Pope Leo XIV issued his first major document as the Roman pontiff on October 9, 2025, with Dilexi Te, his apostolic exhortation on love for the poor. My colleague Matthew Becklo published an article that same day outlining three important takeaways from the text.
Now, I would like to offer a few reflections of my own, taking inspiration from Dilexi Te without intending to simply summarize the work. Instead, I would like to use the occasion of the promulgation of Pope Leo’s first exhortation as an opportunity to stress the importance of care for the poor in Catholic ecclesial life alongside concerns for orthodox doctrine.
Let me state up front that I firmly believe orthodoxy of faith is necessary for an authentically Catholic life. At the same time, right belief is not, in itself, sufficient. To quote the Epistle of James: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder” (James 2:19).
Among the impressive elements of Dilexi Te is the citation of biblical and patristic texts that emphasize love for the poor as an essential aspect of the Christian life.
Catholics like to cite this second chapter of James’s letter against certain forms of sola fide (faith alone). We note that it is the only place in Sacred Scripture that contains the words “faith alone,” yet it says that “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). It is helpful to keep in mind one of the examples that St. James gives to illustrate his point: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith itself, if it has no works, is dead” (2:14–17).
Pope Leo cites that last pericope in Dilexi Te (29). In fact, among the impressive elements of Dilexi Te is the citation of biblical and patristic texts that emphasize love for the poor as an essential aspect of the Christian life. By doing so, Leo demonstrates one important truth about the relationship between right teaching and care for the poor: The importance of serving the poor is orthodox doctrine.
At least four times, Pope Leo XIV also cites one of the most challenging passages in all of Scripture: Matthew 25:31–46 (see Dilexi Te 26, 28, 52, and 73). Therein, Jesus describes the final judgment and the criterion that will be used to separate the proverbial sheep from the goats. The saved are those who gave food to the hungry, offered drink to the thirsty, provided clothing to the naked, welcomed the stranger, and visited the imprisoned (Matthew 25:35–36). Jesus states that “just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me” (25:40). The damned are those who did not do such things.
Accordingly, traditional Catholic doctrine emphasizes the importance of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, the corporal works of mercy are “to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to harbour the harbourless, to visit the sick, to ransom the captive, and to bury the dead.” The spiritual works of mercy are “to instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to admonish sinners, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive offences willingly, to comfort the afflicted, and to pray for the living and the dead.”
Thus, when I say that orthodox belief is necessary but not sufficient, I mean that we need to live these doctrines and not just affirm them. If the ultimate goal of the Catholic faith is the salvation of souls, and our dear Lord himself points to these actions as integral to the final judgment, then it follows logically that the works of mercy, including love for the poor, ought to hold a prominent place in our doctrinal instruction.
The inseparability of love for God and love for neighbor is evident throughout the New Testament.
Relatedly, St. Thomas Aquinas insists that charity perfects faith and, indeed, that faith is formed by charity (ST 2-2.4.3). After referring to James 2:20 cited above—“faith without works is dead”—Aquinas remarks that “the distinction of living from lifeless faith is in respect of something pertaining to the will, i.e. charity, and not in respect of something pertaining to the intellect” (ST 2-2.4.4). In other words, whether your faith is “living” or “dead” is not simply a matter of whether your intellect assents to the truths of the faith but rather whether your faith is animated by the supernatural, theological virtue of charity.
But what is the theological virtue of charity? As the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it: “Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God” (1822). The inseparability of love for God and love for neighbor is evident throughout the New Testament. The First Letter of John is a particularly illustrative passage. It reads: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. . . . Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” (1 John 4:7–8, 20–21).
For Catholics, love—charity—for the poor is not optional. During our judgment, Jesus will not administer an exam asking us to list the works of mercy by name. However, he will point out the extent to which we did or did not perform them, animated by love for God and neighbor.