The letter “Dilexi te” (“I Have Loved You”) calls for a change of mindset on wealth and success, denounces indifference to the poor, and highlights migrants and women facing exclusion.
Receiving the draft “as an inheritance,” Leo XIV said he made it his own “by adding a few reflections,” so that Christians “may see the strong bond between Christ’s love and his call that we become neighbors to the poor.”
“The plight of the poor is a cry that constantly demands a response—from our lives, societies, political and economic systems, and also from the Church,” he wrote, adding that “on the wounded faces of the poor we find the suffering of the innocent, and therefore the suffering of Christ himself.”
While efforts against poverty have grown in recent decades, he said they remain insufficient.
He criticized social and political frameworks “marked by numerous inequalities,” warning that older forms of deprivation are now joined by “new ones, sometimes more subtle and dangerous.”
Leo XIV urged a “change of mentality,” arguing that “the illusion of happiness derived from a life of plenty” drives many to equate existence with amassing wealth and social success “at any cost, even at the expense of others,” within systems that favor the strongest.
He condemned a “well-disguised culture that disposes of others” and tolerates with indifference that millions die of hunger or live in conditions unworthy of human dignity.
The exhortation singles out those most at risk, stating that women facing exclusion, mistreatment and violence are “doubly poor.” Poverty, he wrote, “does not exist by chance or because of a blind and bitter fate,” and for most people “is certainly not a choice.” Some who claim otherwise, he said, display “blindness and cruelty.”
Leo XIV cautioned that Christians, too, can be influenced by ideologies or political and economic orientations that lead to unfair generalizations and false conclusions. He recalled the Church’s longstanding work with migrants—through refugee centers, missions in border areas, and initiatives by Caritas Internationalis and others—and urged believers to see migrants and refugees “not only as a problem to be faced, but as brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved,” and as an opportunity to build a more just society and more fraternal world.
Commenting on the document, Poland’s Catholic Information Agency journalist Dawid Gospodarek said the text “will likely not be an easy read for conservatives, especially those politically oriented toward nationalism, capitalism or other liberal ‘freedom-focused’ ideologies.”
He said the pope offers a forceful critique of oppression and injustice and “explicitly calls for combating the structural causes of poverty,” noting that proposals often labeled “left-wing” are, in his view, rooted in the Gospel.
(jh)
Source: PAP, TOK FM