Dilexi te: Leo XIV's first exhortation, on love for the poor, completed from a Francis draft

Dilexi te is Pope Leo XIV's first apostolic exhortation, released on 9 October 2025 on the feast of St Francis. Drafted in part by Pope Francis before his death and completed by Leo XIV, it presents care for the poor as central to the Church's identity, not an optional add-on, and addresses structural causes of exclusion.

Key points

• Service to the poor is a non-negotiable mark of the Church's credibility.
• Poverty is treated as systemic exclusion, requiring more than charity.
• It traces 150 years of Catholic social teaching and echoes Francis's Dilexit nos.
• Migration and grassroots movements feature as sites of solidarity.

The title deliberately echoes Pope Francis's final encyclical Dilexit nos (2024), underlining continuity between the two pontificates.