When Pope Leo XIV issued his first apostolic exhortation, he chose a title drawn from the Book of Revelation: Dilexi te — "I have loved you." Those words, addressed to a community with little power and little standing, become in this document Christ's word to the poor of every age. The poor are not a problem to be managed. They are, the Pope insists, the place where Christ continues to speak.

But who exactly are the poor? That question turns out to be less obvious than it sounds. Poverty, as Fr. Cristian Mendoza Ovando helps us see in this conversation, is not one thing. It is material and spiritual, negative and positive, something suffered and — in a different sense — something chosen. Any serious reading of Dilexi te has to reckon with that complexity.

Fr. Cristian, who teaches at Santa Croce in Rome, joins me today following a lecture he gave on Dilexi te at the University of Notre Dame.

Follow-up Resources:

Dilexi Te, Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Leo XIV
“Anthropological concerns regarding digital technologies,” by Fr. Cristian Mendoza Ovando, journal article via Church, Communication and Culture
“The Sacred Heart of the New Encyclical,” by Leonard DeLorenzo, article on Dilexit Nos in Church Life Journal
“The Church is the Sacrament of the Preferential Option for the Poor,” by John Cavadini, article in Church Life Journal
“The Eucharist Commits Us to the Poor,” by John Cavadini, article in Church Life Journal

Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.