Leo XIV’s four appeals to Christians in “Dilexi te”

Dilexi te — “I have loved you.” This is the title of Pope Leo XIV's first apostolic exhortation, published on October 9, 2025. Elected on May 8, the Pontiff fully embraces Pope Francis' legacy by signing a 121-paragraph text on “love for the poor.”

In this document, the Pope focuses on helping the poor as the compass of the Catholic Church. He calls on Christians to live charity on a daily basis, to reject ideologies that lead to inaction towards others’ needs or perpetuate an “economy that kills,” and to denounce “structures of injustice.”

Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, who initiated the drafting of this exhortation, Leo XIV reiterates his message in favor of migrants, abused women, prisoners, and the education of the poor.

In this well-argued text, Pope Leo XIV defines the forms of poverty — material, cultural, spiritual, and moral — that afflict the world, and calls for a transformation of mentalities. On one hand, Leo XIV is demonstrating continuity with Francis. But beyond that, Dilexi te intends to renew the Church's great calls for a total engagement by Christians in ordinary daily life and in the affairs of secular society.

Here are the four appeals made by Leo XIV in the first major text of his pontificate.

Faced with a culture that “tolerates with indifference that millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings,” Leo XIV is deeply concerned about new forms of poverty. These can be “sometimes more subtle and dangerous” and about the insufficient efforts made to eradicate them. He calls out Christians in particular, assuring them that to forget the poor would be to leave “the great current of the Church’s life.”

Caring for the poor is “the burning heart of the Church's mission,” he insists. The American-Peruvian pontiff confronts Christians with their responsibility, calling love of neighbor “the tangible proof of the authenticity of our love for God.” He also warns that proclaiming the Gospel is not credible if it is not translated into action.

On the subject of personal commitment, Leo XIV devotes a large part of his text to almsgiving, wishing to restore the nobility of this sometimes “disparaged” activity. He acknowledges that “it will not solve the problem of world poverty.” Nonetheless, he urges Christians not to give up on it, because “it is always better at least to do something rather than nothing.”

Almsgiving, he assures us, allows us to avoid remaining “in the realm of ideas” and represents a moment “contact, encounter and empathy with those less fortunate.” He adds: “Whatever form it may take, almsgiving will touch and soften our hardened hearts.”

More radically, the head of the Catholic Church pays tribute to all those who have chosen to live among the poor, and not just to offer occasional charity visits. He believes that this choice of lifestyle is one of the “highest forms of evangelical life.”

Dilexi te unmasks a number of ideologies and political and economic orientations that influence Christians and lead them to inaction in the face of poverty. In particular, the text denounces the tendency to dissociate the proclamation of the faith from social commitment, delegating this issue to governments.

Leo XIV also attacks the “pseudo-scientific” justifications of the free market, which expect “invisible market forces to resolve everything.” “The dignity of every human person must be respected today, not tomorrow,” he says in response to these economic theories.

The exhortation also tackles a distorted view of meritocracy, which believes that the majority of poor people are so because of a lack of personal merit. For the 267th pope, it is “cruel” to claim that poverty is a deliberate choice or the result of laziness.

The successor of Peter also opposes a pastoral approach reserved for the elite, criticizing Catholics who think that “rather than wasting time on the poor, it would be better to care for the rich, the influential and professionals, so that with their help real solutions can be found.”

In reality, he warns, echoing the words of his predecessor Francis, any Church community that neglects the poor “will also risk breaking down” and “will easily drift into a spiritual worldliness camouflaged by religious practices, unproductive meetings and empty talk.”

In Dilexi te, Leo XIV makes the harsh observation that society is “unhealthy,” closed in on itself. Everyone retreats into their “own needs” and prefers not to be disturbed by the suffering of others. Behind this diagnosis, the pope highlights the “structures of injustice” and “social sin” that, according to him, permeate economic, social, and cultural systems.

The pope then appeals to people's consciences: “Are those born with fewer opportunities of lesser value as human beings? Should they limit themselves merely to surviving?” he asks. The answer to this question, he writes, determines “the worth of our societies, and our own future.” He adds: “Either we regain our moral and spiritual dignity or we fall into a cesspool.”

He urges Catholic faithful to “make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve.” The Christian religion “cannot be limited to the private sphere, as if believers had no business making their voice heard with regard to problems affecting civil society," insists the pontiff.

To destroy structures of injustice, he lists a number of tools, citing “the force of good,” but also “the help of science and technology” and “developing effective policies.”

Throughout his text, the head of the Catholic Church also outlines several priorities for concrete action. In particular, he encourages the promotion of access to education for disadvantaged social groups, reminding us that it “is not a favor but a duty.”

He urges action in the field of employment, considering that helping people find “a good job” is “the most important way to help the disadvantaged.” And he calls for attention to the environment and urbanization, improving the quality of “locations, neighborhoods, homes and cities where the poor live and spend their time.”

At the heart of the apostolic exhortation is a dense reflection on the biblical and historical roots of the “preferential option for the poor.” This concept, revived in South America and promoted by Francis, affirms that God pays special attention to the poor. It invites the Church to make a “decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest.”

Leo XIV re-reads the Old and New Testaments to show that poverty affects “all aspects” of the life of Jesus, the true “poor Messiah.” Born in a manger, the son of a carpenter, close to the rejected and the sick, Christ teaches that “one cannot love God without extending one's love to the poor.”

The Bishop of Rome then recalled the sharing in the early Christian communities, “an example to imitate,” and traced two millennia of history marked by monks, nuns, and lay people who served the humble, cared for them, freed them, educated them, and accompanied them. Citing Leo XIII and the Social Doctrine of the Church, the Second Vatican Council, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and the Aparecida Conference, he emphasizes that accompanying the poor “has always been a central part of her life.”

He invites the faithful to join “the light and life born of recognizing Christ in the faces of the suffering and those in need.”

Lastly, he highlights the “wisdom” of the poor, the fruit of their life lived on in precarious and adverse circumstances, which makes them particularly capable of conversion. “The poor are not a sociological category,” he concludes, but “the very ‘flesh’ of Christ.”