Apostolic exhortation Dilexi teFrancis transmits to Pope Leo the care of the poor as a mission of the Church. Which must
remember its two-thousand-year history of charity
by Don Gabriele Cantaluppi
IOn October 24, 2024, Pope Francis published his latest encyclical Dilexit nos, emphasizing that the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus must become the sign of a love that does not remain confined to the liturgy, but must be the driving force of fraternal charity and social commitment.
On October 4 of this year his successor, Pope Leo XIV, chose to continue and almost complete that teaching with an apostolic exhortation entitled Dilexi te (I have loved you), dedicated to the preferential choice for the poor. The title is taken from the words with which, in the third chapter of the Apocalypse, the Lord addressed the Church of Philadelphia, which was undergoing trial, so that it might recover the strength to remain faithful to the Lord and deserve to be loved by him.
At the beginning of the document, the Pope states that, while drawing on the notes left by his predecessor, he has added his own personal contribution, focusing entirely on the poor and therefore on charity: "Pope Francis was preparing, in the last months of his life, an apostolic exhortation on the Church's care for the poor and with the poor. Having received this project as a legacy, I am happy to make it my own, adding some reflections, and to propose it again at the beginning of my pontificate" (no. 3).
For Pope Leo, as he had for Pope Francis, a true disciple of Christ is neither the Levite nor the priest of the Gospel parable, but the Samaritan, the stranger, who became a neighbor to the poor victim of the robbers, found half dead on the road. Taking this seriously means calling Christians to give themselves to the poor, who must be placed at the center of the Church's life. The Pope invites us to choose to be with the poor, placing them at the center of our communities, because in their flesh and blood Jesus Christ is revealed, the same Christ who is present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. It is forcefully and clearly stated that the poor are not a sociological category, but the very "flesh of Christ."
The exhortation reiterates the incisive statement of Saint John Chrysostom, who reminded us that the faithful will be able to adore Christ on the altar only if they have encountered him in the poor who stand at the threshold of the church. For Don Guanella too, his Houses of Charity, which always included a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament, were to manifest this union between the Eucharist and the poor. Around 1908, he wrote: "A large shelter will also be built around the temple and thus, according to the Gospel parable, we will always have Jesus Christ in the sacrament at table with a group of his blind, lame, and deaf-mutes."
In the long third chapter of the exhortation, Pope Leo recalls the history of the saints who placed themselves at the service of the poor, from the first martyr Stephen to Saint Teresa of Calcutta, retracing the two thousand years of Christianity from a perspective of charity: "I wanted to retrace this two-thousand-year history of ecclesial care for the poor to show that it is an integral part of the uninterrupted journey of the Church" (n. 103).
But the Church of Vatican II doesn't limit itself to carrying out actions and projects for the poor; it wants to be with them, hear their voices, and put them at the center. The heart of the message, summarized in the title "I have loved you," shifts the perspective from assistance to love, seeing the vulnerable person not just as a "case" to be managed or a "user" with a specific need, but as a person deserving of affection, respect, and a true relationship, to the point of "allowing oneself to be evangelized by the poor."
(n. 102). Don Guanella recommended the same attention to his followers in a Regulation of 1899: «The poorest and most abandoned deserve not only affection of charity, but esteem and veneration, because they most closely represent Jesus Christ».
The poor are at the center of the Church and the world of tomorrow. They are the ones who will shape the Church of the future, because a Church without charity is nothing, while a Church that seeks to love is everything. From this ecclesial perspective, in 1915, near the end of his life, Don Guanella extended his charity to pastoral service: "Since it is the mission of the Servants of Charity to add the care of souls to the care of the children and elderly poor of the people, it may be that the Servants of Charity will be entrusted with the governance of some church or parish."
The exhortation recognizes the complexity of new forms of poverty—material, moral, spiritual, cultural, and of rights and freedoms. This is a direct invitation to Guanellian Works not to become rigid in their use of categories that may have become obsolete, but to commit to refining their listening and intervention tools to capture the often subdued cry of those who are socially marginalized or lack the means to express their dignity.
For the Pope, there is no "the poor", but "the poor": «It would be more correct to speak of the many faces of the poor and of poverty, because it is a variegated phenomenon» (n. 9). This consi-
This choice must push the Christian community to make that "fundamental option" for the poor to welcome them always and at all times: "The poor you will always have with you" Jesus clarified (Jn 12:8).
Saint John Paul II invited us to have the "imagination of charity", to be translated "not so much and not only in the effectiveness of the aid provided, but in the ability to be close, in solidarity with those who suffer, so that the gesture of help is felt not as a humiliating offering, but as a fraternal sharing" (New Millennium ineunte, n. 50). And the poor, who live in conditions of poverty and entrust themselves totally to God, embody and witness to the evangelical values of trust, humility, and solidarity and thus become our evangelizers, teaching us to focus on what is essential in life.