“Love must become a mission,” said Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ, welcoming Dilexi Te (I Have Loved You), Pope Leo XIV’s first Apostolic Exhortation. The document, he said, “moves us from places of comfort to works of compassion and service,” calling Christians to recognise Christ in the poor and confront the structural causes of poverty.
Across Ireland, bishops, religious, and charities have hailed Dilexi Te as setting the tone for Pope Leo’s pontificate, affirming that love for the poor is not optional but essential to the life of the Church, rooted in Scripture and Catholic social teaching.
In a statement to The Irish Catholic, the Society of St Vincent de Paul said the exhortation aligns with its mission of friendship, support, and advocacy for social justice. “We wholeheartedly concur that the poorest are not only objects of our compassion, but teachers of the Gospel. It is not a question of ‘bringing’ God to them, but of encountering him among them.” the SVP added.
The Poor Clare Sisters in Cork said they were “very happy that [Pope Leo] has mentioned St Clare, both in Dilexi Te and during his recent Jubilee audience of Migrants and the Missionary World.” Sr Colette Marie said, “Clare’s poverty was an act of dependence and trust in God… She was stating, by her life, that God suffices. He is the One we need.”
Together, these responses frame Dilexi Te as a bridge between prayer and policy, a call for the Church to be “poor and for the poor.”
