Apostolic Exhortation Delexi te

With profound joy and relevance for the life of faith, the universal Church has received the Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te, the first from Pope Leo XIV, published on 9 October 2025. The Holy Father directs a powerful call to us to renew and deepen our preferential option for the poor, reminding us that the meaning of its title, "I have loved you", reveals an essential truth: "that all Christians come to appreciate the close connection between Christ's love and his summons to care for the poor... 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" (Dilexi te, n. 2).

The Supreme Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, urges us to reflect that the presence of Jesus is revealed in a privileged way in the faces of the most vulnerable, stressing:

"Jesus' teaching on the primacy of love for God is clearly complemented by his insistence that one cannot love God without extending one's love to the poor. Love for our neighbour is tangible proof of the authenticity of our love for God… The two loves are distinct yet inseparable" (Dilexi te, n. 26).

Furthermore, he invites us to transcend mere assistance in order to live a personal encounter that recognises in every poor person not only a brother or sister, but a teacher who evangelises us:

"In light of this, it is evident that all of us must 'let ourselves be evangelized' by the poor and acknowledgethe mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them" (Dilexi te, n. 102).

In this way, the Exhortation calls us to a profound conversion, for, as the Pope himself underscores:

"And the Church, if she wants to be Christ's Church, must be a Church of the Beatitudes, one that makes room for the little ones and walks poor with the poor, a place where the poor have a privileged place" (Dilexi te, n. 21).