Pope Leo says faith and love for migrants are connected

VATICAN CITY — In his first formal document as pope, Dilexi te (“I Have Loved You”), Pope Leo XIV placed the poor and vulnerable squarely at the center of the Catholic Church’s mission. He urged bishops everywhere to champion social justice and defend those most at risk, including migrants.

He framed the Church as a companion to those on life’s margins: “Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges,” he wrote, insisting that the Gospel is credible only when expressed through acts of welcome, closeness, and solidarity. He added that when a migrant is rejected, “it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.”

The exhortation, structured in five chapters and addressed to “all Christians,” was signed on October 4 (the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi) and builds directly on themes from Pope Francis’s encyclical Dilexit Nos. Leo maintains the continuity, reaffirming that love for God and care for the poor go hand in hand.

Leo argues that no Christian can regard the poor as mere problems for society—they are part of the Church’s family, “one of us.” The document acknowledges not only material poverty, but also forms of exclusion affecting those who lack rights, freedom, or a place in society.

In three paragraphs he turns special attention to migrants and refugees, placing their struggle in continuity with the biblical tradition of pilgrimage and exile. He praises the Church’s historical commitment to migration work, highlighting the role of agencies like Caritas Internationalis, and reiterates the Church’s mission to “welcome, protect, promote and integrate” those at the edges.

Leo challenges modern economic systems that deepen inequalities, condemning ideologies that treat market freedom as absolute and reduce the poor to passive recipients of trickle‑down policies. He also warns against a “new tyranny” in which the masses are forced to sacrifice to serve the powerful. He rejects a prosperity gospel and insists that charity, while not a full solution to global poverty, remains a necessary expression of Christian responsibility.

He calls upon believers to engage in “popular movements” alongside the poor, to amplify their voices, and to contest structural injustices—even if it risks being seen as naïve. A Church that fails to serve the poor, he warns, risks becoming hollow: full of rhetoric but barren of action.

Leo also pointedly rebukes ostentatious displays of wealth in church settings, urging instead “golden souls” over golden vessels. At a turning point in human history—with rapid change in technology and social structures—the document invites Christians to see in the poor a special insight into our common condition, and to harness science and progress in service of human dignity.

Women, he notes, often bear the brunt of layered disadvantage, and he invokes saints such as Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa as models of a merciful, accompaniment‑oriented faith. He also affirms the long tradition of religious communities and missionaries who have worked to counter modern forms of slavery—trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation.

Education, Leo argues, is a key front in the struggle for justice: faith and learning should cultivate dignity in people. He positions the Church as a transformative presence in society, not a passive bystander.

In sum, Dilexi te calls the global Church to re‑root itself in solidarity, to resist the logic of inequality, and to more fully embody the Gospel by standing with the poor, the marginalized, and the stranger.

Source: npr