The cardinal recalled the situation at the beginning of Francis' pontificate, when "a thousand hungry refugees arrived every day at Tiburtina station, without documents, invisible to the state. They came from Lampedusa. You had to be with them to understand what they needed," he said.
He explained that these migrants mainly asked for phone cards so they could call their families and let them know they were still alive.
Then came the COVID-19 crisis, during which Cardinal Krajewski saw people in Rome suffering from real hunger for the first time.
“Everything was closed. They couldn't move around, and they didn't have access to restaurants, healthcare, or vaccines because they didn't have health cards. Six thousand of them were vaccinated at the Vatican, in Paul VI Hall,” he recalled.
Currently, “the war knocking on Europe's doors poses other challenges,” he said. In this context, he mentioned the more than 260 trucks that left the Greek Catholic Basilica of Santa Sofia in Rome for Ukraine. They were carrying medicines and clothing so they could “cover themselves, and above all survive.”
The cardinal himself has made numerous trips to Ukraine at the wheel of these trucks to express the Church's compassion for those affected by the war.
Helping Christ himself
Regarding the assistance provided to people in need at the Vatican, Cardinal Krajewski explained that around 100 doctors take turns providing services. They care for a total of 2,000 people each month.
The Dicastery for the Service of Charity spends from €20,000 to €25,000 (around $23,000 to $29,000) each month on medicines alone, not counting clothing and other supplies.
At one point, the Polish cardinal expressed concern about these expenses to Pope Francis.
The Pontiff responded with a scathing reply: "So little? But you're outside the Gospel, Corrado! (the Spanish translation of his name) Don't you realize that you’re caring for Christ, that you’re clothing Christ, that you’re welcoming Christ, that you’re cutting the hair of Christ, who comes right here under the colonnades, here, under the diverse faces of the world ... It's he himself! You’re helping Christ directly, and you complain?"
"No" to bureaucratic structures
Cardinal Krajewski expressed his rejection of an overly administrative view of charity. He spoke out against "those well-structured foundations that ‘eat up’ 70% of the donations they receive, with only 30% going to the poor. We don't need these structures that ‘eat up’ the resources that should be used for the poor. It’s always a great scandal," Cardinal Krajewski protested.
Rather than relying on complex organization, he emphasized the importance of direct aid. Specifically, he sends aid via the apostolic nunciatures to vulnerable communities around the world.
“It takes us two days with the diplomatic pouch. But if we do something structured, it takes three months to respond. How many people die?” he worried.
The apostolic chaplaincy must therefore remain “outside the bureaucratic structures,” insisted Cardinal Krajewski.
He recounted how Pope Francis had asked him, one Saturday evening, to come to the aid of flood victims in the Roman district of Primavalle by paying for their hotel accommodation directly, on the same day.
Almsgiving cancels sins
Quoting from the exhortation, Cardinal Krajewski highlighted the importance of almsgiving, which "cancels sins.”
“I have to give a lot of alms to cancel my sins, so if you need to cancel your sins, come and give alms, and we’ll send it straight away to Gaza or Kiev," he told journalists.
He mentioned the successful collection among participants at the 2024 synodal assembly, which had made it possible to send aid to the parish in Gaza.
100% Leo, 100% Francis
Also present at the press conference was Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He told journalists that Dilexi te was “100% Pope Francis and 100% Pope Leo.”
The Canadian cardinal also pointed out that people should not interpret this text through an overly political lens or one conditioned by current events surrounding the situation of migrants in the United States, but rather from a universal perspective.
For Cardinal Krajewski, in Dilexi te, the Pope shows that helping the poor is “a guarantee of the Gospel, of a Church faithful to the heart of God.”
