Pope Leo calls on Catholics to care for the poor in first official exhortation

In the first official document of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV placed the poor at the heart of the Catholic Church’s teaching, calling bishops around the world to take on the mantle of social justice in defense of the most vulnerable in society, including migrants.

“The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking,” Leo wrote in the document released Thursday (Oct. 9). “Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges. She knows that her proclamation of the Gospel is credible only when it is translated into gestures of closeness and welcome. And she knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.”

The exhortation, “Dilexi te” (I Have Loved You), divided into five chapters, is addressed to “All Christians.” It was signed on Saturday, on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, and follows in the footsteps of Leo’s predecessors, who starting with St. John XXIII issued a forceful document urging nations and believers to care for the poorest in society.

Religion & Politics

Photos of the Week: First woman archbishop of Canterbury, Israel-Hamas war anniversary

The Rt. Rev. and Rt. Hon. Dame Sarah Mullally presides over a Palm Sunday worship service as Bishop of London at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. (Photo by Graham W. Lacdao, courtesy of St. Paul's Cathedral)

In Opinion

And finally, As Willow Creek turns 50, the onetime 'church of the future' redefines success

In the summer of 1992, a reporter made a pilgrimage to the Chicago suburbs to get a firsthand look at Willow Creek Community Church, a congregation rumored to be the future of American religion.

What he found was worshippers swaying to a rock band, a humorous skit with a spiritual message, a sermon about how God could make their lives better — a service that bore more than a passing resemblance to an episode of “Saturday Night Live,” which debuted the night before Willow Creek opened in the fall of 1975.

The story in the Chicago Reader by Robert McClory, himself a former priest, ran under the headline “We have seen the future of religion. And it is slick” — and asked, “Is this religion for the 21st century, or just the latest in religious gimmickry? Perhaps it’s a little bit of both.”

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