Pope Leo published his first major teaching document entitled “Dilexi te” (“I have loved you”), on love for the poor on October 4, 2025. The document is available online from the Vatican website:

Dilexi te
(“I have love you”)

For over 20 years Pope Leo served as a priest and bishop among the poor in Peru (pictured above).

At the beginning of the document, Pope Leo said that Pope Francis had begun to write a document on the poor before he died. He wrote: “I am happy to make this document my own — adding some reflections — and to issue it at the beginning of my own pontificate, since I share the desire of my beloved predecessor that all Christians come to appreciate the close connection between Christ’s love and his summons to care for the poor. I too consider it essential to insist on this path to holiness.” Pope Leo concludes his introduction by quoting from an earlier document of Pope Francis: “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.”