In a document begun by his predecessor – Pope Francis – Pope Leo XIV recently promulgated his first major teaching – Dilexi Te (I Have Loved You). In this apostolic exhortation (second highest level of papal teaching), Leo affirms the longstanding biblical and Catholic imperative to care for, love, and serve the poor, and at the same time exhorts Catholics and people of good will to learn from the poor as subjects, including learning from their culture and faith.
The document has already been well reviewed and is significantly shorter than Pope Francis’s first apostolic exhortation – Evangeli Gaudium. The majority of reporting since the election of Pope Leo has confirmed that most of the Cardinal electors were looking for someone who would serve as pope in continuity with the teaching and witness of Pope Francis. The early read of Pope Leo is that they found their man. Just as Pope Francis’s first apostolic exhortation signaled the pastoral priorities and themes of his papacy, so too the recent document of Pope Leo emphasizes the missionary call of the Church, its inclusion and centering of the poor, and the important role that Catholic social teaching plays in forming the minds and consciences of Catholics. While Pope Leo cites many of his predecessors in this new document, his citations to his immediate predecessor, Pope Francis are by far the most robust.
I offer below a number of highlights of the document but encourage Catholics to read the document in its entirety which should not take more than an hour and a half. Interestingly, and as noted by some commentators, the teaching regarding our call to love and serve the poor, begins by placing this teaching in its proper Christological context. Pope Leo says that Jesus, in his incarnation, passion, and death became poor for us so we could be reconciled to the Father, and thus we are called to serve others in their poverty. In addition, Pope Leo notes the long Catholic tradition of great love and care for the poor in Catholic life and history, including in and through the lives of the saints. Quoting St. Augustine, Pope Leo says that we can see the very face of Christ reflected through the lives of the poor.
The witness of the saints and their example of caring and serving the poor is one of the most notable aspects of the Catholic tradition – living out the commands communicated through important Gospel passages, including Matthew 25, The Good Samaritan, and the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man, which we heard proclaimed a few weeks ago in Sunday Mass. In his first encyclical as pope, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) Pope Benedict XVI taught that the ministry of caritas (charity) is as integral to the mission of the Church as preaching the Gospel and celebrating the sacraments. I am proud of The Basilica of Saint Mary for living out this teaching through our Christian outreach programs – we are not a perfect parish, but this is a clear strength of The Basilica and a direct response to the call of Christ.
In Dilexi Te, Pope Leo also notes the important social implications of the Gospel call to serve the poor – he does so in bold and prophetic language. Leo outlines the contributions of modern Catholic social teaching, particularly regarding the call to serve the poor. Like his predecessors, Leo decries an indifferent, elite, and meritocratic approach to life and wealth and a survival of the fittest (or most privileged) economic system that leaves those already suffering abandoned on the side of the road. Rather, Pope Leo highlights the preferential option for the poor which is integral to Catholic social teaching and originally birthed through Latin American theology. As a longtime missionary in Peru, Leo would be acutely familiar with the preferential option for the poor – both in theology and in practice. In Dilexi Te Leo says: “I am convinced that the preferential choice (option) 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.”
The teaching of Jesus in the Gospel, the lives of the saints, and Catholic social teaching are abundantly clear: care and love for the poor is integral to holiness as Christians and central to the mission of the Catholic Church in the world.
Fr. Daniel Griffith, Rector and Pastor
The Basilica of Saint Mary