The Theological issues of Dilexi te

The first major text of Leo XIV's pontificate is very much in line with that of Francis: not only is it a text written by one pope and taken up by the next, but its theme can sum up Francis' pontificate, while giving a flavor of Leo XIV's, which is just beginning. The new pope thus begins his pontificate by recalling the place of the poor in the life of the Church and in God's plan. Our perspective, which is necessarily limited, will be simple: to identify a few theological issues that appear in this document and contribute to its uniqueness.

The text focuses primarily on history, both ancient and recent: Chapter II recalls biblical history, Chapter III lists various figures who have shown concern for the poor in Catholic history, and Chapter IV follows the recent evolution of the Church's social doctrine. Following in the footsteps of Benedict XVI with Deus caritas est (2005) and then Francis in Evangelii Gaudium (2013), Leo XIV reaffirms the central place of the poor in the Church. It is with them, says the new pope, that the Church fully accomplishes its mission:

“Love for the poor [...] is the evangelical guarantee of a Church faithful to the heart of God. Indeed, every ecclesial renewal has always had among its priorities this preferential attention to the poor” (§ 103).

With the Bible and the Fathers, the pope reminds us that commitment to justice, alongside the poor, is a criterion of the truth of worship rendered to God (§ 17), liturgy and attention to the poor proving to be inseparable (§ 40).

As we can see, Leo XIV does not offer a neutral reading of history, quite the contrary. Two aspects in particular demonstrate this.

On the one hand, recounting this history is an act of exhortation: the Pope intends to “recall this two-thousand-year history of the Church's attention to the poor and with the poor, to show that it is an integral part of the Church's uninterrupted journey” (§ 103). Revisiting history is therefore a call to Catholics to live up to their own tradition. On the other hand, the Pope reinterprets this history from a very contemporary perspective. His account is guided by the issue of poverty as it arises today. For example, Leo XIV emphasizes the care of the poor in monasteries, and interprets this in very contemporary terms: monasteries rejected the “culture of exclusion” by contributing to a “Christian pedagogy of inclusion” (§ 56-57). The same applies to almsgiving: the Pope recalls the place it held in the early centuries (§ 43, 46), before reinterpreting it in a different way for our times (§ 116-121) – we will come back to this later.

Leo XIV insists that the poor are not only beneficiaries of ecclesial charity, but are subjects of faith and spiritual life. More broadly, they participate in shared history, even if their place is often ignored. This is an emphasis that grows in the papal magisterium: it was present in Evangelii Gaudium (§ 199), then in the Final Document of the Synod 2021-2024 (§ 19), but here it takes on a new centrality. That the poor are subjects of history is evident in social life: they are engaged in a relentless struggle that remains largely unnoticed (§ 14). Therefore,

“the experience of poverty gives them the ability to recognize aspects of reality that others fail to see, and that is why society needs to listen to them” (§ 100).

That the poor are subjects is equally true in the ecclesial sphere. Leo XIV goes so far as to assert that when we approach the poor, we should rather encounter God in them than claim to bring God to them, insofar as the poor are “masters of the Gospel” (§ 79). It is precisely the trials and tribulations experienced by the poorest that give them a familiarity with the Gospel and a capacity to evangelize (§ 102). Such a statement is understandable if we take into account the fact that the Gospel was proclaimed by Christ in contact with the poor (§ 18-22), so that listening to them is necessary for its intelligibility.

To ensure that this emphasis on the subjectivity of the poor is not reduced to a circular argument, Leo XIV draws attention to “poor communities,” which are concrete subjects within the Church (§ 100). This attention to the fact that the poor are “subjects” and not just “objects of charity” also appears when the Pope returns to the question of almsgiving. According to him, the priority is to promote access to dignified work for the poor: this allows them to contribute to the shared construction of a common world (§ 115). Almsgiving comes only second (§ 116-121), as a way of humanizing relationships by imbuing them with love.

Rarely has a pope so explicitly embraced the legacy of the Latin American Church, in which liberation theology developed. Magisterial texts had already incorporated certain concepts born of this theological current, such as the preferential option for the poor or the structures of sin, which are found in Dilexi te (§ 16, 90, 97, 101, 121). However, the tribute, which occupies a significant part of Chapter IV, had never been so clear. It goes so far as to reinterpret the Instruction on Certain Aspects of Liberation Theology, published in 1984, whose tone was closer to disapproval than encouragement – admittedly nuanced by a document of the same status, published two years later. The preferential option for the poor is a theme that runs throughout Dilexi te. It refers both to the life of the Church and to a criterion of political justice. Above all, like his two predecessors, Leo XIV inscribes the preferential option for the poor in God himself, who chooses the poor out of mercy and makes them the first beneficiaries as well as the first witnesses of his Kingdom:

“Salvation is not an abstract idea, but a concrete action. [...] The Kingdom of God begins with the most vulnerable” (§ 52).

The Bishop of Rome thus takes note of all that a theological current has brought to the entire Catholic Church. It is interesting to see that he places this tribute to the Latin American Church immediately after his re-reading of the Second Vatican Council as “a fundamental step in the Church's discernment on the poor in the light of revelation” (§ 84). The Pope shows his attention not only to the conciliar texts, but also to the event of the Council itself, remembering the group “Church of the Poor,” recalled through its main spokesperson, Cardinal Lercaro.

Anyone who finishes reading the document will have noticed the significance of Matthew 25:31-46, the famous scene of judgment in which Christ identifies with the poor. It is reinforced by a beautiful reading of Matthew 26:8-11: when Jesus tells his disciples that the poor will always be with them, he points out a “place” where they can meet him (§ 4-5).

However, this identification is not the only perspective: it coexists with a second one, which could be called that of mercy. It emphasizes God's freedom, who comes first to the poor and takes their side in history. The exhortation thus opens with the Risen One's address to “a Christian community that had neither importance nor resources,” which gives the document its title: “I have loved you” (§ 1). It continues with a quotation from the Magnificat, which heralds the political vein of many passages, which we will not return to here. This vein of mercy corresponds to God's option in favor of the poor. Therefore, what matters is not to identify the poor with Christ, but rather to value the relationship between the poor and Christ.

The link between these two paradigms – the identification of the poor with Christ and God's mercy toward the poor – is ensured by a re-reading of the Gospel:

“The Old Testament story of God's predilection for the poor and his desire to hear their cry [...] finds its full realization in Jesus of Nazareth” (§ 18).

In fact, “this poverty touched every aspect of Christ's life,” until he experienced “the same exclusion that characterizes the definition of the poor” on the cross (§ 19). Christ is not only the one we encounter in the poor, he is also “the one who, today in history, comes to realize God's loving closeness, which is above all a work of liberation for those who are prisoners of evil, for the weak and the poor” (§ 21).

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Thus, the entire document, in its various emphases, illustrates the conviction stated in § 7:

“The preferential option for the poor generates an extraordinary renewal, both in the Church and in society, when we are able to free ourselves from self-referentiality and listen to their cry.”

François ODINET

On the same topic, in the NRT