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Dilexi Te: Pope Leo’s Tender Call to Love Without Limits

October 20, 2025

(Toa55/ Shutterstock.com)

From the Office for Social Ministry

“I Have Loved You” - Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi te  

When Pope Leo XIV signed his apostolic exhortation Dilexi te — “I have loved you” — on October 4, 2025, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, he extended a heartfelt invitation for all to rediscover the very heart of the Gospel by seeing Christ in the faces of the poor.

This message is both deeply traditional and refreshingly bold. Building on and expanding the last document by Pope Francis’s Dilexit nos on the Sacred Heart, Pope Leo makes it wholly his own  — what Cardinal Michael Czerny called “100% Francis and 100% Leo.” Dilexi te is an inspiring reminder that love isn’t just something to talk about — it’s something to live, just as Christ did, in deep solidarity with the poor. As Pope Leo reminds us, “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.”

At the center of Dilexi te is a compelling fundamental  truth of our faith: Christian love is not an abstract idea but a lived reality, revealed in responding to  the most vulnerable among us. “On the wounded faces of the poor,” Pope Leo writes, “we see the suffering of the innocent and, therefore, the suffering of Christ Himself.” The poor are not simply people we serve — they are bearers of God’s presence, calling us to deeper compassion and courageous action.

Pope Leo challenges us not to settle for a faith based on words alone. He calls us to action — to speak up, stand up, and walk alongside those who are most forgotten. “Love for the Lord, then, is one with love for the poor.” That love requires us to see poverty in all its forms. He names not only the material poor, but also the social, spiritual, cultural, and existential poor — those whose dignity is denied, whose voices are silenced, and whose rights are stripped away. He also speaks of “new, more subtle and dangerous” forms of poverty — the isolation, loneliness, and exclusion that can leave people spiritually starved even amid material wealth.

Here in Hawai‘i, we see these realities every day — in kūpuna living alone or on the street, in families struggling with affordable housing, in young people searching for a meaningful purpose. Pope Leo does not shy away from naming the deeper forces at work. Pope Leo critically points economic systems that hoard wealth, exploit labor, and sacrifice the many for the benefit of the few are “urgent moral crises.”

However Dilexi te is far more than a critique — it is a vision of what the Church can be. Pope Leo calls us to shift our priorities so that the poor are not at the margins but at the very center of our mission. He writes that “the Church experiences the lives of the poor as her very ‘flesh.’” That means walking with them, truly listening to their stories, including them in decisions, and learning from their lived experience rather than speaking about them from a distance. As he puts it, “Contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history.” To ignore the poor, he explains, is to jeopardize the integrity of Christian discipleship.

Pope Leo emphasizes that the poor are not just people we are called to help — they are also here to teach us. “It is evident that all of us must let ourselves be evangelized by the poor and acknowledge the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them,” They show us what trust in God looks like amid adversity and remind us of the strength that comes from mutual care. Pope Leo says the poor in their perseverance become “missionaries of hope.”

Dilexi te reminds us that the heart of our faith beats most strongly when we draw close to those who suffer — when we stand beside them, advocate for them, and learn from. Even the smallest gesture, Pope Leo writes, can make a difference: “No sign of affection, even the smallest, will ever be forgotten, especially if it is shown to those who are suffering, lonely, or in need.”

Acts of charity are essential, but Pope Leo also urges all to go further and tackle the root causes of poverty: unjust policies, inequitable systems, and social indifference. Every act of mercy, every policy for justice, and each effort for change flows from the same source: Christ’s self-giving love that has the power to transform the world. “Love is above all a way of looking at life and a way of living it,” he writes. “A Church that sets no limits to love… is the Church that the world needs today. By its very nature, Christian love is prophetic: it works miracles and knows no limits.”

As we live out this call through loving action with the poor here in Hawai‘i, may we take Pope Leo’s concluding words of Dilexi te to heart: “Through your work, your efforts to change unjust social structures, or your simple, heartfelt gesture of closeness and support, the poor and you will come to realize that Jesus’ words are addressed personally to all of us: ‘I have loved you.’” For the full text, please visit the Vatican website www.humandevelopment.va. Mahalo.