On October 9, 2025, Pope Leo XIV released his first Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi te (“I have loved you”), on the Church’s care for the poor. Drafted by Pope Francis before his death and now revised and issued by Pope Leo XIV, the Exhortation is in continuity with Pope Francis’ last encyclical, Dilexit nos (“He has loved us”), on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Pope Leo emphasizes that “love for the Lord . . . is one with love for the poor” (n. 5). Divided into five chapters, the Exhortation outlines God’s identification with the poor (chapter 2), the centrality of the poor in the Church’s life (chapter 3), the development of the Church’s social doctrine over the past 150 years (chapter 4), and the challenge facing the Church today (chapter 5). In his accompanying letter addressed to the Bishops of the world, Pope Leo outlines his hope for this Apostolic Exhortation: “May Dilexi te help the Church to serve the poor and help bring the poor to Christ.”
From the Introduction:
This declaration of love, taken from the Book of Revelation, reflects the inexhaustible mystery that Pope Francis reflected upon in the Encyclical Dilexit Nos on the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ. There we saw how Jesus identified himself “with the lowest ranks of society” and how, with his love poured out to the end, he confirms the dignity of every human being, especially when “they are weak, scorned, or suffering.” [1] As we contemplate Christ’s love, “we too are inspired to be more attentive to the sufferings and needs of others, and confirmed in our efforts to share in his work of liberation as instruments for the spread of his love.”
3. For this reason, in continuity with the Encyclical Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis was preparing in the last months of his life an Apostolic Exhortation on the Church’s care for the poor, to which he gave the title Dilexi Te, as if Christ speaks those words to each of them, saying: “You have but little power,” yet “I have loved you” ( Rev 3:9). 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. I too consider it essential to insist on this path to holiness, for “in this call to recognize him in the poor and the suffering, we see revealed the very heart of Christ, his deepest feelings and choices, which every saint seeks to imitate.”
