In this Tablet essay, Berkley Center Director Thomas Banchoff writes that in his first teaching document, the apostolic exhortation Dilexi te, Pope Leo XIV insisted that putting the poor first is a social and political as well as a personal task. Banchoff argues that it is Leo’s vivid description of the plight of the world’s poor—and his call to address it—that also gives Dilexi te a wider political resonance. In setting out the moral and political imperative of love for the poor Leo draws on his experience as a missionary in Peru, elaborating two core ideas developed by Latin American bishops and embraced by Francis: a recognition of “social sin” and of “the poor as subjects.” While Leo’s critique of “social sin” and insistence on the “poor as subjects” gesture towards a transformational social and political agenda, his exhortation is most fundamentally an appeal to Christians to recognize and love the poor in their lives. Banchoff concludes that ultimately, for Leo, the political pursuit of social justice and the personal practice of solidarity must go together.
Opens in a new window