November 19, 2025
Pope Leo’s Exhortation – 1
Dear Friends,
On October 4, Pope Leo XIV issued his first major statement or teaching. This is an Apostolic Exhortation and is entitled Dilexi Te (the Latin for I Have Loved You). An Apostolic Exhortation is a form of papal document which encourages a particular virtue or important way of living Jesus’ calling at a certain time.
“‘I have loved you’ (Rev 3:9). The Lord speaks these words to a Christian community that, unlike some others, had no influence or resources, and was treated instead with violence and contempt.” These are the opening words of Pope Leo’s exhortation. He is seeing God speaking to those who are poor or oppressed. And interestingly, the Latin word “Te” in the title is the singular form for our English word “you.” The idea is that God has loved each of us personally, as special and unique persons.
In his Introduction, the Holy Father also states that his predecessor Pope Francis had begun working on this Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te. Leo continues: “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.” These sentences give us the context for understanding all that follows in the Exhortation.
After the brief Introduction, Dilexi Te is divided into 5 chapters and is 35 pages in length. This series of columns will try to highlight only some of the significant statements that will give us a sense of what the Pope is teaching.
In Chapter One, A Few Essential Words, Leo gets right to the heart of his message and of our calling from Christ:
“Love for the Lord, then, is one with love for the poor. The same Jesus who tells us, ‘The poor you will always have with you’ (Mt 26:11), also promises the disciples: ‘I am with you always’ (Mt 28:20). We likewise think of his saying: ‘Just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me’ (Mt 25:40). This is not a matter of mere human kindness but a revelation: contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history.”
To be continued next week!
Fr. Michael Schleupner
November 26, 2025
Pope Leo’s Exhortation – 2
Dear Friends,
Today’s Inbox continues reflections on some of the highlights in Pope Leo’s Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te.
In Chapter One, A Few Essential Words, the Holy Father uses the term “preferential option for the poor.” This expression was first officially used at a conference of all the Latin American bishops in 1979 in Pueblo, Mexico. Since then, it has been used by each Pope and is now regularly used in Church documents and teaching. It conveys that the care of the poor is both an essential and a priority in our ministry, indeed, in our faith.
Pope Leo says: “I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society, if we can only set ourselves free of our self-centeredness and open our ears to their cry.” He sees us as entering into the very heart of God when we care for the poor in our midst.
The Holy Father has the insight that there are many forms of poverty.
“In fact, there are many forms of poverty: the poverty of those who lack material means of subsistence, the poverty of those who are socially marginalized and lack the means to give voice to their dignity and abilities, moral and spiritual poverty, cultural poverty, the poverty of those who find themselves in a condition of personal or social weakness or fragility, the poverty of those who have no rights, no space, no freedom.”
Pope Leo is clear with how he understands socio-economic conditions today and then calls us to examine our perspectives.
“Nor can it be said that most of the poor are such because they do not ‘deserve’ otherwise, as maintained by that specious view of meritocracy that sees only the successful as ‘deserving.’”
“Christians too, on a number of occasions, have succumbed to attitudes shaped by secular ideologies or political and economic approaches that lead to gross generalizations and mistaken conclusions. The fact that some dismiss or ridicule charitable works, as if they were an obsession on the part of a few and not the burning heart of the Church’s mission, convinces me of the need to go back and re-read the Gospel, lest we risk replacing it with the wisdom of this world.”
To read the first of this series in the Inbox Inspirations of November 19, use the link below. To be continued next week!
Fr. Michael Schleupner
December 3, 2025
Pope Leo’s Exhortation – 3
Dear Friends,
This is the third in a series of Inbox Inspirations on Pope Leo’s Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te [I Have Loved You]. Here are some highlights of Chapter Two, God Chooses the Poor.
Pope Leo grounds the calling to care for the poor in the very identity of Jesus.
“Precisely in order to share the limitations and fragility of our human nature, he himself became poor and was born in the flesh like us. We came to know him in the smallness of a child laid in a manger and in the extreme humiliation of the cross, where he shared our radical poverty, which is death. It is easy to understand, then, why we can also speak theologically of a preferential option on the part of God for the poor…”
The Holy Father carefully clarifies this “option” for the poor.
“This ‘preference’ never indicates exclusivity or discrimination towards other groups…It is meant to emphasize God’s actions, which are moved by compassion toward the poverty and weakness of all humanity. Wanting to inaugurate a kingdom of justice, fraternity and solidarity, God has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest.”
Pope Leo even sees this as a matter of spiritual authenticity.
“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 neighbor is tangible proof of the authenticity of our love for God, as the Apostle John attests: ‘If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us’ (1 Jn 4:12).”
The Holy Father goes on to speak of the transformation that our worship (participation in Mass and receiving the Eucharist) is to bring about.
“For this reason, works of mercy are recommended as a sign of the authenticity of worship, which, while giving praise to God, has the task of opening us to the transformation that the Spirit can bring about in us, so that we may all become an image of Christ and his mercy towards the weakest.”
You may access the first two columns of this series (November 19 and 26) by using the link below. To be continued next week!
Fr. Michael Schleupner
December 10, 2025
Pope Leo’s Exhortation – 4
Dear Friends,
This is the fourth in a series of Inbox Inspirations on Pope Leo’s Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te [I Have Loved You]. Here are some highlights of Chapter Three, A Church for the Poor.
In this section, the Holy Father gives an overview of the Church’s history in making care for the poor a priority. He introduces this:
“Indeed, since the Church is called to identify with those who are least, at her core ‘There can be no room for doubt or for explanations which weaken so clear a message… We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor’ [quoted from Pope Francis]. In this regard, we have numerous witnesses from disciples of Christ spanning almost two millennia.”
Pope Leo recalls the appointment of deacons in the Acts of Apostles for the clear purpose of caring for those in need. He then notes the emphasis of the early Fathers of the Church, such as Saint Justin (usually referred to as Justin Martyr, 100-165CE).
“For his part, Saint Justin, who addressed his First Apology to Emperor Adrian, the Senate and people of Rome, explained that Christians bring all that they can to those in need because they see them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Writing about the assembly gathered in prayer on the first day of the week, he underscored that at the heart of the Christian liturgy, it is not possible to separate the worship of God from concern for the poor… the nascent Church did not separate belief from social action.”
Pope Leo goes on to highlight this care for the poor over the centuries, including Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Augustine. He notes the influence of Saint Benedict (480-547) who saw no contradiction between living a monastic or contemplative life and reaching out to care for those in need. His Rule had enormous influence not just for Benedictine but for all monastic life especially in Europe.
“Over time, Benedictine monasteries became places for overcoming the culture of exclusion. Monks and nuns cultivated the land, produced food, prepared medicines and offered them, with simplicity, to those most in need. Their silent work was the leaven of a new civilization, where the poor were not a problem to be solved, but brothers and sisters to be welcomed.”
You may access the first three columns of this series (November 19 and 26 and December 3) by using the link below. To be continued next week!
Fr. Michael Schleupner
December 17, 2025
Pope Leo’s Exhortation – 5
Dear Friends,
This is the fifth in a series of Inbox Inspirations on Pope Leo’s Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te [I Have Loved You]. Today continues some highlights from Chapter Three, A Church for the Poor, by far the longest of the five chapters of this Exhortation.
Pope Leo sees the Church’s history in caring for the sick as central to our response to the gospel. While the sick are not necessarily poor, we are all vulnerable at those times and need special care. Over the centuries, various religious orders have been founded with the mission of caring for the sick, such as the Order of Ministers of the Sick or Camillians by Saint Camillus de Lellis and the Daughters of Charity by Saint Louise de Maurillac and Saint Vincent de Paul. The Holy Father brings this care for the sick right down to the present time:
“Today, this legacy continues in Catholic hospitals, healthcare facilities in remote areas, clinics operating in jungles, shelters for drug addicts and in field hospitals in war zones. The Christian presence among the sick reveals that salvation is not an abstract idea, but concrete action. In the act of healing a wound, the Church proclaims that the Kingdom of God begins among the most vulnerable.”
Pope Leo lifts up especially the religious orders who by their very constitutions and lifestyle identify with the poor.
“In the thirteenth century, faced with the growth of cities, the concentration of wealth and the emergence of new forms of poverty, the Holy Spirit gave rise to a new type of consecration in the Church: the mendicant orders. Unlike the stable monastic model, mendicants adopted an itinerant life, without personal or communal property, entrusting themselves entirely to providence. They did not merely serve the poor: they made themselves poor with them. They saw the city as a new desert and the marginalized as new spiritual teachers. These orders, such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians and Carmelites, represented an evangelical revolution, in which a simple and poor lifestyle became a prophetic sign for mission, reviving the experience of the first Christian community (cf. Acts 4:32).”
Here the Holy Father especially notes the example and leadership of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Clare of Assisi, and Saint Dominic de Guzman.
To be continued next week! You may access the first four columns of this series by using the link below.
Fr. Michael Schleupner
