Leo XIV will publish his first exhortation on October 9.
Vatican City, Oct 4 (EFE)
Pope Leo XIV will publish his first major papal document on October 9th, in the form of an apostolic exhortation entitled “Dilexi te,” to address the issue of poverty, the Holy See confirmed Saturday.
The text was signed this morning by the Pope in the library of the Apostolic Palace in the presence of the Substitute Secretary of State, Monsignor Edgar Peña Parra.
The official presentation will take place at 11:30 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. GMT) on Thursday, October 9th.
For his first major document, Leo XIV has opted for an apostolic exhortation, a text generally of a pastoral nature that offers provisions on a specific topic, rather than an encyclical, which is doctrinal and more reflective.
The title evokes Francis’ fourth and final encyclical, ‘Dilexit nos’ (He loved us), published in October 2024, a few months before his death, in which the Argentine pope reflected on “the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ.”
Now, the first exhortation of his successor, Leo XIV, changes its title to ‘Dilexi te’ (I have loved you) to address the theme of “love for the poor,” according to the official media outlet ‘Vatican News’.
So much so that the document was signed this Saturday, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of the poor.
The official presentation in the Vatican Press Office will be attended by representatives of organizations dedicated to poverty or dealing with people in the Roman Curia.
The Vatican has confirmed that the speakers will be Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development; Konrad Krajewski, Prefect of the Dicastery for Services to Charities, Francis’ almoner; Franciscan friar Frédéric-Marie Le Méhaute, or nun Clémence, of the Little Sisters of Jesus.
The American-Peruvian pontiff, Augustinian and missionary, was elected on May 8th in the conclave and chose his papal name to follow in the footsteps of Leo XIII (1878-1903), the pope of the Industrial Revolution and author of the first encyclical on social issues, Rerum Novarum (1891).
